NEW HANOVER COUNTY -- Among the different warnings posted at Wrightsville Beach, there's a tsunami zone sign.

"The probability of it happening is extremely low, but the impact can be significantly high," said Steve Pfaff, with the National Weather Service.

Pfaff said there's evidence of what's known as submarine landslides off the North Carolina coast. These underwater features are the second most common source of tsunamis for the East Coast. 

"It's not a matter of if, it's when," said Pfaff.

That explains why the National Weather Service in Wilmington partnered with emergency responders in Pender County all the way down to Georgetown County, South Carolina to participate in the Western Atlantic Tsunami Exercise for the Southeast United States.

"There is an earthquake that has occurred off the east coast of Florida that has likely generated a tsunami," said Pfaff over the phone. Multiple calls went out to various response agencies.

"Not all the time in an emergency you can get a hold of who you need to get a hold of which is why redundancy in our procedures is so important," said Pfaff.

He said in this scenario, ocean rescue at Wrightsville Beach would be dealing with one to two foot waves rolling in at 40 mph.

"Certainly people could be washed away, sucked out to sea by waves like that," said Wrightsville Beach Fire Chief Frank Smith. But he added, at most, people would just have to leave the beach not the island.

"We don't want to project the wrong message that people have to evacuate the town because obviously that would cause much bigger problems," said Chief Smith.

Pfaff said the exercises help flush out those critical communication details. 

'We have a few hours to prepare for it, but if the public is not educated about this threat. I f there is no planning that our responders have in place to act upon, then certainly we would be caught off guard," said Pfaff. 

Overall the National Weather Service said the exercise was a success.

Another drill is planned for the Caribbean later this year.