Community preparedness is vitally important because it enables a rapid appropriate response to both official warnings and the natural signs of a possible tsunami. This is critical for saving lives for all tsunami events, and it is even more essential for locally generated tsunamis which can arrive in minutes and before an official tsunami warning is issued by authorities.

Two important components of preparedness are science-based tsunami inundation maps and community-developed tsunami evacuation maps and plans. Communities are best prepared when they are aware of their tsunami hazard, and together decide how they will be most ready for the next tsunami.

To describe the steps required to produce reliable and practical community-level tsunami evacuation maps, the IOC published Preparing for Community Tsunami Evacuations: from inundation to evacuation maps, response plans and exercises (UNESCO IOC Manuals and Guides 82, 2019) as a reference and training manual.

The manual was developed as an activity of the IOC Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS) and its Working Group on Disaster Management, Preparedness, and Risk Reduction, with input from the IOC Working Group on Tsunamis and Other Hazards related to Sea-Level Warning and Mitigation Systems (TOWS-WG) Task Team on Disaster Management and Preparedness.

It is based on the pilot, Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Plans, and Procedures (TEMPP) Training Pilot, that was conducted in Honduras and Central America, led by the International Tsunami Informnation Center, between 2015 and 2017. In February 2017, with the completion of the TEMPP trainings, Honduras was able to recognize the Pacific community of Cedeño as UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready. The Pilot and effort was generously supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).

Targeted trainees were Tsunami National Contacts, National Tsunami Warning Centres and Tsunami Warning Focal Points, staff from Disaster Management Agencies and other governmental institutions (local and national) and leaders from civil society organizations. Tsunami modelling training targeted physical scientists and oceanographers in governmental institutions and universities. The direct outcomes for the participating country include:

• Communities that know what to do and where to go when a tsunami warning is issued, or when self-responding to the natural warning signs of a tsunami, and
• Country capability and tools to replicate the community evacuation map process elsewhere
  
  

IOC MG 82 consists of the Guide and a digital Supplement. The Guide provides step-by-step information on the four evacuation planning modules (Modules 1 to 4), and a summary on tsunami disaster risk reduction, evacuation, and the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready community preparedness recognition pilot. 

The Supplement consists of two types of content:

1. Supplement to Programme Modules that compiles materials in support of each of the four Modules:  Identifying Tsunami Inundation Areas, Developing Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Developing Tsunami Response Plans and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and Tsunami Exercising.
2. Supplement Specialized Documents for each of the four Modules, including how-to-manuals, templates and guidance.

IOC MG 82 and the Supplement are available below and also from the IOC Tsunami Unit.