Though tsunamis are infrequent, the death toll from tsunamis is huge compared with other natural disasters.
The 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami resulted in disastrous loss of life and property. The major
challenge with tsunamis is that they are infrequent, which requires great persistence in sustaining the process of capacity building and preparedness. Because of this infrequency, instruction through tsunami mock drills is the best way to train coastal communities to prepare for devastating actual events. The situational awareness
and ability to respond quickly is best achieved through pre-event education and mock drills. The Tsunami mock drills evaluates the ability of warning centre and disaster offices to respond to a tsunami. The drills also
educate the public on: where they would receive the official warnings, by which means, what those warnings
indicate, how to understand them, and what they need to do in response. INCOIS in collaboration with MHA and NDMA has conducted mega mock tsunami mock drill on 24
November, 2017 to East coast of India. Disaster Management Organisations of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal participated in the drill. They took the drill to community level and executed evacuations at different villages. The average elapsed time achieved from time of receipt of warning to activating the public notification systems was 30 minutes. This is great achievement compared with previous mock drills as it has substantially improved, though the
involvement of communities was at huge level. The Tsunami mock drill was very successful which enhanced the awareness and preparedness among the coastal people of East Coast of Indi
