Many Berkeley residents are not prepared for a tsunami, survey shows

by Alex N. Gecan

Feb. 27, 2025, 1:08 p.m.Feb. 27, 2025, 1:09 p.m.

The blue shaded areas show Berkeley’s tsunami inundation zone. Credit: City of Berkeley

Many Berkeleyans don’t know whether they’re at risk for tsunamis, and schools and other facilities in the danger zone have not got procedures in place for evacuations, according to a city survey.

The city asked residents to weigh in after an evacuation order was issued on Dec. 5. Geologists and weather experts had warned that an earthquake off of Humboldt County might trigger a tsunami that could hit Berkeley. 

1,602 people responded to the survey. Some of the key takeaways were:

Many Berkeleyans don’t know if they’re in the inundation zone and, on Dec. 5, they evacuated from areas that would have been perfectly safe, in part because of inconsistent messaging from different agencies Some Berkeleyans did not understand that tsunamis can strike Berkeley “Critical facilities” in the inundation zone — schools and daycares, for example — have no plan or procedure in place for evacuation Berkeley’s outdoor warning system messages were too short The required evacuation resulted in “significant traffic jams”

Some of the confusion was the result of National Tsunami Warning Center alerts going to Berkeleyans outside the city’s inundation zone, according to a presentation Wednesday from the Office of Emergency Services to the Disaster & Fire Safety Commission.

Despite the confusion, Berkeley’s “response to the tsunami warning was swift, decisive and grounded in the state’s best practice guidance,” according to the presentation. Berkeley took greater lengths on evacuations than many surrounding cities on Dec. 5, citing state guidance on how far inland a tsunami could imperil the city. Emeryville, for example, said evacuation of low-lying areas was “optional.” 

Berkeley encourages residents to sign up for AC Alert and download the Genasys Protect app to access city-specific alerts and information.

In August, the city launched a new webpage with maps of all the different natural hazards Berkeley faces — wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, extreme heat, poor air quality, landslides, flooding and hazardous leaks — in one place, so residents and visitors can look up whether homes, businesses and other places they visit are at risk.

The city is planning a number of public-education programs throughout 2025 to teach Berkeleyans how dangerous a tsunami could be. Also this year, the city will look at how to shut down the off-ramps from Interstate 80 into Berkeley to try to alleviate some choke points for evacuation traffic. And it plans to partner with AC Transit and the Berkeley Unified School District to work out tsunami evacuation plans.

Geologists and the National Weather Service issue tsunami warnings any time there is an earthquake that reaches magnitude 7.0 or higher, since tsunamis travel hundreds of miles an hour and can cause swells more than a story high to reach land. And it’s not always immediately clear whether earthquakes are the sort that will touch off a tsunami.

While there was no impact on Berkeley from the December earthquake, in March 2011 an earthquake off Japan sent a half-meter surge into the Berkeley Marina, causing $158,000 worth of damage to boats and docks.