Intensive workshops to develop each component have been held with broad-based participation that included tsunami scientists, Federal, State, and local emergency planners and emergency operators. Workshop participants focussed on evaluation of new hazard assessment and mitigation technology. NOAA technical reports were published on each workshop. This document summarizes and synthesizes these workshop recommendations into a coherent plan. The Problem U.S. coastal communities are threatened by tsunamis that are generated by both local earthquakes and distant earthquakes.
Local tsunamis give residents only a few minutes to seek safety.
Thus, U.S. residents in Alaska can experience a local earthquake and tsunami while residents of Hawaii and the west coast may experience this disaster as a distant tsunami. Similarly, west coast residents can experience a local tsunami that may also have an impact on the distant states of Alaska and Hawaii. Of the two, local tsunamis are more devastating. The challenge is to design a tsunami hazard mitigation program to protect life and property from two very different types of tsunami events. Tsunami hazard for the United States is defined by the earthquake zones capable of generating tsunamis in the Alaska-Aleutian Seismic Zone, the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and Hawaii.