What to do during tsunami alert

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A tsunami watch was issued around 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

“They put us in a watch because of the close proximity to Hawaii, because if there was energy or a wave it was within that five hour window [to reaching Hawaii], so they put us in a watch and collected more data,” explained Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator James Barros.

Any time there is an earthquake in the Pacific, experts quickly determine the magnitude, depth and where it hits which are all factored into the tsunami alert.

“And in that area, there was a concern there could be energy that created a wave,” Barros continued.

In 1946, a magnitude 8.6 earthquake off the Aleutian Islands created a tsunami that devastated the town of Hilo and killed more than 150 people in Hawaii.

“We will activate the emergency operations center for any tsunami watch or warning,” explained City and County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management public information officer Molly Pierce. “So we had everyone driving in [last night], luckily it was cancelled quick, lots of people didn’t even make it in yet they were making initial notifications from computers from home and then driving in.”

When it comes to Tsunami alerts, Barros says people should think of them like, ‘Ready, Set, Go.’

“The watch is a ready phase,” he said. “There’s something out there, we need more data, the scientists are collecting it, and they’ll let us know, but be prepared and ready.”

“At the set, we know something is coming, we would sound the sirens, we would send the alerts and let the state know we’re in an Advisory and we have to start taking action but we have that five-hour window to evacuate.”

And he said go means evacuate get to higher ground as soon as possible.

For most tsunami warnings, people need to evacuate out of the red zone, and for an extreme tsunami warning, they need to get out of the yellow zones too.

“So knowing which tsunami zone you live in will have a big impact because if you don’t live in a tsunami zone and there’s evacuation orders, our request to anyone outside of the zone is to stay put, get off the roads, clear them so people who need to evacuate can do so,” Pierce explained.

Officials are reminding people to have a to-go kit ready to go for any emergency; fire, tsunami, or hurricane and said it’s important to have important documents, batteries, chargers, and cash.

“No one makes good choices when they’re rushed, if you can get as much info ahead of time to make your plans now while there is no threat, so all you have to do is grab your list and starting running it down you have a better likelihood of staying safe,” Pierce continued.