Indian Harbour Beach so far stands alone on the East Coast as the first community certified in 2005 as “Tsunami Ready” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But as the recent tsunami tragedy in Indonesia has shown, sometimes the deadly surge of water can still happen without warning.
Indian Harbour Beach officials last October did a live test of their emergency preparedness system to maintain the certification. The drill included sirens – some that have to be activated manually, perhaps problematically, by city staff – for the evacuation of the beach west of State Road A1A for about 300 feet or the distance the water comes ashore in sets.
Normally, there would be warnings of the incoming wave energy from buoys, giving up to seven hours of preparation time. But, in a situation like the one that occurred Dec. 22 in Indonesia, where more than 430 people were killed, there may be less warning time – only 30 to 90 minutes – for tsunamis caused by landslides like those along the Atlantic Shelf, which theoretically could impact the East Coast, said Scott Spratt, NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist based in Melbourne.
“That said, the greatest threats for submarine landslides along the Continental Shelf are believed to be off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina, and to a smaller extent along the West Bahama Bank. Both source locations likely do not pose a significant tsunami threat to the east-central Florida coast,” but may impact Southeast Florida, the northern coast of Cuba and the northwest Bahamas, he said.
However, he added, the loss of life in Indonesia “underscores the importance of a timely and accurate warning system, whether within an extremely tsunami-active region such as Indonesia or within an area with a very low frequency of occurrence such as Florida. Such a warning system needs to be able to detect the hazard in a very timely manner and then immediately disseminate safety advice to those within harm’s way,” Spratt said.
The national “Tsunami Ready” effort was prompted by the devastation witnessed during the 2004 Sumatra tsunami, which killed thousands. A video of that tragic event is used in local presentations by the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, which has coordinated with Indian Harbour Beach as a “prototype city” throughout the process.
Indian Harbour Beach officials believe the recent tsunami may help increase interest in the program. In addition, Indian Harbour Beach’s work to create a tsunami warning plan has now been applied to Brevard County, and been used as a resource statewide in other communities and counties, Spratt said.
Indian River County this year became the first Tsunami Ready-certified county along the East Coast, and St. Lucie County also has expressed interest in the program, he said.
“We would have liked to have more cities come on board but having the plan is the more important thing. Indian Harbour Beach brought that plan on line and it has now been used several times by other areas,’’ Spratt said.
Indian Harbour Beach Police Sgt. Matthew Jankowski briefed the City Council on the IHB program Dec. 11, delivering information on the “live action drill” at about 11 a.m. on Oct. 30, during which sirens at two beachside locations and evacuation protocols by all city departments were tested.
“It’s similar to the notifications you make for a hurricane evacuation, but the time is compressed so you have to react a lot faster,’’ he said.
If evacuation of the 300-foot danger zone is not possible, residents can move to the highest floor of a well-constructed building, he said.
Is a tsunami actually possible in east-central Florida? The answer is yes, Jankowski says, most likely from an earthquake near the Puerto Rico Trench, where eight tsunamis have originated since 1848.
Normally there would be plenty of warning time because of the lead time provided by a network of Deep Ocean Assessment of Tsunamis (DART) buoys and seismic monitoring worldwide, which sends out warning of coastal earthquakes of a magnitude of 7 or greater, Jankowski said.
