Project News

From 4th to 6th November 2019, the Van-REDI Project conducted the Tsunami awareness activities including the 1st ever Tsunami evacuation drill at Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu in collaboration with "World Tsunami Awareness Day". Not only the counterpart departments of Van-REDI project, Vanuatu Meteorological Ge-Hazards Department/VMGD and National Disaster Management Office/NDMO, but also other governmental agencies such as Ministry of Education and Training, Port Vila Municipality Council, Vanuatu Police Force and Non-Governmental Organisations such as Oxfam, Vanuatu Red Cross, Save the Children, and Vanuatu Society of People with Disabilities cooperated the activities.

The Tsunami evacuation drills were implemented at 3 locations of Port Vila (by Van-REDI Project), Blakcsand (by Oxfam) and Mele (by Vanuatu Red Cross), and the event aims to use the Tsunami sirens and signboards installed by the World Bank Project funded by Japan, to make people know how to evacuate (to know the signs and route of evacuation), and to make people know what and how to do against Tsunami (before, during and after).

This event is originally related to outputs of the Van-REDI project, i.e. "enhancement of the capacities of VMGD and NDMO for disseminating relevant data and practical information" and "enhancement of the capacities of VMGD and NDMO for public awareness activities". Generally, the Tsunami evacuation drill targets evacuation itself and learn routes to higher locations, however, at this drill, several governmental bodies confirmed their operations, i.e. "VMGD confirm the earthquake", "issue Tsunami advisory", "turn on the siren", and "send the evacuation text message to all mobile phones". At the fields, after the siren sounded, "people tried to evacuate to higher places", "wait for VMGD to cancel the Tsunami advisory", then "NDMO cleared the evacuation".

During 3 days event, additionally tsunami seminar, science and DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) show, Tsunami video show, and Tsunami quiz were organized at 2 venues. As shown in Table 1 and table 2. 3,000 people joined the evacuation drill, 1,500 people joined other activities, and for total events, participants was exceeded to totally 4,500. It revealed that many people have their interests in the evacuation drill. Moreover, at 2 venues, many people stopped and gazed real tsunami videos of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of Japan occurred on March 11, 2011, which were good awareness materials for people.

Venue	Participants
Port Vila (Main venue, Van-REDI)	278
Port Vila (Main venue, self attended)	150
Port Vila (2nd venue, self attended)	200
Mele (Red Cross)	1,138
Blacksand (Oxfam)	1,233
Total	2,999

Table 1. Participants of Tsunami evacuation drill

Venue	Participants
Opening ceremony & Tsunami seminar	50
DRR Video show (main venue)	400
DRR Video show (2nd venue)	450
Science & DRR exhibitions (main venue)	240
Science & DRR exhibitions (2nd venue)	240
Tsunami quiz game (Sea front area)	60
Total	1,440

Table 2. Participants of event (estimation)

Interviews for questionnaires for tsunami drill were conducted mainly during the evacuation drill and many participants found the drill was interesting and the drill need to be conducted once or twice a year. On the drill, the siren sounded for 30 seconds, people thought the duration of the siren was too short and should be kept longer for 1 minute, 2 minutes or 5 minutes or more. For the question "what did you learn from this drill?", people replied "evacuation route", "importance of drill", and "danger of tsunami".

Q. How was the drill? (N=125)

Q. Frequency of drill

Q. Length of siren (N=125)

Q. Appropriate length of siren (minutes)

Q. What did you lean? (N=125)

Mr. Masahiro Yamamoto, the expert of Tsunami analysts of Van-REDI project, says, "This tsunami evacuation drill was the first trial the Vanuatu government implemented. VMGD issued the tsunami warning using sirens and SMS, then all residents evacuated orderly. The first tsunami evacuation drill was successfully carried out as the local newspaper reported.

The only way to protect the lives of residents from tsunami disasters is evacuation. Through the tsunami evacuation drill, residents in the tsunami-inundated area study how to evacuate to safety places as soon as possible. Repeated trainings clarify the matters for each area and establish an effective tsunami evacuation system.

During an actual evacuation from tsunami, establishing information/communication network including radio is indispensable in order to follow-up tsunami information and to share/feedback appropriate actions to/from residents. In order to develop effective systems, tsunami drill shoule be repeatedly implemented every year and throughout the country."

The Van-REDI project is planning to hold Tsunami evacuation drill every year and the next attempting locations will be Luganville in Santo as well as the capital, Port Vila. The project team with VMDG and NDMO need to tackle and solve all issues raised in this awareness activities, and hopes more people participates the event next year and the more people will be aware on earthquake and tsunami.

Project team leader, Michihiko Tonouchi (Mr.)
Long term expert, Yumi Yasaka Schultz (Ms.)

Situation of drill (1)

Situation of drill (2)

Situation of drill (3)