Officials with the National Weather Service, and other state and federal organizations, say Unalaska is prepared for a tsunami. At Tuesday’s city council meeting, they presented local officials with tsunami and weather-related readiness certificates.
Aviva Braun is a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Anchorage who specializes in evaluating natural disaster risk and educating the public. She said Unalaska’s certification expired years ago, but that doesn’t mean the town was unprepared for emergencies.
Braun said the community should be proud of the fact that they’ve been ready for a tsunami for a long time.
Unalaska students took part in tsunami evacuation drills Monday with local and visiting officials. Kids in both the elementary and high schools practiced getting to high ground by walking up the closest hills to each building.
Monday evening, Braun and other officials gave a community presentation about natural disaster risk in Unalaska. They also stopped by the Norwegian Rat Saloon Wednesday night to share safety tips with locals.
Braun said reaching certification requires time and dedication. A community has to demonstrate its abilities in three separate areas: mitigation, preparation and response.
“Each section has a number of steps within it, and it’s not an easy application to get through,” she said. “No community can do so without leadership that cares and a community that is willing to come along with it, and Unalaska has all of this.”
For an interactive map of tsunami risk zones, visit tsunami.alaska.edu.
