San Mateo County promises to learn from mistakes at tsunami meeting

Those who live in coastside towns like Half Moon Bay, Pacifica and El Granada, among others, voiced anxiety and frustration around the lack of information in the text messages they received when a 7.0 earthquake off of the Humboldt County coast prompted the National Weather Service to issue a tsunami warning.

San Mateo County followed up with text alerts of its own geared at the coastside, directing those in low-lying beach areas to move to higher ground and canceling evacuation and warning efforts when it became clear that there was no threat. That wording was vague and left those on the coast with little idea of whether to stay or go, many said at the forum.

County officials like Emergency Management Director Shruti Dhapodkar acknowledged those concerns and said they could be best alleviated with a comprehensive map so residents can understand where they might be in danger and what safe zones to move to.

A map was intended to be included in the text alerts, Dhapodkar said, but it had crashed due to an excess of website traffic.

“Our lessons learned is that we need to build in-house maps, do public education campaigns and update the signage as well,” she said.

Another common resident question was why the tsunami sirens didn’t sound out. The county made a conscious decision not to turn them on as they assessed data from the National Weather Service and nearby counties in real time and became more confident that the threat was abating, Dhapodkar said.

“The tsunami siren button would have caused panic and mass evacuation, and that is not a benign process,” she said.

Generally, forum attendees expressed a desire for more comprehensive education on tsunami preparedness, including proper evacuation routes and other tools like physical maps.

“I think it sounds like you did the absolute best you could with the information you had, and so I am basically making a pitch for better public information,” Half Moon Bay residents Kathy Watts said.

Coastal cities are also looking to immediate changes in protocol after the recent warning event, Half Moon Bay City Manager Matthew Chidester said. Half Moon Bay will now send out its maintenance crews to block roads and bring children to safety across the highway, for one example, he said.

“I think, for the most part, people did exactly what the plan said and what we’re trained to do. So now we’re figuring out what’s wrong with those plans and how do we make them better?” he said.

It’s deeply important that the county continue to strengthen its tsunami preparedness protocols not only for coastal residents but also for the many visitors the coastside attracts, Mueller said.

“I want to acknowledge we were actually fortunate that this event happened in the morning of a weekday, and we acknowledge there’s a lot more work to do for a weekend event or an event on the coast,” he said. “It’s foremost on our mind.”