Water Resources

Tsunami Preparedness

On October 21, 2021 at 10:21 am, the Tsunami Warning Tower Sirens sounded as part of the Great Washington Shakeout. The flyer below provides more information about the shakeout. This exercise is part of an international event that occurs annually.

The Tsunami preparedness efforts of the Lummi Nation Multi-Hazard Mitigation Team (MHMT) resulted in the Lummi Indian Business Council Water Resources Division and Planning Department obtaining funding to install five All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) radios (aka Tsunami Warning Towers) on the Reservation and conduct public education efforts.

Five Tsunami Warning Towers have been installed on the Reservation. The tower on the Sandy Point Peninsula by the Fire Station was purchased jointly by Washington State and the ConocoPhillips Refinery and complements the four towers purchased by the Lummi Nation through Emergency Management Preparedness Assistance Grants from Washington State. Three AHAB towers were installed in 2007 and two more were installed in 2021. The Lummi Nation Police Department tests the four towers purchased by the Lummi Nation each week (Fridays at noon).

In 2009 a network of warning signs and tsunami evacuation route signs were installed by the MHMT in coordination with Washington State and Whatcom County.

Public education takes place through Squol Quol (Lummi Newspaper) articles, posts to the Lummi Nation Communications Department Facebook page, and the distribution of tsunami evacuation route maps that were developed in conjunction with Washington State. The video below is based on previous modeling work, but remains a good tool to illustrate a tsunami. In the spring of 2021, the Washington Department of Natural Resources completed revised modeling of a tsunami generated by a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, which supersedes, and is more detailed than the video below. The maps for the area and accompanying report are below.

Forecast
On-Reservation
Marine
(Rosario Strait)

  Gooseberry Tides

Data sourced from USDOC/NOAA/NOS/COOPS (Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services Disclaimer: The official Tide and Tidal Current prediction tables are published annually on October 1, for the following calendar year. Tide and Tidal Current predictions generated prior to the publishing date of the official tables are subject to change. The enclosed data are based upon the latest information available as of the date of your request. Tide and Tidal Current predictions generated may differ from the official predictions if information for the station requested has been updated since the publishing date of the official tables. For more information visit NOAA/COOPS website

Available Documents

There are 5 documents currently available in the Tsunami Preparedness portion of the website.