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The United Nations, through UN Resolution 70/203 adopted on 22 December 2015, has designated November 5 as World Tsunami Awareness Day. The day aligns with the International Day for Disaster Reduction (October 13) and the seven targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. 

November 5 is based on an anecdote and example of a good practice known in Japan as “Inamura-no-hi” (the burning of rice sheaves) which took place on the 5th of November 1854. It is based on a historical event that took place during a massive tsunami disaster that resulted from the 1854 Ansei Nankai Earthquake.

Japan proposed this date, because “World Tsunami Awareness Day,” is intended to serve to protect the precious lives of people, and thus it should be associated with an example of “traditional, indigenous and local knowledge and practices” such as “Inamura-no-hi.”

For 2019, World Tsunami Awareness Day is promoting Target (d) which focuses on reducing disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.

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One of the few coastal areas in Indonesia to evacuate ahead of the tsunami was Simeulue Island off the coast of Aceh very close to the earthquake source. Only 7 lives were lost out of a population of 78,000.Island oral folklore recounts an earthquake and tsunami in 1907, where the islanders fled to inland hills after the initial shaking and before the tsunami struck. Since then, elders have passed on Smong stories to the children: if they feel the ground shake, see the water recede then returning waters rush inland, they need to run to the hills.

On Maikhao beach in northern Phuket Thailand, Tilly Smith, a ten-year-old British schoolgirl, was with her family celebrating Christmas. She noticed a change in sea level and unusual sea activity -- Her mind kept going back to a geography lesson she had several weeks prior about tectonic plates and earthquakes under the sea. She got more and more hysterical and started screaming to get off the beach alerting her family and beach goers. Quickly her family and others took refuge on the third floor of their hotel. The hotel stood the surge from three tsunami waves!

Click on the following link to watch the Tilly Smith video: https://youtu.be/V0s2i7Cc7wA
Credit: ITIC and United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction

Today, under the auspices of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, there are warning systems in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, Caribbean and adjacent seas, and Mediterranean and North Atlantic. However, while national tsunami warning centers can issue warnings quickly, we know that they may not reach the public in time before the wave hits. Communication lines may go down, and a fast-moving tsunami can come ashore in minutes. For local tsunami, everyone must recognize and act to self-evacuate on the tsunami's natural warning signs.

Knowing and acting on these natural tsunami warning signs saved thousands of lives during
the 26 Dec 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 29 September 2009 South Pacific Tsunami,
and the 11 Japan 2011 Great East Japan Tsunami.