ITIC Training Programme—Hawaii (ITP-HAWAII) on Tsunami Early Warning Systems and the PTWC Enhanced Products, Tsunami Evacuation Planning and UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme, Honolulu

Résumé

The ITP-Hawaii 2023 training will be conducted by the International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC), in collaboration with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and technical and emergency management partners in Hawaii (USA). The ITP-Hawaii will demonstrate a working example of an end-to-end tsunami warning and mitigation system centered in Hawaii, with PTWC as its tsunami warning centre. ITIC is hosted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA) of Chile in partnership with the IOC of UNESCO. The PTWC serves as the primary Tsunami Service Provider (TSP) for the Pacific and only TSP for the Caribbean.

Over the last 15+ years, by improving data quality, quantity, and numerical methods, PTWC’s response time has dropped significantly from one hour to within 5–7 minutes of the earthquake. Since 2014 for the Pacific, and 2016 for the Caribbean region, PTWC has issued enhanced forecast products for each country. In 2019, the Japan’s Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center (NWPTAC TSP) upgraded its products to include enhanced forecasts, China’s South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC TSP) began full operation issuing forecast products, snd Nicaragua's Central America Tsunami Advisory Centre (CATAC TSP) began trail operations. In this respect, it is worth reminding that globally 90% of the casualties caused by tsunamis (99% in the Pacific) have resulted from local tsunamis that attacked in a few minutes, leaving no time for preparation. In this context, communities and individuals must know in advance what to do and where to evacuate. Tsunami warning centres (TWC) must have clear standard operating procedures that can be rapidly executed to issue alerts, and the TWC staff must be well-trained and prepared to act quickly and decisively. 

Recognizing that local tsunamis remain the most challenging operation for countries, the 2023 ITP-Hawaii will focus its training on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for warning and emergency response as guided by the draft PTWS National Tsunami Warning Center Minimum Competency Levels and the Local-Source Tsunami Response Best Practice at the 28th session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (2019). The training will also focus on community preparedness and tsunami evacuation planning in the context of the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme. On the last two days, a tsunami exercise will be conducted requiring country decision-making and action using national products supplemented by the PTWC Enhanced Products. ITP-Hawaii is open primarily to all country members of ICG/PTWS and ICG/CARIBE-EWS. Participants from other regional tsunami warning systems are welcome. During the training, participants are expected to give a 15-minute presentation on their country’s tsunami warning and mitigation system, including their tsunami SOPs and plans for Tsunami Ready.