Guidelines for ship evacuation from a tsunami attack

Earthquakes have continuously occurred along the Nankai trough off Kii Peninsula for more than 1000 years. The tsunamis that are generated by these earthquakes, and reach Osaka Bay within approximately one hour of the earthquake. A tsunami causes the slow phenomenon of coming and going of the horizontal water flow, and the rise and descent of the water level. Many oil-related facilities, power plants and petrochemical complexes are located in the landfill area along the Osaka Bay coast, and many cargo vessels transporting hazardous materials navigate the bay. Such ships should be moved outside the port area in the event of an earthquake and a tsunami is expected. However, specific procedures for such evacuation measures have not been developed. In this study, evacuation guidelines for an LNG carrier, representative of a hazardous cargo carrier, were considered in the case of the ship entering Sakai Senboku Port, where many power plants and chemical complexes are located.