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• An 18 -foot rogue wave flooded the parked cars of <br />sunbathers on Daytona Beach without warning in <br />1992. This event, called a meteorological tsunami <br />(or meteotsunami), was a tsunami -like wave <br />phenomenon of meteorological origin. Tsunamis <br />and meteotsunamis propagate in the water in the <br />same way and have the same coastal dynamics. <br />For an observer on the coast where it strikes, the <br />two types would look the same and have the <br />same impacts. Research is currently underway to <br />better understand these events, with the goal of <br />developing a protocol for issuing meteotsunami <br />warnings along the U.S. coast. <br />Extent. Due to the low probability of occurrence, this hazard <br />will not be fully profiled. <br />Vulnerability Assessment. Tsunami events occur most often <br />in the Pacific Ocean, but they are a global phenomenon and all <br />are potentially dangerous, though they may not damage every <br />coastline they strike. Analyzing the past 150 years of tsunami <br />records shows that the most frequent and destructive tsunamis <br />to affect the U.S. have occurred along the coasts of California, <br />Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. <br />However, the State of Florida is located within the Caribbean <br />area, and over the past 156 years, the Caribbean has <br />experienced more total tsunami events, which have ultimately <br />resulted in over 2,500 deaths. Overall, Florida has experienced <br />few destructive tsunami or rogue wave events, but there were <br />several small events. <br />In 2012, The National Weather Service designated Indian <br />River County as the first county in the state of Florida to be <br />named TsunamiReady. The TsunamiReady program <br />encourages communities to take a proactive approach to <br />developing and implementing local tsunami plans and <br />expanding public awareness in partnership with their local <br />National Weather Service office. Although the chances of a <br />tsunami impacting the east coast of Florida are extremely <br />remote, computer modeling for a large tsunami originating from <br />the Puerto Rico trench could inundate Indian River County <br />beaches. The most significant impact of a tsunami would be <br />Indian River County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan Basic Page 58 <br />