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California marks Tsunami Preparedness Week
Crowds of 100 plus wait for a surge in Seal Beach on Friday, March 11, 2011, after a tsunami warning along the California coast was called. It was triggered by a ferocious tsunami that spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded on Japan's eastern coast. The tsunami killed hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.
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California marks Tsunami Preparedness Week
California marks Tsunami Preparedness Week
The news across the Pacific is a coincidence; it happens to be Tsunami Awareness and Preparedness Week in California. State officials had planned it long before the catastrophes in Japan.
The magnitude-9 earthquake this month initiated a tsunami that traveled 10 hours to the coast of California. When coastal counties heard the warning for the tsunami, they used the state’s official Tsunami Inundation Maps to focus their response.
An engineer with the California Geological Survey says two more sets of maps should be ready within the next two to three years. One set, for land use planning purposes, requires engineers to determine the probability of certain types of tsunamis, whether they’re likely to happen every 100 years – or 500 years.
The other set of maps is for maritime officials; it’ll identify hazards within harbors, like high current areas, and will offer guidance about how far off shore a boat will have to travel to be safe from an approaching tsunami.
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