While the island was spared from a tsunami triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia, yesterday’s events begs the question ‘How tsunami ready is Guam?’ If Wednesday’s advisory had escalated to a warning, would all alert sirens be ready to go and would the community be prepared to respond?

The community was put on alert for more than eight hours mid-week following the massive quake, with the local tsunami advisory canceled by 6:40pm. No damage was reported on Thursday.

Guam Homeland Security and Office of Civil Defense public information officer Jenna Blas said, "Through yesterday’s response, we did receive confirmation from the National Weather Service that there were wave records of about up to one foot. I don’t have the exact locations, but I know that we’ll do assessments after this of what that looked like for the island."

But how ready is Guam if a tsunami actually hits? "That’s something that we ask ourselves as well. We have a very robust tsunami outreach initiative where we try to reach community members and try to teach them more about tsunami preparedness and awareness," she said.

"We didn’t see how we would have operated if we had moved up to a tsunami warning, but we were prepared to take initiative if we did move up to a tsunami warning."

Blas says a common misconception is that destructive tsunamis are not a threat to Guam because of the Marianas Trench and reefs. "That’s one of the biggest misconceptions that we hear. Oftentimes, when we do our community outreach, we let them know that our partners at the National Weather Service have explained in detail how it can still happen here. A destructive tsunami can still happen," Blas said.

That’s why preparedness and awareness is paramount. There are evacuation route signs installed throughout the island that should be followed to higher ground. Plus, hazard sirens are ready to alert the community.

"From our last report, 23 out of 24 were operational," she stated. "We test them every month, that way we can see what areas need to be improved and what areas need to be worked on."

"Whether or not you’re able to hear the verbiage, sometimes people are unable to hear the exact note being issued. It’s important to tune into other modes of communication. We would utilize all in the case of an actual emergency, to include radio, media and our social media. Sot it’s important when you hear a siren, you tune in to local news," she said.

Overall, she says Guam's response was evident in all of the action taken across the island Wednesday, from local, military and federal partners, to ensure people stayed away from the beaches and remained out of the water. "We really thank the community for heeding the advice and warnings," she said.

In the meantime, she adds September is National Preparedness Month, a perfect time to review your response plans for all emergencies, from tsunamis, typhoons to earthquakes.

You can always visit ghs.guam.gov for more.