Public Safety

Coastal San Diego Prepares For Potential Tsunamis

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published January 12, 2010 at 10:13 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

A tsunami evacuation route sign near Mission Beach.

Coastal San Diego Prepares For Potential Tsunamis

Tsunami hazard warning signs are now posted in several San Diego coastal neighborhoods. The signs are part of a county and city effort to prepare for the seismically-generated waves.

The city of San Diego plans to spend as much as $150,000 in grant money from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to prepare coastal areas for tsunamis.

The City of San Diego has 26 miles of oceanfront and 27 miles of shoreline along Mission Bay.

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The money will pay for the posting and maintenance of tsunami warning signs, public education to increase tsunami readiness, and training and exercises for emergency first responders.

Tsunami hazard signs are already posted in coastal areas of the city including Mission Beach. The signs direct people to follow evacuation routes to higher ground in case of a tsunami.

There are more than 20 million beach visitors annually and approximately 53,000 full-time residents who would be within potential tsunami inundation areas.

The County of San Diego Office of Emergency Services and the City of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department both have tsunami action plans in place.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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