2020-209 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Southwest Florida around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 20, 2018. The temperatures dropped nearly 10 degrees and the barometric pressure momentarily rose by 1.6 millibars. The wave heights, which were projected to be around 1.7 feet at 1:30 p.m., reached 5.04 feet before decreasing rapidly over the next hour and sent the surf rushing up beach access walkways. Wind gusts measured by the National Weather Service spiked at 54 mph as a storm brought heavy rains and tornado warnings to the Naples area. This meteotsunami, fortunately, did not cause any significant flooding. Extent. Due to the low probability of occurrence, this hazard will not be fully profiled. Vulnerability Assessment. Tsunami events occur most often in the Pacific Ocean, but they are a global phenomenon and all are potentially dangerous, though they may not damage every coastline they strike. Analyzing the past 150 years of tsunami records shows that the most frequent and destructive tsunamis to affect the U.S. have occurred along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. However, the State of Florida is located within the Caribbean area, and over the past 156 years, the Caribbean has experienced more total tsunami events, which have ultimately resulted in over 2,500 deaths. Overall, Florida has experienced few destructive tsunami or rogue wave events, but there were several small events. In 2012, The National Weather Service designated Indian River County as the first county in the state of Florida to be named TsunamiReady. The TsunamiReady program encourages communities to take a proactive approach to developing and implementing local tsunami plans and expanding public awareness in partnership with their local National Weather Service office. Although the chances of a tsunami impacting the east coast of Florida are extremely remote, computer modeling for a large tsunami originating from the Puerto Rico trench could inundate Indian River County beaches. The most significant impact of a tsunami would be strong waves in a 300 -foot danger zone, which is the area east of AM Beaches would be evacuated and residents living Indian River County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan Basic Page 63