April is Tsunami Awareness Month in Hawaii and to aid in that effort, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency released a public service announcement with closed captioning in Japanese and Tagalog, the agency announced Thursday via press release.

HI-EMA released the colorful PSA last week and will air throughout April on KIKU TV, a television station that offers programming in Japanese and Tagalog. The PSA originally premiered last year with English and Hawaiian captioning. According to the news release, the 30-second spot highlights the need to understand tsunami warning signs.

“A landslide or earthquake in Hawaii could create a tsunami that arrives on our shores in just minutes, maybe even too quickly to sound sirens. That makes it vital that everyone — no matter what language they speak — knows the signs of a tsunami,” said Luke Meyers, HI-EMA administrator.

According to the news release, one in nine Hawaii residents has limited English proficiency, and these new multilingual PSAs provide greater access to vital preparedness information.

“The message of Tsunami Awareness Month is for all of us who live, work or play by the coastlines in the state,” Meyers continued. “Having readily available resources in languages other than English will help ensure that everyone has the tools they need to preserve live and protect property.”

The videos can be viewed at the HI-EMA website and YouTube Channel.

According to the International Tsunami Information Center website, April has been designated as Tsunami Awareness Month in Hawaii since the 1990s. On April 1, 1946, a tsunami resulting from an earthquake in the Aleutian islands hit the state, which was not equipped with a tsunami warning system at the time; 158 people died. The precursor to the present-day Tsunami Warning Center, the U.S. Seismic Sea Warning System, was established in 1949 in response to that deadly event.

Lianne Bidal Thompson is the digital producer for Spectrum News Hawaii. She writes about community and general news for Spectrum News Hawaii.