What’s That Sound?
Perceptions of a Tsunami Warning & Evacuation
Photo Credit: Ryan Reynolds
Imagine waking at 3:00am to the sound of your community’s tsunami warning system giving you instructions to seek safety on higher ground
What information would you want to know?
How would you respond?
Where would you go?
What would you bring with you?
We started the project with several goals in mind:
To understand how this event was perceived from the differing perspectives of emergency officials and the public
To discover how residents learned about the tsunami warning
To understand what decisions at-risk residents made once they were aware of the tsunami warning, and learn what actions they took once aware
To discover the issues and barriers residents faced in their evacuation
To explore what impacts the event has had on public risk perceptions of tsunami risk
Project Goals
Research Questions
The goal of our research was to explore public and official perceptions surrounding tsunami risk and examine how the events of this evacuation may have altered those perceptions. We identified four key research questions that we wanted to address as part of this study:
How was the tsunami warning and evacuation perceived from the different perspectives of emergency officials and community residents
How did residents living in the tsunami inundation zone respond to the tsunami warning and evacuation?
What difficulties did residents experience while evacuating, and what lessons can emergency planners learn from these experiences?
What impact has this event had on community perceptions of tsunami risk, their trust in emergency officials, and their participation in future evacuations?
I was the lead researcher for this project. Major responsibilities included:
Project Management:
Acquiring funding through the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction’s Quick Response (QR) program
Development of doorstep and online surveys, including all necessary applications to research ethics boards
Financial reporting to UBC and our funding agency
Supervision of project’s research assistant
Research:
Semi-structured interviews with 11 past and current emergency planning and response managers for City of Port Alberni and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District
Doorstep surveys through the official Port Alberni tsunami inundation zone
Analysis & Reporting:
Statistical and geospatial analysis of combined doorstep and onilne survey results
Primary author of preliminary and final findings reports
Co-author “The near-miss of a tsunami and an emergency evacuation: The post-exposure effects on future emergency preparedness and evacuation intentions” in Natural Hazards (2020)
Project Involvement
Read Our Full Report
Related Webinars:
Public & Official Perceptions
November 20, 2018
Host: MEOPAR Coast and Ocean Risk Communication Community of Practice
Ryan and his assistant Alexa discuss the results of over 350 surveys and 11 interviews with residents and officials in the Alberni Valley following the tsunami warning and evacuation conducted January 23, 2018
After the Field Work
September 9, 2020
Host: Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR)
Ryan briefly talks about the work he and Alexa did on the What’s that Sound? project and what they did to get word of their results out to local and regional decision-makers, the media, and the public once it was complete
Improving Risk Communications
January 15, 2021
Host: Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR)
Ryan provides a more in-depth exploration of how the events in the Alberni the morning of January 23rd unfolded, the barriers residents faced seeking information and shelter, and what changes communities can do to be better prepared for tsunami evacuations (Slidedeck)