Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Ministry of Earth Sciences Press Brief on Mock Tsunami Drill (Exercise IOWave16) scheduled on September 7-8, 2016
India, along with 23 other Indian Ocean Nations*, is participating in a major Indian ocean-wide tsunami mock drill on 7 and 8 September, 2016. The drill, known as IOWave16, is being organised by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, which coordinated the setting up of Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) in the aftermath of the December 26, 2004 tsunami.
The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), based out of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, an autonomous institution under the Minist ry of Earth Sciences, is capable of detecting tsunamigenic earthquakes within 10 minutes of the occurrence of earthquake on the sea bed and issue timely tsunami advisories to disaster management officials as well as to the vulnerable communities. This state-of-the-art warning centre, operational since October 2007, has all necessary computational & communication infrastructure for the reception of real-time data from seismic and sea-level networks, tsunami modeling, as well as generation and dissemination of tsunami bulletins for the entire Indian Ocean region. The ITEWC functions as one of the Tsunami Service Providers (TSP) for the IOTWMS and provides operational tsunami information to all the Indian Ocean rim countries. ITEWC will participate in this drill both in its capacity as National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) and as one of the Tsunami Service Provider (TSP) for the Indian Ocean region.
IOWave16 will comprise two scenarios: the first will simulate an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2 south of Sumatra, Indonesia, on 7 September at 0830 IST and the second will simulate an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 in the Makran Trench south of Iran and Pakistan on 8 September at 1130 IST. Both exercises will be conducted in real-time lasting for about 12 hours and ITEWC will issue 15 tsunami bulletins to both national and regional stakeholders through GTS, email, fax, SMS as well as on website.
The major objectives of IOWave16 include testing the efficiency of communication links between TSPs, NTWCs, Disaster Management offices and local communities at risk. The drill will also facilitate exercising the standard operating procedures (SOPs) of the emergency services and evaluating their state of readiness to handle tsunami like emergency situations. Most importantly, IOWave16 is expected to enhance the awareness and preparedness among all stakeholders including the vulnerable communities.
In India, IOWave16 is being coordinated by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) with support from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Coastal States/UTs. The drill will involve the evacuation of around 35,000 people from the coastal communities mostly in Odisha and also in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Gujarat and Karnataka (Annexure). The end-to-end warning system from tsunami detection and forecast, threat evaluation and alert formulation, alert dissemination to public and their awareness and response will be put to test during this mock drill.
During this drill, ITEWC will become the first IOTWMS Tsunami Service Provider to operationalise its new Decision Support System that is capable of providing improved services to the Indian Ocean Member states such as enhanced area of coverage, advanced simulation capabilities, provision of regional public bulletins, and web-based NTWC feedback system.
Page 1 of 6 In preparation to this drill at the national level, ITEWC has already conducted a training workshop and tabletop exercises to enable the national stakeholders to streamline their SOPs. A manual comprising specifics of conducting the tsunami drill, along with the detailed bulletins and feedback forms was also prepared and circulated to the stakeholders. Feedback from the participants after the drill is expected to identify and fix any gaps in communication channels and the SOPs of all stakeholders.
International observers and media teams from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) are being deputed to India and Seychelles to report on the drill as well as to prepare a film for the upcoming Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR)-2016 in New Delhi (November 02-05, 2016) and 1st World Tsunami Awareness day on November 05, 2016.
* To date: Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France (La Réunion), India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Yemen.
Page 2 of 6 ANNEXURE Tsunami Mock drill- IOWave16 September 07-08, 2016 Participation Information at Village Level
S. No. State/UT District Taluka/Division/ Village People to be Participation Mandal evacuated in Date drill(approx.)
1. Srikakulam Gara Bandarvanipeta 1,500 to 2,000
2. Viziayanagaram Peddakondarajupalem 700
3. Visakhapatnam AtchutaPuram Rajannapeta 300
4. East Godavari Katrenikona Pallm 7,000
5. West Godavari Mogalthuru K.P. Palem 70
6. Krishna Kruthivennu Chinagollapalem 200
7. Guntur Nizampatnam William Booth Nagar 200 07-Sep-2016
8. Andhra Pradesh Prakasam Singarayakonda Pakala
9. SPS Nellore Indukurupet Gangapatnam 100
10. Balasore
11. Bhadrak
12. Odisha Kendrapara 22 Blocks 328 Villages 30, 000 07-Sep-2016
13. Jagatsinghpur (All Costal Villages)
Page 3 of 6 14. Puri
15. Ganjam
16. Villupuram Tindivanam Panchaimedu 350 Kuppam Tamil Nadu 17. Tirunelveli Radhapuram Levenchipuram 500 07-Sep-2016 18. Tiruvallur Ponneri Vairavan Kuppam 2,000
19. Pudukkottai Aranthangi Avudaiyarkovil
20. North 24-Paraganas Sandeshkhali-II Pukurpara 200
21. South 24-Paraganas Namkhana Laxmipuram 07-Sep-2016
22. West Bengal Sagar Mrityunjaynagar
23. East Medinpur Contai-I Haripur
24. Andaman & Nicobar Andaman 07-Sep-2016 Islands
25. Thiruvananthapuram Pettah 08-Sep-2016
26. Kerala Alappuzha Aryad South
27. Kasaragod Kasaragod
28. Kozhikode Puthiyangadi
29. Gujarat Porbandar Porbandar Bavi Bandar 1,800 to 2,100 08-Sep-2016
30. Devbhumi Dwarka Khambhaliya Bharana
Page 4 of 6 31. Udupi Majale 225
32. Karnataka Uttara Kannada Koda uru 200 08-Sep-2016
33. Dakshina Kannada Someshwar 300 Bettampaddy
Participation details of other States/UTs and Organisations
S. No. Name Details Participation Date
1. Goa Organization Level Participation 08-Sep-2016
2. Puducherry Organization Level Participation 07-Sep-2016
3. 2nd Bn NDRF, Kolkata, West Bengal Participating in field level along with West Bengal 07-Sep-2016
4. 3rd Bn NDRF, Mundali, Odisha Participating in field level along with Odisha 07-Sep-2016
5. 4th Bn NDRF, Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu Participating in field level along with Tamil Nadu 07&08-Sep-2016
6. 5th Bn NDRF, Pune, Maharashtra Organization Level Participation 08-Sep-2016
7. 6th Bn NDRF, Ahmedabad, Gujarat Participating in field level along with Gujarat 08-Sep-2016
8. 10th Bn NDRF, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh Participating in field level along with Andhra Pradesh 07-Sep-2016
9. Indian Navy- Western Naval Command Organization Level Participation 08-Sep-2016
10. Indian Coast Guard- Coast Guard Region (NE) Organization Level Participation 07-Sep-2016
11. Indian Coast Guard- Coast Guard Region (NW) Organization Level Participation 08-Sep-2016
Page 5 of 6 Summary:
Most of Coastal States/UTs are participating in IOWave16 Tsunami mock drill 33 Coastal Districts of 8 States/UT are participating up to community level Community level evacuations will be carried out in around 350 villages Around 40,000 people to be evacuated during the drill ------
For Details and Queries Please Contact:
Ms. Celsa Almeida (Public Relations and Outreach) - Ph: 040-23886148; Email: [email protected]
Mr. B. Ajay Kumar (IOWave16 Coordinator), Mob: +91-9030175452; Email: [email protected]
ESSO- Indian National Centre for Ocean information Services,
Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India.
Pragathi Nagar (BO), Nizampet (SO),
Hyderabad - 500090
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