Mark calendars for the inaugural World Tsunami Awareness Day
In an effort to increase global awareness of tsunamis and the devastating impact of these natural disasters, the first-ever World Tsunami Awareness Day is now set to take place later this year.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) recently announced that World Tsunami Awareness Day makes its debut this November. The single-day awareness campaign will aim to put a strong spotlight on these infrequent natural events that can, and typically do, cause so much death and destruction when they do strike.
Over the past century, a total of 58 tsunamis have resulted in about 260,000 deaths. Using these figures, the average calculates to approximately 4,600 deaths per tsunami, which, according to the UNISDR, makes tsunamis the most severe and deadly of all natural hazards.
The Indian Ocean tsunami that occurred in December 2004 is perhaps the deadliest of all time. There were an estimated 227,000 deaths in 14 countries associated with that tsunami, which hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand particularly hard. As the UNISDR put it, “tsunamis are rare events, but that very fact makes risk understanding vital.”
World #TsunamiDay16 plans rolled out at #IndianOcean #tsunami meet: https://t.co/zeV9wQMA0s #switch2sendai pic.twitter.com/xw9UgUCmut
— UNDRR (@UNDRR) May 12, 2016
Education and evacuation
According to the UNISDR, the inaugural World Tsunami Awareness Day will focus on two main topics: education and evacuation.
The idea of the new World Tsunami Awareness Day reportedly originated in Japan, which has an up-close-and-personal relationship with tsunamis and the damage that can result from these natural disasters. Japan has made great strides in recent years improving tsunami warning systems, increasing public involvement, and recovering from tsunamis in ways to help to mitigate future losses.
“World Tsunami Awareness Day is a great opportunity to increase awareness at all levels and among all stakeholders, starting with the public right through to top politicians. Because engaging with all stakeholders is what makes the system sustainable, and when the system is sustainable, that’s when you mitigate losses.” — [link url=”https://www.unisdr.org/archive/48820″ title=”Srinivasa Kumar,”] Head of the National Tsunami Warning Centre at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
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