Colonel Denis Musson

1
Consequences of 2 tsunami exercises
in 2005, in French Polynesia
evolution of the tsunami warning
Dominique Reymond LDG/DASE/CEA Laboratoire de
Geophysique de Tahiti Departement dAnalyse Surve
illance Environnement Commissariat a lEnergie At
omique
Colonel Denis Musson DPC Direction de la Protec
tion Civile, Haut-commissariat de la République
en Polynésie Française
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Summary

• Tsunami in French Polynesia generalities
• Tsunami warning plan share of competencies
• The different Levels of warning
• The basis of warning system
• The 2 excercices of 2005

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The 20th centurys most dangerous tsunami in
Polynesia (with amplitudes exceeding 2 m in
French Polynesia)
Aléoutian, Mars 1957, M 8.7
Kamchatka, Nov. 1952, M 9.0
Aleutian, 1 avr 1946, M 8.5
Alaska, Mars 1964, M 9.2
Peru, Fev. 1996, M 7.5
Chili, Jul 1995, M 8.0
French Polynesia
South Chili, Mai 1960, M 9.5
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The Marquesas islands, a vulnerable archipelago
measured heights in Hiva Oa and Nuku Hiva, April
1st 1946
Tsunami field survey of E. Okal al.
CEA/DASE/LDG
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Hiva Oa (Marquesas) the Chilean tsunami on
July 30th 1995 (mag 8.0)
CEA/DASE/LDG_Tahiti
Run-up 3-4 m
1 Avril 1946 Hilo - Hawaii
9 mars 1957 Oahu - Hawaii
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Propagation time from main subduction zonesto
French Polynesia
Aleutian 11 hours
Japan, Kuril, Kamchtaka 12-13 hours
Tonga 3 -4 hours
Chile - Peru 10 - 11 hours
CPPT Centre Polynésien de prévention des
Tsunamis
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The tsunami warning planThe role of the
High-commissioner

• He is the represantative of the French
  Government
  
• He is the authority in charge of the activation
  of the plan and the relief and emergency
  coordination.
  
• The activation of the whole, or a part, of the
  Plan is decided by the High-commissioner on the
  basis of the observations and recommendations
  submitted by the LDG.
• This Plan must be continued by local communities.

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The tsunami warning planthe role of the Mayor

• In accordance with the District Code, the mayor
  is in charge of anticipating, and providing all
  necessary assistance
  
• He is in charge of the information of all
  inhabitants in his district.
  
• Each mayor ensures that population has taken all
  useful precautions for its security

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Tremors Overview of the automatic seismic
warning system
3 components seismic data of a single station
Seismologist 24h/24h on duty
Warning from a given threshold (mag 7.0)
N
Z
E
Data acquisition
Realtime analysis of seismic data
by a PC computer
Warning to Civil Defense
Location
Detection
Magnitude, Mo
TREMORS Tsunami Risk Estimation through a
Real-time System
CEA/DASE/LDG
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The tsunami warning planAlert levels
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Flow-chart of present warning to populations
LDG
HC - DPC
Territorial administrator
The warning could start at any level in function
of available delays
Mayor
TV, radio
Populations
LEVEL 4
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Drills
2 exercises were organized in 2005 1 - to test
the tsunami plan about the international airport
of Tahiti 2 - to test effective warning to
the population in Marquesas islands. 1 valley on
3 islands was evacuated.
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the case of the international airport of Tahiti
The numerical simulation shows the inundation of
technical installations - carburant tanks
zone, - part of the tarmac, - electrical
supply installation,- flying lights and
transmissions.
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The case of the international airport of Tahiti
If the airport could be out of order, some
reflex rules were elaborated about, for example
- rerouting of the flying planes, sheltering
landed planes - protection of technical
equipments, engines and installations,-
evacuation and security of the public zone,-
measures for restarting quickly the airport. On
the other hand, a restructuring of the airport is
programmed for economical reasons. The result of
numerical simulation will be integrated in the
project.
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Drill in Marquesas
The warning chain was tested LDG, HC-DPC,
Territorial administrator, mayor, population.
The usual supports, telephone, fax, local radio
station and .. bells, were used.
New other were tested recorded message by phone
and SMS. There is no siren in these island whose
communities are isolated.
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Drill in Marquesastest of new transmission
supports
The recorded message concerned local
authorities, hotel with tourists, administrations
of school, hospital, etc The message in
French, Marquesian and English, was recorded in
30 minutes 90 min was necessary for the
transmission. 38 /40 addresses received this
message. The weakness of this option there
is nobody in 24h/24h on duty at the French
Polynesian telephone service provider
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Drill in Marquesastest of new transmission
supports (cont.)
The diffusion of the warning by SMS require 65
minutes to input the message in three languages,
and to find the phone references of foreigner
tourists. In one hour, 44 of the 1145 local
cellular phones were contacted, but 0 of the 52
foreigners.Furthermore, this system perturbed
normal vocal channels. Evidently, this
interesting possibility is not adapted for a
rapid warning.
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Drill in Marquesas
Evacuations this exercise was prepared with the
communal authorities and the communities 200 to
1000 inhabitants.But 1h to 1h45 was necessary to
evacuate. The real difficulty is to join these
isolated communities.Recently, the French
Polynesia was hit by a large swell. Some little
atolls of Tuamotu archipelago needed 36 hours for
joining them.
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The new tsunami warning systemthe scattering of
the communities on 5 million kilometer square
Drill
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The new tsunami warning system
LDG
DPC
community
TAHITI
150 remote controlled sirens by inmarsat C, will
be installed in all of the communities on the
territory in 2005 to 2007.This network is
secured by 2 permanent satellites.The large
hotels on lagoon will be equipped too.
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Remote controlled siren
15000 us dollars, battery, solar panels and
transceiver included. This equipment transmit inf
ormations about the status of siren and its
battery. this siren network will be tested once/
month.
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The next excercise
In February 2006, the topic will be to test this
siren network and the evacuation of population
of the 6 valleys of Hiva Oa(Marquesas).
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End