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Honduras

TEMPP process builds tsunami ready community: Cedeno, Honduras is first Pacific community, 15-17 February 2017

On February 16, 2017 the community of Cedeño (population 4363), a popular tourist destination along the Pacific Coast of Honduras, was recognized as Tsunami Ready by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. It is the first community in Honduras, Central America, and in the Pacific to receive the designation. The Pacific Tsunami Ready program is being piloted by ITIC in interested countries of UNESCO IOC's Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (PTWS).

To achieve the recognition, Cedeño had to meet 10 guidelines covering hazard assessment, tsunami signage, evacuation mapping and planning, education and outreach, and 24 x 7 communications and response planning. The achievements were put into action through a community exercise that tested the end-to-end tsunami warning chain.

On February 15, as part of the IOC's Exercise Pacific Wave 2017, Honduras' National Tsunami Warning Center (COPECO) tested its tsunami warning procedures after receiving a live earthquake message from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. On February 16 in Cedeño, with the support of the Municipality of Marcovia and the National Disaster Organization (COPECO), the Local Emergency Management Organization (CODEL) mobilized 100s of people from schools, shops, local businesses, restaurants and homes to evacuate to two established Meeting Points. People with disabilities and the elderly also participated, demonstrating a good understanding of tsunami life protection measures. After the evacuation, volunteers led children in tsunami educational activities.

The UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready program is performance based community recognition program modeled after the US NOAA National Weather Service’s successful TsunamiReady® Program. In the Caribbean, St. Kitts and Nevis were recognized as Tsunami Ready by UNESCO in 2016. CTWP and ITIC are working together with the IOC to pilot the International Tsunami Ready guidelines in other regions. Currently, Tsunami Ready pilots are also underway in Haiti, Grenada, and Costa Rica, and in several other Latin American countries. Several Pacific Island Countries have also shown interest.

The Tsunami Ready recognition also marked the culmination of the 1.5-year Tsunami Evacuation Mapping, Planning and Procedures (TEMPP) Capacity Building Project for Honduras and Central America. The Project, led by the International Tsunami Information Center (NOAA/UNESCO ITIC) for the PTWS, with the support of NOAA’s Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program Mapa Evacuacion Tsunami Cedeo 7 FINAL(CTWP) and the IOC, and funded by the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, piloted a new training course on how to create reliable and practical community-level tsunami evacuation maps. Through TEMPP, participants learned:

  • How to create Inundation Maps using credible tsunami scenarios How to create Evacuation Maps

  • How to create Tsunami Warning and Emergency Response Plans and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

  • How to conduct Community Tsunami Exercises, including evacuation drills.

Visit ITIC"s Facebook for TEMPP and Cedeno tsunami evacuation drill photos and videos.