Tsunami preparedness week in California

It’s tsunami preparedness week in California… and after a recent scare we had here on the Central Coast…We wanted to take a closer look at the threats of tsunamis and how to prepare for them.

Many remember the tsunami that hit Santa Cruz back in 2011…causing 20 million dollars in damage. That tsunami was triggered by a massive, deadly quake in Japan.

Just this last January…A tsunami watch was issued for the Central Coast during the wee hours of the morning.

But what if that watch had turned to a warning…. forcing evacuations. How would you learn about it? You certainly wouldn’t here a siren.

That is unless you live right by the Naval Postgraduate School… There are no tsunami sirens on the Central Coast.

The National Weather Service issues a tsunami warning…And you’ll see on tv or other devices…

Brian Garcia from the national weather service says, “those banner that scroll across the bottom of the screen, that shrill that comes across your radio, and you will also have your phone alert with the wireless emergency alert.”

But if you’re sleeping… those won’t help. But there are some workarounds.

“If you have a NOAA weather radio in your house. You can have that set to completely silent except to turn on in case of a warning for various things…. the other

Way that a lot of people do it now. Is they will actually sleep with their cell phones under their pillow. So if your cell phone gets alerted through the wireless emergency alert system, it will ring your cell phone, vibrate your cell phone in it’s under your head.” – Garcia

Knowing the danger zones along the coast is another crucial step in staying prepared.

You can find tsunami danger zones all over the coast. From Santa Cruz to Monterey.. And all the places in between. You can find your area by checking inundation maps.

You can find your zone on this website: myhazards.Caloes.Ca.Gov