Tsunami Ready hotels in Sri Lanka

1. Introduction

Hotel is a part of the tourism industry that relies on guests/visitors and their relatives. However, most hotels in Sri Lanka, are located in tourist areas that are more and more exposed to Tsunami. Hotel guests, as tourists, usually are not familiar with the distance situations as vibrations are not felt in Sri Lankan land areas. Most of the times tourist are not aware of the nature and threat posed by the tsunami in that coastal area; thus the guess will not know what to do, and where to go if there is an emergency.

During an emergency they came to a situation where they need to rely on those who know more about the local situation. In this case the hotel staff and management will be the most reliable source for the guests for early warnings and evacuations timely. Therefore, capacity need to be enhanced in hotel sector for the part of their business operation in relation with the early warning reception, dissemination and safe evacuation.

Although tsunami events occur less frequent compared to other disasters, recent tsunami events in the Indian Ocean (2004); Indonesia (2004, 2006, and 2010); Chile (2010); and Japan (2011) have shown that the effects of tsunamis can be catastrophic. The first priority when a tsunami occurs is the evacuation of the people in the tsunami risk areas. The time span between a warning and the impact of the first tsunami wave might be 90 minutes to Sri Lanka. This will effect on the when, how, and where the people have to be evacuated.

Once a tsunami early warning is received (official warning by the DMC), hotels are responsible to assist and guide their guests for timely evacuation through safe evacuation routes or vertical evacuation. It is very important for the tsunami evacuation plans and procedures to be integrated as one of the hotel’s operational systems.

Historical records of past tsunamis, scientific trace of events, and written and/or oral reports, indicate a high certainty that another tsunami can happen in the future. It is not a matter of “if the tsunami will happen” but more of a question of “when the next tsunami will happen”. Since most tsunamis resulted from an earthquake activity, it is not possible to predict when the next tsunami will happen. For this reason, tsunami readiness is the key for people to be able to respond to and recover from when the tsunami strikes again.

2. Hotel Preparedness

In general, hotel business has been characterized as business that has solid and consistent operating procedures and systems. Most hotels have established their emergency response system, especially to fire hazards. Therefore, building the tsunami readiness should be embedded into the existing system. However, it still will require different adjustment and adaptation considering the complexity of tsunami hazard.

3. Objective of the Tsunami Ready Hotel concept

The objectives consist of six categories and in each category there are sets of questions to be answer to assess the current tsunami readiness,

• Information Sources and Interpretation, is to check the hotel’s capacity to receive official

tsunami warnings from the authority, interpret the warnings, and to disseminate the warning within the hotel.

• Evacuation Procedures, is to check the hotel’s evacuation procedures from rooms, beach, and public places within the hotel.
• Evacuation Route and Shelters, is to check the hotel’s evacuation route and signs, including the hotel as vertical evacuation.
• Community Relations, is to check external relations with the communities surrounding the hotel.
• Cooperation, is to check the cooperation amongst hotels in the surrounding area.
• Post Tsunami, is to check all of the preparation that needs to be considered post tsunami

disaster.

Once the hotel knows their current state of tsunami preparedness, the hotel can start to build their capacity to increase their tsunami preparedness. These are essential points the hotel needs to build in relation with the tsunami preparedness:

• Early warning systems: Hotels should be able to timely receive the warning, especially official warnings, have the ability to understand the warning, and are able to further disseminate the warning to reach all part of the hotel. All hotel guests, visitors, and staff need to be able to hear and receive the warning. To receive the warning, the hotels need to have a close cooperation with the national authorities who are responsible, at national level, for issuing the warning.

Evacuation and Shelter: This should be the primary concern of hotels, especially considering guest and visitors are considered vulnerable since they might not be familiar with the local situation. The hotel has to make sure that all guests, visitors, and staff could be safely evacuated to a designated safe area. Furthermore, taking into consideration that the hotel might be fully occupied, the safe area should be able to accommodate all evacuate. The hotel needs to assess if their building can be considered as vertical evacuation building (meeting all the criteria and standards) or not – in which they have to evacuate all guests, visitors, and staff out of the hotel premises.

• Emergency Command Function: In case of emergency hotels should have clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. Each hotel unit / department should have a clear defined function what they have to do, who will do what and where, and whom they have to report to.
• Emergency Personnel and Resources: Hotels need to have procedures to mobilize staffs as emergency personnel with specific roles and ensure that all emergency response is carried out according to plan. Hotels need to ensure that the emergency personnel have the knowledge and skill to perform their duties as emergency personnel. Hotels also need to have all resources needed for emergency and during emergency is available at any time.
• Communication and supplies: Public infrastructure might be paralyzed for several days after the disaster, communication may be cut off. Hotels need to make sure they have emergency communication equipment available, in working condition, and at hand, during and after the disaster, for example satellite phones. Past experience also shows that, in some cases, emergency supplies (water, food, and medical) can take several days before they can get through. Hotels need to ensure that they will have supplies to support them during emergency situation.
• External Coordination: The hotels need to coordinate with local administration and disaster management office (DMC) in developing the hotel’s evacuation plan and emergency response. Check the local DMC post tsunami emergency plans and make the hotel’s emergency plan based on the DMC’s capacity. Form alliance with other hotel and businesses in the area to have better coordination and cooperation and develop common strategy in responding to the disaster.
• Close Down Procedure: Most hotels might already have this Close Down Procedures such as for fire related emergency, weather related emergency, and others. These procedures could be adapted for tsunami emergency. However, it is important to understand that in tsunami emergency, there might by only little time available, especially for the 11 Tsunami threat in each country are different, therefore, the setting of the tsunami early warning is different from one country to another. There are countries that have a National Tsunami Early Warning Centre with the capacity to detect, analyses, and issue warning when a tsunami is coming to their coastline. Other country, which has lower tsunami threat, might rely on information from the Tsunami Watch Providers (TWPs). These settings will affect the time line of how long they will be able to issue the warning. Therefore, hotels need to understand the tsunami early warning setting in their country to decide on their evacuation strategy. There are three basic possible scenarios that can be taken as a consideration to decide whether guests, visitors, and staff need to do an evacuation:

Earthquake is felt in the hotel area and a tsunami warning is issued.

• Tsunami warning is issued, although the earthquake is not felt in the hotel area. These situations would require different decisions and actions by the hotel, especially if related to tsunami evacuation procedures.
• Earthquake is felt in the hotel area, but no tsunami warning is issued Hotels located in an earthquake prone area might feel the earth shakes as it happened. The hotel management needs to decide whether to evacuate the guests from the building or not. Depending on the intensity of the earthquake felt in the hotel area, the hotel management might want to decide to evacuate all guests, visitors and staff once the shaking stops. The hotel has to decide on which earthquake intensity strength they would like to do evacuation Strategy Hotel management also has to understand that an earthquake can be a natural sign of a tsunami. There is also a possibility that the official warning mechanism did not work because of the earthquake. Therefore, even there is no official tsunami warning received, hotel management might still need to consider doing tsunami evacuation procedures. Therefore, it is important to concentrate on the essentials and/ or have specific procedures for tsunami emergency.
• Records of the Hotels needs to ensure that all important documents and records are well secured during emergency. Guests hotel records will be very important for post emergency response and reliefs as well as to make sure all people are accounted.
• Restoring main functions and plan for recovery: Hotels have to have plans on restoring their main function (water, sanitary, electricity, and communication) for emergency use after the disaster and have a short and midterm plan to recover from the disaster.

4. Hotel Association in Sri Lanka.

Main objective of the hotel association is to promote and foster tourism and the tourist hotel industry in Sri Lanka for the promotion of commerce and economic development of Sri Lanka.

5. Current early warning Mechanism in Sri Lanka

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed the lives of 35000 of Sri Lankan people and displaced one in twenty has highlighted the critical importance of an effective National Early Warning System for Sri Lanka (NEWS:SL). Meeting this need, which has been discussed after each of our too frequent disasters such as the cyclones of 1978 and the floods of 2003, can no longer be postponed. Public warning is a system, the identification, detection and risk assessment of a hazard, the accurate identification of the vulnerability of a population at risk and finally the communication of information to the vulnerable population about the threat in sufficient time and clarity so that they take action to avert negative consequences constitute the system of public warning. Warning allows people to act in order to prevent hazards from becoming disasters. Effective public warning saves lives, reduces economic loss, reduces trauma and disruption in society and instils confidence and a sense of security in the public. It is an important component of the foundation of a sound economy. Recognizing that effective warning is just one of the critical parts of a comprehensive risk management system that includes mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Warning is a crucial component of the overall risk management system that failed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

DMC will be the main focal point responsible for coordinating early warning, along with the relevant technical agencies and Technical Committees, its dissemination and for ensuring last mile dissemination of same. The Emergency Operations Centre of the DMC will be in constant coordination with all technical agencies responsible for natural and man-made hazards and in instances of any imminent disaster it will take action to inform the responsible officers for onward communication to the sub-national levels and communities. DMC has established an effective early warning system for disasters – natural, technological and man-made – through the Emergency operation Centre of the DMC. Priority will be given for those disasters, such as riverine floods, landslides, flash floods, tropical cyclones, storm/sea surges etc. At the same time for rarer but very destructive hazards such as tsunami, systems are in place. Methods of obtaining information about impending disaster events and issuing early warnings would vary from one hazard to another due to different characteristics of different hazards. With respect to local hazards such as floods and landslides, local systems already available will be strengthened. For other hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, adverse weather conditions and cyclones the relevant agencies will work in constant coordination with the respective regional and international warning centers. The National Policy on Disaster Management (the ‘Policy’) is a core component of Sri Lanka’s national regime for disaster management. It articulates agreed overarching principles and preferred outcomes for disaster management in Sri Lanka. It also provides policy directives to address the issues such as inadequate coordination among stakeholder agencies, duplication of efforts and insufficient policy directives to reduce the human and economic impacts of disasters which were identified in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami and the other recent disaster situations. The Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act No.13 of 2005 is the main legal document for disaster management in Sri Lanka and it was enacted in July 2005 which provides the legal basis for instituting a disaster risk management system in the country. The National Council for Disaster Management (NCDM) is a high-level policy making body for safe the country from any calamities. The chairman and vice chairman of the NCDM is H.E. The President and Hon Prime Minister respectively. Other members are Leader of the Opposition, Ministers in charge of 20 selected subject areas, Provincial Council Chief Ministers and five members of the Opposition. The Act also provides for establishing the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) under the Council to be the apex body for the purpose of planning, co-coordinating and implementing of certain natural and other forms of disasters.

5.1 Key Responsibilities of the EW system in Sri Lanka

Early warning mechanism in Disaster Management is a combination of tools and processes embedded within institutional structures, coordinated by national and international agencies. Whether it is focusing on one particular hazard or many, the mechanism comprises knowledge of the risk, a technical monitoring and warning.

• Maintaining and operating Early Warning Towers and other early warning dissemination equipment.
• Dissemination of Early Warning Messages and ensure the receipt at remote vulnerable villagers.
• Co-ordination of donor assistance to strengthen capacity of technical agencies for early warning.
• Working out strategy and policy in the given area of activity.
• Initiating awareness on activities related to early warning among the various agencies and public.
• Guiding District Disaster Management Units in coordinating and implementing warning dissemination related activities in the Province, district, Local Authority, Division, Grama Niladhari and community levels.

DMC will be the focal point responsible for coordinating early warning, along with the relevant technical agencies and Technical Committees, its dissemination and for ensuring last mile dissemination. The Emergency Operations Centre of the DMC will be in constant coordination with all technical agencies responsible for natural and man-made hazards and in instances of any imminent disaster it will take action to create awareness among the people at risk. DMC has established efficient systems to receive early warning and alert messages from different national technical agencies.

DMC will be the main focal point responsible for coordinating early warnings. Along with the relevant technical agencies/Technical Committees. Disaster Management Centre has to ensure last mile early warning dissemination up to the grass root level. The Emergency Operations Centre of the DMC will be in constant coordination with all technical agencies responsible for natural and man-made hazards and in instances of any imminent disasters. It will take action to inform the responsible officers for onward communication to the sub-national levels and communities. DMC has established an effective early warning system for disasters – natural, technological and man-made – through the Emergency operation Centre of the DMC. Priority will be given for those disasters, such as tsunami, floods, landslides, tropical cyclones, storm/sea surges etc. Methods of obtaining information about impending disaster events and issuing early warnings would vary from one hazard to another due to different characteristics of different hazards. With respect to local hazards such as floods and landslides, local systems already available will be strengthened. For other hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, adverse weather conditions and cyclones the relevant agencies will work in constant coordination with the respective regional and international warning centers.

Technical Institutions Responsible for Forecasting and Issuing Warning Alerts for Different Hazards; and their Roles and Responsibilities. At present in Sri Lanka, there are several agencies to handle issues related to different hazards / disasters mentioned above. For most of the disasters, there is a government institution legally mandated to monitor the disasters which fall within their expertise. For example, Department of Meteorology is responsible for weather related disasters such as tropical cyclones and tsunami, while Irrigation Department is responsible for river floods. The present system of communication from national level to district / divisional / local authority / Grama Niladhari levels or other specific identified locations is mainly through the Police and military communication systems, radio communication, multi-hazard early warning towers, media and the normal telephone systems. Alternative countrywide communication systems already been established and with these improvements. DMC ensure that there will be a mechanism to inform the vulnerable communities immediately. These include the Nation-wide Emergency Communication System, which will be used to provide information on impending disasters, Inundated areas, closure of roads, safe areas etc. Early warning messages are based on different stages which include “Alert, Warning, Evacuation order, Withdrawals and Stand down” as defined below.

1. Alert: Initial messages to the vulnerable communities /relevant authorities – Potential of a disaster.
2. Warning: A message to warn vulnerable communities of impending disasters to take appropriate action.

• Evacuation order: Order to the vulnerable communities to evacuate to a safer location.

1. Withdrawal: Cancellation of the warning messages.
2. Stand down: Once the threat is over, communities are informed to return to normalcy. A comprehensive Early Warning (EW) system is established for effective issuing of EW of an impending disaster at national and sub-national levels down to the last mile where vulnerable communities are. Dissemination of warning from national level to the grassroots level is divided into four layers, namely, National, District, Divisional and GN Level. The Emergency Operation Center (EOC) of the DMC receives the EW message from International and Regional Technical Agencies. A national level EW message is disseminated to the emergency response committees and their responsibility is to pass the messages to their own organizations. District level EW is disseminated through District Disaster Management Centre Units (DDMCU) to the District Secretariat and stakeholder agencies and also to the political authority. Divisional level EW messages are disseminated to the divisional secretariat from DDMCUs. Divisional secretariat will disseminate the message to political authority, S & R teams, Police and district stakeholders. At the same time that the EW is disseminated to the local authorities they will pass the message to the vulnerable community. GN level EW message is disseminated to the vulnerable community by last mile communication tools. According to the EW framework, when there is an impending disaster, the technical agency responsible for the given hazard determines the scale of the disaster and the decision is conveyed to the Ministry of Disaster Management and the Emergency Operation Centre of the Disaster Management Centre. The technical agency may receive hazard alerts from its own in-country monitoring facilities/ mechanisms or international EW agencies. The vulnerable community itself could also be a source of information to the technical agency regarding an impending disaster. The technical agency or the first respondent is different for different hazard.

6. Hotel Evacuation Process

Determining Evacuation Areas in Hotel Premises

• On hotel a ground Open spaces in the hotel premises, which are located on a higher ground above the estimated tsunami inundation depth, are potential to be tsunami evacuation areas. The advantages of using these open spaces as a tsunami evacuation area are as follows:
• Open spaces can be easily accessed by hotel guests or visitors. Furthermore, if an earthquake

happens in the area, many people (especially hotel guests) might be reluctant to reenter the

hotel building again.

• Open space at a higher ground level can accommodate a large number of people.
• Open space can be use as park, sport area, and/or jogging area.
• Open space in the hotel premises can be a safe evacuation process (no traffic and transportation is involved).

The main consideration for hotel ground/open space as an evacuation area is that the location

does not directly face the beach/open sea where the tsunami wave will approach. In addition of

a higher ground location the evacuation area also should be well covered and be saved from

incoming wave as well as retracting waves.

Some modifications might be needed to designate an open space as an evacuation area:

• Ensure that the open space is on a higher ground, above the inundation area and can
• withstand potential damage and/or erosion from the tsunami wave and the debris it carried.
• Ensure there are clear access during day time and night time.
• Ensure the safety and security of the people in this area during and after the tsunami strikes.
• Ensure all the necessary equipment needed for emergency are available on the evacuation area

6.2. On parking garage

Some hotels do not have open spaces on their premises, however there are parking garage/building adjacent to their hotel. Parking garages are usually open space with vertical column as the structure. This allows for the water to flow over the building with minimal resistance. The parking garage should be designed and be built in accordance to the seismic standard and building codes and could withstand the tsunami wave and the debris it carried. The main disadvantage of a parking garage is when it is full of cars during the tsunami: it reduces the space, limits people circulation area and the cars can be a part of the destructing debris to the building structure.

6.3 Inside Hotel building Evacuating vertically in the hotel has many advantages:

• Evacuating to the upper floor in the hotel often is faster than evacuating to a higher ground

outside of the hotel.

• Evacuating within the hotel do not need vehicles therefore it is not affected by the traffic
• Evacuation management will be easier
• Evacuation routes and places are easy to mark However, before deciding to use the hotel building as tsunami vertical evacuation building, the hotel has to make sure that:
• The hotel has to withstand earthquake with minimal damages and can stand tsunami wave and debris carried by the water.
• The evacuation location in the building should be as far as possible from the beach and are secured from the incoming tsunami waves.
• The building must be strong, accessible in a short time and have enough capacity to accommodate all evacuees.
• The evacuation location/floor should be higher than the estimated tsunami inundation depth.
• The evacuation building should have the necessary equipment and infrastructure for emergency situation, wide enough emergency stairs, emergency electricity, and other requirements.

6.4 Evacuation out of the hotel premises

Saving lives of the hotel guests, visitors, and staff should be the main concern of the hotel. If the

hotel is not qualified as a tsunami vertical evacuation building and there are no higher grounds in

the premises of the hotel, the hotel should consider evacuating all of the people out of the hotel

premises to higher ground or to a designated evacuation area. Evacuating out of the premises would require a more thoughtful steps and procedures such as considering the traffic, security, and the safety of the people:

• The evacuation area should be out of reach of the tsunami waves either for horizontal or vertical

evacuation. The evacuation area should consider the maximal expected wave height, the

inundation area and inundation depth.

• The evacuation routes are free from the wave’s path and are leading away from the incoming

waves. If the evacuation area is out of the hotel premises, the evacuation routes should

consider the traffic, road conditions and other obstacles that will affect the travel time needed to

reach the evacuation area.

• The evacuation area should be able to accommodate the expected number of people that are

supposed to use the evacuation area. The hotel needs to ensure that the hotel’s number of

guests can be accommodating in the evacuation area. If it is a public evacuation area the hotel

Guide to Tsunamis for Hotel need to take into account the number of people from other hotels, the community and people from the streets

• The evacuation area should be reachable and can accommodate people with special needs

(disabled, pregnant woman or parent with babies, and the elderly).

• The hotel needs to consider the time between the warning is issued and the time of the arrival

of the first wave, the hotel needs to make sure that people can reach the evacuation area

could be reach in time.

• The tsunami evacuation area could be an assembly place during the tsunami and/or could be

an emergency shelter for a longer period of time.

6.5. Vertical evacuation structures

Hotels that are not qualified as a vertical evacuation building and are located in flat areas that are

far away from higher grounds might want to consider to build a stand alone, simple and strong

vertical evacuation structure. A vertical evacuation structure could be made of steel structure or

concrete columns that are strong enough to withstand the tsunami wave. The hotels need to make

sure that the evacuation structure can accommodate all the people in the hotel when the tsunami

strikes.

Pradeep Kodippili

[Mr. Pradeep Kodippili BSc-Special (Honours) degree in Agriculture from the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka and his MSc in Disaster Management, from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and conducting the PhD in University of Huddersfield-UK he further completed the Diploma course conducted by the FEMA and US Government.

Mr. Pradeep Kodippili is wworking as the Director (Training and Awareness) and the Media Spokesperson at   Disaster Management Centre for 16 years, Sri Lanka and also Visiting Lecturer for the MSc in Disaster Management and Analysis in the University of Colombo (IHRA) – Providing lectures on the Disaster Preparedness, Early Warning and Emergency Operations and modelling, Rehearsals and Evaluation and Media Management in Disaster situations. for the MSc students in the University of Colombo, further, Visiting Lecturer for the MSc in Disaster Management and Analysis in the Kothalawala Defence University in Rathmalana – Colombo. Providing the lectures on the Emergency Communication in Disasters. He obtained more than 25-year experience in local and foreign countries and obtained various experiences in many sectors.]

7. References

• The Tsunami Ready Toolbox, Alexander Kesper, Ministry of Culture and Tourism Republic of Indonesia, Bali Hotels Association, Centrum fur International Migration und 2008
• Strong Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea; A Re-evaluation; Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos and Anna Fokaefs, Institute of Geodynamics,
• National Observatory of Athens, Athens-11810, Greece. ISET Journal of Earthquake Technology, Paper No. 463, Vol. 42, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 159-170
• Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the Sri Lanka, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas, NEAMTWS, Implementation Plan (Third Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas, NEAMTWS), IOC Technical Series No. 73. UNESCO 2007. (Electronic copy, English only)
• Tsunami risk assessment and mitigation for the Indian Ocean: Knowing your tsunami risk – and what to do about it, IOC Manual and Guides no. 52, Paris: UNESCO, 2009 (English)
• Tsunami Preparedness Information Guide for Disaster Planners, IOC Manual and Guides no. 49, Paris: UNESCO, 2009 (English)Newsletter / ICHARM — The International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management, Issue No.6, http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/publication/newsletter/newsletter6_oct07_e.html
• Tsunami Evacuation Plan for Kelurahan Kuta, Bali, A Documentation of the Process and Result of Tsunami Evacuation Planning, District Government of Badung, Bali Hotel Association, Indonesian Red Cross – Bali Chapter, GTZ IS – GITEWS, 2010
• Handbook of Tsunami Evacuation Planning, S. Scheer et.al, JRC Scientific and Technical Reports, 2011Disaster Risk Reduction, A Toolkit for Tourism Destination, Practical Examples from Coastal Settlements in ASIA, United Nations Environment Programme, 2008
• Vertical Evacuation from Tsunamis: A guide for Community Official, FENA P646A / June 2009Queensland Evacuation Guidelines for Disaster Management Group, Queensland Government, 2010ISO standard on beach safety flags and water safety signs for an accident-free summer, Ref.: 1147, News and media News 2008.
• dmc.gov.lk