Nine departments in south of France prepare for practice tsunami alert

[Updated 13:00 November 2: the tsunami exercise has been cancelled due to bad weather]

Nine departments on the Mediterranean coast are preparing for a simulated tsunami exercise that will let authorities test their text message alert system and see how well people react to it.

The exercise will take place between 10:00 and 10:30 on Friday, November 3 in all nine of the departments on the Mediterranean coast: Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Hérault, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.

The main purpose of the exercise is to see if the text message alert system works. People in the test areas are not expected to do anything other than confirm that they have received the alerts.

The Fr-Alert text message system, set up in 2022, allows the authorities to warn people of imminent dangers. It can make mobile phones ring even if their owners have put them on silent mode.

The authorities also hope the exercise will raise awareness about the potential danger of tsunamis and allow people to think about how best to react.

Read more: Will France’s FR-Alert warning system work with foreign phones?

What will happen in the tsunami exercise?

People in communes on the seafront will receive two emergency text messages starting at 10:00 on Friday, November 3 via FR-alert.

The first message will inform them of the alert and include a link for people to confirm that they have received it.

The second message will include a link to a questionnaire about the experience.

The authorities will then analyse this data.

It is not the first time that such an exercise has taken place this year.

Read more:

Tsunami simulation exercise to take place in south of France

Relief as tsunami alert in southern France turns out to be a mistake

Could a real tsunami happen in France?

Authorities believe that tsunamis represent a real, albeit by no means imminent, danger to French coasts.

According to a Unesco report from 2022, there is “almost a 100% chance of a one metre high tsunami wave in the Mediterranean within the next 30 years.”

Indeed, the risk posed by seismic activity was brought home on June 16 as a magnitude 5 earthquake struck Niort in western France.

Read more: Strong aftershock in western France after magnitude 5 earthquake

The risk is much higher in France’s overseas departments such as Réunion, which was struck by the cataclysmic tsunami of December 26, 2004.

In Réunion it only resulted in material damage. However the same tsunami caused over 200,000 deaths in Indonesia and Thailand.

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