How to prepare for a tsunami
- Check your house and land for any potential dangers related to flooding.
- Identify any vulnerability and repair it.
- Learn how to turn off the gas and electricity in your house. Local authorities may instruct you to shut these off.
- Do not store your important documents in the basement. Keep them at a higher level, protected from flood damage.
- Ensure that your family has an emergency kit and plan.
- Register for the Metchosin Emergency Notification program – for emergency notification via phone, email and text.
- Ensure the emergency kit is portable, in a back-pack or suitcase with wheels.
- Your local Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program can organize first aid and CPR training.
If you have any questions or need to know more about evacuation procedures, contact the Metchosin Emergency Program.
Early warning signs of a tsunami
- One of the signs of a potential tsunami is the occurrence of a very large earthquake that lasts for more than 20 seconds. If an area has been shaken by a very large earthquake, one should be on alert that shorelines located within the radius of the earthquake’s epicentre, may be hit by a tsunami.
- A more immediate and ominous sign of an approaching tsunami is a rapid and unexpected recession of water levels below the expected low tide. This can occur minutes before the shoreline is struck by a tsunami and can be the only sign along coastlines that are located too far from the earthquake epicentre to have felt the shaking.
- A tsunami may also occur with very little warning.
- Natural Resources Canada’s seismologists monitor for such events, around the clock. As soon as possible, a tsunami warning is issued to media and municipalities in regions where a tsunami is likely to hit.
- The Canadian Coast Guard’s Marine Communications Traffic Services broadcasts tsunami alerts to mariners.
- When you get warning of a tsunami, if there is time, move to higher ground immediately.