Madeira will participate in a joint exercise, this Wednesday, which intends to link the Portuguese civil protection entities to their counterparts in several countries, in case of tsunami alert, testing the speed of reaction in a real situation.
The NEAMWAVE’21 exercise focuses on the communications that would be necessary in the event of an “earthquake responsible for generating a tsunami with an impact on the Portuguese coast”.
From Portugal, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), the Navy, coastal fire brigades and towns in the estuary of rivers, the Azores and Madeira, as well as others, will be called upon to interven by members with responsibility for relief operations.
Between 8:30 am and 2 pm, the IPMA will be in contact with emergency management groups from countries such as Morocco, Spain, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Germany or Ireland, serving as a Tsunami Alert Center.
After the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 200,000 people in several countries, an alert and warning system was created in the Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean and Connected Seas region.
Within this scope, tsunami warning centers operate in Portugal, France, Italy, Turkey and Greece.