Sri Lanka's National Tsunami Exercise (IOWave -20) Event - on the occasion of IDDRR and WTAD 2020

Organizer(s) Disaster Management Center

Format

In person

Date

13 October 2020

Sri Lanka was one of the countries struck by tsunami due to the Indian Ocean earthquake on 26^th December 2004, with many lives being lost and over half a million people being displaced. The World Tsunami Awareness Day is observed on 5^th November annually and Sri Lanka has been commemorating this unfortunate devastation in all fourteen coastal districts across the country, followed by multi religious activities in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in 2004 tsunami. Accordingly, in line with the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDR) we are conducting the National Tsunami Exercise (IOWave-20) exercise based on Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) with the help of three (3) technical agencies or Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs) namely Bureau of Meteorology – Australia, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika (BMKG) Indonesia. With the formulation of the IOTWMS framework, 28 countries bordering the Indian Ocean will participate in this year’s scheduled IOWave-20 exercise. As a member state Sri Lanka is participating for this exercise on 13^th October 2020 and the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has selected four (4) districts amidst the sudden re-emergence of Covid-19 pandemic in the country, once again. Accordingly, arrangements have been made to conduct the Table Top Exercise (TTX) in these districts by selecting the most vulnerable divisional secretaries in the coastal region.

The planned comprehensive TTX was carried out at national level on 7^th October2020 with the participation of all relevant stakeholders, along with district management units and relevant authorities, including local representatives.

On 13^th October 2020, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) will test the early warning dissemination system and communication protocols (refer annexure 1), by practicing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of each stakeholder agency. In this context we are practicing the district level evacuation by way of Table Top Exercise (TTX) disseminating early warning messages through the military and police unit of the DMC, to relevant vulnerable groups.

The Evacuation Planning process developed to face a calamity such as Tsunami is as follows.

Prepare for planning - Mandates; planning team and resources persons; data and information; resources; planning process time frame
Understand community’s Tsunami risk - Hazard; exposure of people and facilities, capabilities
Design evacuation strategy and map - Evacuation time, zone (s), safe areas, assembly areas, modes of evacuation, evacuation shelter buildings, evacuation routes, signage, went (self) evacuate; support (traffic control, vulnerable facilities)
Access, endorse and disseminate evacuation plan - Public assessment of the plan, endorsement by local authorities, dissemination to institutions and public, outreach strategy
Test, evaluate and improve evacuation plan – Tsunami simulation exercises, means of observation and evaluation, revision of evacuation plan

As per the developed District Level Evacuation Plan, necessary arrangements will be made to evacuate the below mentioned key segments in the populace.

Military, Police and government institutions
Industries and factories
Harbours and airports (if any)
Schools
Hospitals
Urban neighbourhoods
Hotels
Villages

Possible indicators of Tsunami readiness at community level are as follows:

Guaranteed and reliable means of receiving and disseminating 24/7 official Tsunami alerts
Tsunami hazard zone maps at community level
Information of the lay of the land and geography
Information of the number of people living in the hazard areas
Information of all installations, establishments, public and private infrastructure etc. and capacity
Information of institutional evacuation plans
Information of all safety centres and ensuring individual awareness of the centre dedication
Awareness of personal Tsunami bio data card for the registration at centres
Public display of Tsunami information
Inventory of resources to reduce Tsunami risk at the community level
Simple and comprehensive Tsunami evacuation plans and maps for the assimilation of local authorities and community members
Awareness and public education systems and rehearsals
Annual Tsunami Evacuation community exercise
Tsunami emergency operation SOP and plan
Capacity to manage emergency response operations

Upon completion of the scheduled simulation exercise, the nominated evaluators will need to address the drawbacks based on the evaluators’ reports and make innovative and practical recommendations for further improvement.