Tsunamis | Disaster Rally

What to Do in Case of Tsunami Before, During, and After

Tsunamis are devastating phenomena that have the potential to ravage any coastline. The phenomenon also referred to as a seismic sea wave typically occurs as a series of large waves resulting from a disturbance emanating from beneath the ocean. The disturbance could occur due to an earthquake, meteorite, volcanic eruption, or landslide. Often, if a major earthquake or landslide happens close to the shore, the initial wave gets to the beach in minutes. Further, a tsunami can take hours to subside.

In most cases, tsunamis come onshore in the form of rapidly rising gushes of water filled with debris. While it is true that not all tsunamis cause damage to coastlines, it is important to note that all tsunamis have the potential cause danger. Frequently, the main cause of fatalities associated with tsunamis is drowning. Other forms of danger include risks associated with flooding, fire from ruptured gas lines, or contamination of drinking water. This article delves into knowledge on what to do in case of tsunami.

Before the Tsunami

Learning About the Risk of Tsunamis in an Area

It is crucial to contact the local emergency agency or Red Cross in a specific area to identify the regions that are most susceptible to tsunamis. Essentially, one should ascertain the vulnerable motels, workplaces, hotels, schools, campsites, or homes. Additionally, it is crucial to find out the height above sea level of the street one is located, and the approximate distance from the coast, to stay prepared for any eventuality.

Learning the Signs and Paying Attention to Warnings

While communication lines may offer a lifeline to save lives during emergencies, telephone lines tend to become overloaded during tsunamis. Further, evacuation routes may become overcrowded and one may not know what to do in case of tsunami. Consequently, it is critical to understand the warning systems, as well as disaster plans in place during an evacuation.

The first and most important warning sign is shaking or tremors caused by an earthquake. After shaking, it typically takes minutes before a tsunami arrives. Waiting for an official warning is oftentimes risky. Subsequently, it is crucial to access higher ground and to stay alert to warnings from the local radio or television.

Tsunami warnings are issued when tsunamis have the potential to cause widespread damage. The warnings are issued to alert emergency agencies to evacuate low-lying coastal regions and usually follow seismic related information. Following such warnings, some of the beaches may be closed and ships may be repositioned in deep waters. It is critical to pay attention to local radio channels to be up-to-date on any warnings. In tourist areas, some beaches may have sirens and such signs serve as warnings to evacuate.

Developing an Evacuation Plan

Being prepared is part of the safety when dealing with tsunamis. Planning an evacuation route from one’s location to a safe location ahead of time is advisable. Ideally, one should plan to escape two miles inland or to an area located 100 feet above sea level. Further, the safe area should take one at least fifteen minutes to arrive on foot; because in some cases, traveling by car can be impossible.

In addition, familiarity saves lives; practicing to get the safe location through the chosen evacuation route both day and night can make it easier to react quickly in case of emergencies. Also, it is vital to communicate with every member of the household on the possible actions to take if a tsunami occurs. Also, one of the crucial tools to use when preparing for what to do in case of tsunami is an emergency kit for both family members and pets.

During a Tsunami

Taking Cover

As previously mentioned, earthquakes may be among the first warning signs of a tsunami. During an earthquake, the first action should be to drop and take cover. Next, it is advisable to hold on to a firmly rooted object. After the shaking subsides, the members of the household should be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice because the tsunami may take minutes to get to the shoreline. Research shows that it is not wise to approach the shore to watch the tsunami. Typically, if one can see the tsunami waves, it could probably be too late to make an escape.

Listen to Authorities

It is imperative to follow instructions that may have been issued by the local emergency agencies and official weather radio such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In some cases, evacuation routes change or one may be advised to go to higher ground than expected. Local officials also give information on when it is safe to move around. It is perilous to drive anywhere before rescue officials give the go ahead.

Staying Away From Hazards

It is highly likely that one could encounter various hazards and wonder what to do in case of tsunami. For example, some power lines may have fallen and pose high risks. Also, some buildings or bridges may be weakened; which is yet another form of danger. The cold water may also present health risks such as hypothermia or even result in drowning incidents caused by running water.

It is only logical to stay away from water and keep warm. Also, tsunamis occur in waves; it is possible that the subsequent waves may be more dangerous than the initial waves. Therefore, assuming that the danger is over can expose one to further risks.

After the Tsunami

Stay Alert to News

It is recommended that one continues listening to the radio or other reliable sources of information for news on the tsunami. Such information is crucial because it gives an idea about the roads, bridges, or places that may be unsafe. Residual effects such as mudflows, contaminated water, and landslides present danger. Avoiding disaster areas is not only safer, but it is also important because it prevents people from interfering with rescue efforts.

Offer Help Where Needed

Following a tsunami, one should be helpful to other victims who may be hurt. Essentially, it is advisable to provide first aid if one has the skills, and also call for help from emergency responders. The elderly, infants, disabled, or those without means of transport may need help in such situations. Also, paying attention to how others are handling stress is vital because they may need moral support.

Re-Entering Buildings

Tsunamis cause damage to areas least expected. Observing caution when re-entering buildings is vital. Injuries on the feet arising from sharp objects are a common occurrence. Therefore, sturdy shoes are a must-have after a tsunami. When examining buildings, it is preferable to use battery powered lanterns as they are sage. Battery powered lanterns are void of fire hazards or electric shocks.

Gas leaks can also be detected by listening to hissing noises. Further, electrical systems can be turned off from the main fuse box until the entire system is fully dry. Other dangers may lurk due to animals such as poisonous snakes. Flood waters from tsunamis tend to displace animals from their habitats and such animals may end up in homes.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, getting through a tsunami is all about preparedness. Having accurate information can be beneficial for people wondering what to do in case of tsunami.

Before a tsunami, having comprehensive information is an important step in saving lives. During a tsunami, fast reaction times and having the essential tools is also critical. After the tsunami, it is vital to offer help where it is needed and to also to observe caution when re-entering buildings. Evidently, it is possible to mitigate the possible damage or loss of lives following a tsunami.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

What to Do if Caught in Severe Storms: Essential Survival Tips

Severe storms come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s no surprise that people get confused about the safest course of action. What’s good for one severe storm situation isn’t always good for the next.

This article will explain the safest courses of action for the most common types of severe storms: floods, hail, lightening, high winds and tornadoes, and blizzards. You are often faced with several of these emergencies at once, but if you know what to do in each situation, you can keep your cool and find a safe place to ride it out.

5 Types of Severe Storms and How to Stay Safe

Flooding

man pushing his car through flood waters — Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Flooding killed 126 people in 2016 alone. It is by far one of the most dangerous consequence of severe storms that a human can face, and also one of the most preventable causes of death. This is because most flooding deaths occur when a driver tries to move through shallow water and is swept away. The truth is that it only takes 18 inches of water to carry away a small car. Once you are in deeper water, you’re at great risk of drowning because flood water flows so fast it’s like trying to swim through a riptide.

If you are in this situation:

Remain calm.
Immediately unlock your doors.
Remove your seat belt and roll down your windows.
If you are wearing a heavy jacket, remove it because it will make it harder to swim.
Climb out through the windows if you can and get to high ground.

If you can’t open your windows, you must wait for the car to fill with water to open the doors. Don’t waste your energy trying to open the doors before the water pressure equalizes. You will need that energy to swim. Instead, stay very calm, look for the nearest safe location to swim to. Take a very deep breath at the last minute and push hard on the doors, they will open when the water pressure has equalized.

Hail

Hail can reach near 100 mph by the time it hits the ground. That means that even small hail can kill if it hits your unprotected head. So, during severe storms, make sure you find shelter before the hail starts. If you are in a building, stay away from windows as sideways falling hail can shatter them and injure you severely.

If you are out in the open with no better shelter, get in your car. DO NOT try to shelter under a lone tree as it will draw lightening. A stand of several trees can be safer if there is no other option. If you are in an open field without even this possibility, get down on the ground in a crouching or fetal position and cover your head and the back of your neck to protect them. Shield your spine as well, even if you can only do so by lying on your side with your hands over your face and neck.

Lightning

Believe it or not, you can survive a lightning strike, but the best bet is not to get hit in the first place. The obvious is to seek shelter immediately when the storm approaches and wait inside until 30 minutes after you year the last sound of thunder. Lightning can travel for miles.

If you are caught in the open, DON’T hide under a lone tree. If you can hide in an area that is lower than and near to but not too close to a dense growth of trees, this can help, but never hide near a tall isolated object. Also, don’t lie flat on the ground. It just increases surface area for damage.

Instead:

Move away from anything metal so you aren’t touching it.
Crouch low as you can.
Lift up your heels so only the balls of your feet are touching the ground to minimize contact.
TOUCH YOUR HEELS TOGETHER (this helps the electricity to only arc from one foot to the other instead of entering your entire body).
Cover your ears with your hands to protect them from hearing loss.

Should the hair on the back of your neck stand up, you need to assume the above position immediately.

High Winds or Tornadoes

car facing a tornado — Image Source: Reliable-Remodeler

First, if caught outside during these types of severe storms, do not try to seek shelter under a highway overpass. As the wind is pushed through an overpass, it actually increases in velocity, which increases your chances of being swept away.

If you are driving and you can still safely drive, don’t try to outrun a tornado because they can travel at 70mph, which is not a safe speed to drive in a severe storm. Instead, if you are still safely driving, angle away from it at 90 degrees.

If the storm is catching you, you need to exit the car and find shelter. If none is available, you should lie in a ditch as far away from trees, cars and large objects as possible. Protect your head and spine in the same way as you would during a hail storm.

The same advice goes for high winds, AKA straight line winds, which can be almost as dangerous as a tornado. Straight line winds knock over cars and people, so if you are facing these, you need to lie flat in a ditch till they pass.

Blizzards

car stuck in snow after a blizzard — Image Source: SafeBee.com

Prevention and preparedness are key to surviving these types of severe storms. If you are caught in your car, turn off the engine to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning and break out your emergency kit which should include prepackaged snacks, water and lots of blankets, boots, gloves and coats. It should also have a well sealed container for melting snow in case you run out of water. You must stay hydrated to stay warm.

You can turn the engine on every few minutes to warm the car and keep it from locking up; just don’t run it continuously. If you are on the side of the road, keep your seat belt on and turn on your hazards. You can still be hit by someone else who is trying to drive through.

If you are not in a car, seek shelter out of the wind and keep moving to keep your body warm. Remember, hydration is the most important thing you will need in this situation. Your body can stay warm more easily if you are well hydrated.

A Word of Ending

These are only basic beginners tips for surviving severe weather. However, they cover the leading causes of death in each situation. All are a very good starting point that you should learn and memorize. The National Weather Service also has a great deal of information on this topic. Weather.gov is another great source. Ultimately, the way to survive severe storms is to stay calm, think clearly and take decisive action to protect yourself at the first sign.

Do you have any severe weather tips that you would like to share? Please comment below!

How Do Tsunamis Form + Riskiest Countries in the World

December 26, 2004. Millions of vacationers basked on the warm beaches bordering the Indian Ocean. They never knew that they were about to experience one of the most devastating natural disasters in human history. As vacationers frolicked in the peaceful waves, the water suddenly retreated from the shores as if the entire ocean were inhaling deeply.

Those who understood the answer to the question of “how do tsunamis form” knew that this was the first sign of an approaching tsunami and began to seek higher ground. But sadly for most, their retreat was pointless. Within minutes, the coastal communities of 14 nations were inundated with a wall of water up to 30 feet high.

What Is a Tsunami?

A tsunami is a wave or series of waves in the ocean that are extremely large and fast. These waves can travel across the oceans at phenomenal speeds, up to 550 miles per hour. This is roughly the speed of a jet. When they are far out in the ocean, they are barely noticeable. However, once they begin to crest at a shoreline, they can become very destructive.

How do tsunamis form at shorelines? This happens because tsunami speed is directly related to the depth of water. As a tsunami approaches the shore, the speed of the wave slows down. At the same time, the total energy of the wave remains the same. This causes the height of the wave to grow as the top of the tsunami wave travels faster than the bottom. So, while the wave may be completely imperceptible in the deep waters of the ocean, the destructive energy of the wave releases on shore as it lands.

The energy released in a large tsunami is astounding. It is nearly impossible to calculate precisely. Nonetheless, it’s estimated that the energy released in the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan was equivalent to nearly 100 nuclear bombs the size of those that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. This is an ironic form of measurement since the tsunami caused a crisis at a nuclear power plant in the Fukushima Prefecture that is still devastating the environment today.

How Do Tsunamis Form?

The answer to the question of how do tsunamis form lies in understanding the different forces of nature that can cause them. Tsunamis form due to an enormous amount of water displacement. Most people think that tsunamis only form from earthquakes. However, there are actually several things that can cause a tsunami to form. Anything that disturbs a large volume of water is capable of generating a destructive tsunami. The possible precursors of tsunamis besides earthquakes include:

Volcanic eruptions, both above ground and underwater.
Above ground rockslides or landslides.
Underwater rockslides or landslides.
Asteroid strikes.

In each of these cases, a large volume of water is either thrust up or dropped down. This causes all of the water to create a series of waves called a wave train. The waves in this wave train can be up to 60 miles long and as far apart as an entire hour. Because there is often little or nothing in the ocean to interfere with the path of these waves or absorb the energy, they can travel across the entire planet at breathtaking speeds with very little loss of energy. A tsunami wave train can travel across the entire Pacific Ocean in less than one day.

Historical Tsunamis

Contrary to popular belief, tsunamis can form in a lake, as well as in an ocean. How do tsunamis form in lakes? Landslides often are the cause. In 563 AD, a massive tsunami occurred in Lake Geneva for this very reason. The landslide was so massive that it caused the resulting wave to race across the lake and inundate the city walls of Geneva. The waves swept over the tops and drowned those who were unable to escape the wall of water. This is one of the more common answers to the question of how do tsunamis form from forces other than earthquakes.

This landslide was triggered by an accumulation of sediment that reached a point so massive it collapsed under its own weight. Aside from meteor impacts, these landslide-triggered tsunamis can be the most violent that nature produces. They can cause tsunamis that dwarf the Boxing Day tsunami in height, if not destructive power over a widespread path.

On July 9, 1958, in Lituya Bay, Alaska, a rockslide – this one actually was caused by a large earthquake – generated a tsunami with a run-up height of over 1700 feet. The force of this tsunami destroyed all of the vegetation in its path. But the loss of life in this tsunami was minimal because it occurred in such a sparsely populated area. In fact, only five people total died that day. A later tsunami in Alaska in 1964 took 119 lives and inflicted over $400 million dollars in damage.

Where Do Tsunamis Occur Most Often?

Tsunamis can occur along any coastline or in any large body of water. The Pacific Ocean is the place where most of the world’s tsunamis form. This is because subduction zones are so common there. How do tsunamis form along subduction zones? Subduction zones are fault lines that cause one tectonic plate to slide under another.

These can trigger particularly violent mega – thrust earthquakes that consist of an upward or downward motion instead of a horizontal wave. This motion almost always produces a wave when it occurs underwater. Nonetheless, it is only strong enough to produce noticeable tsunamis part of the time. Those areas along the Pacific that are most likely to see tsunamis are Alaska, Chile, the Aleutian Islands, Japan and the Philippines.

While tsunamis do occur in the above-mentioned areas most often, they have also occurred in the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere. So if you live along a shoreline, it is best to fully understand the answer to the question of how do tsunamis form and understand the risk of tsunamis in the area. If tsunamis have occurred in the past, they can and most likely will occur again. Be aware of escape routes and possible warning signs of an approaching tsunami.

Some signs of a tsunami are:

An earthquake. Very often, local geological services will forecast the possibility of a tsunami and likely strike zones when an earthquake occurs under water or near the shore. Pay heed to these warnings.
Active buoys in the tsunami warning system. These buoys can be activated even when underwater earthquakes are not noticeable to those onshore. They are particularly useful to sailors. They can receive warning in time to escape shorelines where the destructive force of the tsunami occurs and move out to the open sea.
A very sudden and noticeable rise or fall in the water level. Tsunamis are often preceded by this phenomenon as the energy of the wave begins to displace the water of the coastline. It is estimated that this phenomenon can precede a tsunami by as much as five minutes. This gives the shore bound time to escape to higher ground. Tragically, many of those who were inundated by the Boxing Day tsunami did not know this sign. They went even closer to the shore to watch as the water receded. This is why knowing the warning signs of a tsunami and understanding how tsunamis form is so important.

Finally, make sure that you always have an emergency kit. It should contain enough food, medical supplies and fresh water to last from three days to a week. This is because tsunamis can wipe out local infrastructure and power and will likely destroy local water delivery systems. Heeding these warning signs and being properly prepared will help you to be a survivor and not a victim of this powerful force of nature.

IMAGE SOURCE: 1, 2, 3