April 1 Marks Start of Tsunami Awareness Month in Hawaiʻi

One of several boats that sank at Māʻalaea Harbor following one of the tsunami surges, resulting from the March 11, 2011 Japan earthquake. File photo by Sonia Isotov.

The Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency launches its observance of Tsunami Awareness Month tomorrow, April 1, with evacuation drills and presentations.

The department of education, which has 24 public schools statewide located in tsunami evacuation zones, will be participating in the observance with a drill at Jefferson Elementary School in Waikiki.

April 1, 2016, marks the 70th anniversary of a 1946 tsunami that claimed 159 lives and caused widespread damage in Hawaiʻi following an undersea earthquake off Alaska.