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USA's first
tsunami-ready communities, both in Washington State, were honored by
the National Weather Service earlier this summer for voluntarily meeting
the weather service's requirements for citizen and property safety.
The beach-front communities of Ocean Shores and Grays Harbor County
were recognized for pioneering safety initiatives in fourareas: communications;
warning reception and dissemination; public outreach and awareness;
and administrative planning.
The communities were designated as being both "TsunamiReady" and "StormReady."
They were cited during the annual Ocean Shores Sand Festival, which
draws master sand castle sculpting teams and several thousand onlookers.
Vickie Nadolski, the weather service's western region director, said
the sand festival event was targeted because people who live in or visit
a seaside community prone to earthquakes must understand the urgent
need to move inland or to high ground as soon as a tsunami threatens.
Scott Gudes, NOAA's acting administrator, led the multi-agency team
responsible for the project's success. The team included NOAA Research,National
Weather Service staff from Silver Spring, Maryland, the Seattle-Tacoma
Forecast Office and Western and Alaskan regional headquarters, and local
and state emergency managers. NOAA is the lead agency in the National
Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program.
Scott Gudes, acting NOAA administrator (front, second from left)
joins Rich Przywarthy, Alaska region NWS director (left); Chris Hill,
meteorologist-in-charge of Seattle-Tacoma NWS Forecast Office (right);
and (standing, left to right) Vickie Nadolski, western region NWS director;
Eddie Bernard, head of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Director; and Karin Frinell-Handrahan, deputy director of Grays Harbor
Department of Emergency Management.
Tsunami Ready Program: http://wcatwc.gov/tsunamiready/tready.htm
National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami-hazard
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