The Alaska Earthquake Center has launched an interactive map to help coastal communities prepare for dangerous tsunamis.
Alaska’s large earthquakes and coastal geography make the state especially vulnerable to tsunamis. In 1964, it was tsunamis rather than shaking that caused most of the deaths from the Good Friday earthquake.
Elisabeth Nadin is a project coordinator for the hazard map. She says it includes flooding and elevation data to help state and local authorities develop emergency response plans.
“They can say, OK, we're going to designate this line as the place where, below it, people need to evacuate,” she said. “And those now are displayed on this map.”
The map covers 66 communities, but Nadin says it has much more detailed information for some places than others. If you click on Valdez, one of the program’s original pilot communities, you’ll see a more fleshed out map.
“Valdez has taken its tsunami risk very seriously and partnered very effectively with us from the beginning,” she said.
The Valdez section also shows evacuation routes, community assembly points, and even popup buttons with information about tsunamis that have hit the community in the past.
But some smaller, more remote communities — like Saint Paul in the Aleutians and Port Alexander in Southeast — will only have more basic information. Nadin says that’s because her team doesn’t have as much data for those places yet.
“They have a boundary line that we think is the maximum tsunami flooding. But without that really detailed elevation information, it's not as precise as the other modeled layers,” she said.
Nadin would like to see those sections get updated as the project continues. She encourages local leaders to reach out to the Alaska Earthquake Center, so her team can get a better understanding of their needs.