The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment says that at this point in time there is no threat of a tsuna­mi im­pact­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go. The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the ODPM:

The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) is aware that a 7.2 mag­ni­tude earth­quake oc­curred near the coast of Haiti at 8:29 a.m. to­day, The Of­fice has been mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion and has been col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) and the Caribbean Dis­as­ter Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (CDE­MA) along with the Pa­cif­ic Tsuna­mi Warn­ing Cen­tre (PTWC).

In light of this, the ODPM is ad­vis­ing per­sons that at this point in time, there is no threat of a tsuna­mi im­pact­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

How­ev­er, the ODPM takes this op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­mind mem­bers of the pub­lic who may live or work in coastal com­mu­ni­ties to al­ways be pre­pared for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a tsuna­mi threat by prac­tis­ing the fol­low­ing tips:

● Know your Tsuna­mi evac­u­a­tion routes if you live in a coastal area.

● Cre­ate a fam­i­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan so that if sep­a­rat­ed you and your fam­i­ly know what to do and how to com­mu­ni­cate.

● Prac­tise your evac­u­a­tion plan reg­u­lar­ly and map the routes out of your home and place of work. Add evac­u­a­tion shel­ters that are above sea lev­el or at least one mile in­land, to your plan.

● En­sure that you choose a safe place for re­unit­ing in­land.

To learn more on be­ing pre­pared for tsunamis and oth­er haz­ards please vis­it www.odpm.gov.tt