BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados can detect and receive early notice of an impending tsunami event to assist with the timely evacuation of coastal areas under threat.
On Wednesday, Deputy Director of the Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS), Brian Murray, said that water level sensors that sense pronounced changes in the ocean level are placed at strategic locations across the island.
“This equipment is very critical,” he said, adding that the BMS’ early warning systems for tsunamis and other hydrometeorological hazards include alerts from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, the BMS Insight app, and the CAP.CAP app.
In addition, the Deputy Director said the BMS was refining it’s Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) to allow for earlier warning in the event of a hazard impact. These early warning systems include the Doppler radar, automatic weather stations, satellite imagery, and numerical weather models.
Murray cautioned that the tsunami threat generated by undersea earthquakes in the Eastern Caribbean or the Atlantic Ocean could not be ignored.
Barbados was affected by tsunamis in 1755 and 1761 from earthquakes in Lisbon, Portugal; in 1767 from an earthquake in Martinique; in 1902 from a volcanic eruption from La Soufriere Volcano in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; in 1939 from a submarine volcanic eruption of Kick them Jenny, and in 1969 from an earthquake in Guadeloupe.
On those occasions, tsunami wave run-ups ranged from 0.4 to 1.8 meters, categorized as “relatively minor.”
However, Coastal Planner at the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU), Fabian Hinds, assured that Government, in collaboration with its strategic partners, was working towards improving Barbados’ resilience to coastal hazards.
He noted plans by the CZMU and the Department of Emergency Management, who co-chairs the Technical Standing Committee on Coastal Hazards (TSCCH), to implement the Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme in Barbados.
“This ultimately seeks to develop and enhance the preparedness and response capabilities of coastal communities to the potential threat of tsunamis,” he said.
In 2020, two communities in the northern parishes of St. Lucy and St. Peter received official Tsunami Ready recognition status. Efforts are underway to achieve recognition for coastal areas in the west and south of the country.
“The intention is to work towards making all of Barbados’ coastlines tsunami-ready,” Hinds said.
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