How the Failure To Issue an Effective Ocean Tsunami Warning May Help Prepare the Crisis Communications Response to the Next California River Flood
Some coincidences shouldn’t be ignored. “The Impossible,” a movie on one family’s harrowing experience during and after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, opened in Sacramento theaters on January 4. An earthquake near Alaska a few hours later that evening triggered a tsunami warning for nearby coastal regions. And running in the background since at least November have been media reminders of Sacramento’s extraordinary vulnerability to flooding, which a Sacramento Bee story described as “the greatest flood risk of any major urban area in America." If there’s a thread linking ocean tsunamis and river floods, now’s the time to find it. Lessons learned from the 2004 tsunami could help Sacramento prepare for floods that may arrive this Spring. A key component of any disaster preparedness plan is communications – knowing well in advance how and when officials will alert populations to a threat or actual disaster. The key dramatic moment early in