Emergency officials Monday unveiled a dashboard that shows the risk from a tsunami here along the San Mateo County coast as well as communities ringing the Bay.
Knowing the risk can help residents and visitors prepare if the threat should arise, county officials said.
“We cannot control emergencies, but we can control our preparedness,” San Mateo County Supervisor Lisa Gauthier, chair of the Emergency Services Council, said at a news conference at the County’s Regional Operations Center.
Tsunamis remain rare in California but the threat is real.
Officials created the “San Mateo County Tsunami Hazard Area Dashboard” after state websites crashed following a tsunami alert issued last Dec. 5 by the National Weather Service.
“When this event happens again in the future, should it happen again, we know that County resources will be backing that website up and keeping it available for residents to see,” San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller said in a press release.
“But they don’t have to actually wait for that event,” he added. “They can go and see now, which is so important. This week is about preparing the public.”
Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes below the ocean floor, but underwater landslides and volcanic activity can also cause tsunamis. A tsunami can be imperceptible in the deep ocean but tsunami waves grow and become more dangerous as they approach the shore, according to the county.
Depending on a tsunami’s location and size, local emergency managers and residents could have anywhere from hours to minutes of warning.
The dashboard unveiling coincides with Tsunami Awareness Week, which includes preparedness activities and exercises to test regional tsunami response capabilities and coordination with state and federal partners.
The dashboard can be found here: https://shorturl.at/BuJAZ.
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John Baker said:
How do you know when you're getting old? When they start digging up time capsules you remember them putting in the ground.
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