Naval Base Guam conducts tsunami exercise

SANTA RITA, Guam—A rush of panic and worry set in as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) message hit the networks just before 6am warning of a pending tsunami about to hit Guam in three hours or less. Luckily for Naval Base Guam, the message had the words “EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE” pasted at the top.

During the exercise, tenant commands and all areas affected by a mock tsunami, with a 12-foot wave pending impact on NBG in three hours, were evacuated to higher ground. The scenario began with a warning message sent from the PTWC that an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude struck near the Aleutian Trench off of Alaska, with a significant wave height surging through the Pacific Ocean. Guam, among several other key Pacific islands, was notified of the pending tsunami.

The earthquake was later evaluated and upgraded to a 9.3 magnitude earthquake, with a huge, destructive ripple effect of rushing water away from the center of the earthquake.

Tsunami are waves caused by sudden movement of the ocean due to earthquakes, landslides on the sea floor, land slumping into the ocean, major volcanic eruptions or large meteorite impacts, according to CWarn.org. Most tsunami are caused by large earthquakes at the seafloor, when large slabs of rock are forced to move past each other suddenly causing the overlying water to move. The resulting wave moves outwards and away from this event, causing massive flooding in an instant.

Many will remember what happened on March 11, 2011, when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast of Japan caused a tsunami with the highest wave height of 133 feet. About 18,550 people were confirmed killed or missing. The tallest recorded tsunami—or “megatsunami—wave height was measured at 1,720 feet in Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 (according to the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point).

A large magnitude earthquake has great potential to generate a massive destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours. The PTWC is key to providing vital data to monitor sea level data and estimate the severity of the threat.

The four-hour tsunami exercise gave NBG headquarters, emergency management operations and its tenant commands a chance to exercise command and control capabilities in response to a natural disaster. The often-coined phrase, “train as you fight,” was used to go through the movements and methods of accountability, timely reporting and physical evacuation of buildings to respective assembly areas, as well as a Continuity of Operations (COOP) site where emergency management professionals with the Incident Management Team (IMT) of NBG headquarters set up an alternate location to operate from higher ground.

According to Carlos Griffin, NBG Installation Training Officer, this was an important exercise to practice with the focus and effort as if the incident were really happening.

“We conduct these exercises to prepare for the real thing,” he said. Everyone must have a ‘muscle memory’ for these types of incidents so we can exercise our evacuation and accountability procedures with the main purpose of saving lives. This requires an orderly, organized, well-planned and well-rehearsed evacuation—a time-phased evacuation with timely reporting and posted warnings as well as Giant Voice announcements, deconfliction with various agencies and accountability reporting to the COOP site.”

Naval Base Guam is divided into four evacuation zones—A, B, C and D—based on proximity and height above sea level. An organized zone-by-zone evacuation enables a free flow of traffic and congestion is avoided. NBG hit all of its timelines for the exercise, and the COOP site got very busy with people working hard to ensure no one was left behind.

Master at Arms Chief (SW) Christopher Hammett, the Antiterrorism Officer for NBG, just happened to be NBG’s Command Duty Officer for the day.

“The biggest responsibility as CDO during the time of a tsunami is to maintain the proper flow of communication to our tenant commands,” said Hammett. “Everyone needs to know the proper reporting procedures and lines of communication so that I can provide an accurate account of everything that takes place, respond to areas of concern and be the center point for briefing the commander.”

Although no one wants to have to react to a real tsunami, NBG is prepared. (PR)