In February, the community of Ostional, Costa Rica on the Nicoya Peninsula in the northern Guanacaste province carried out a tsunami evacuation drill.

This was the first time such a drill has been carried out in Costa Rica.

Ostional is home to the Ostional Wildlife Refuge, which the World Wildlife Fund considers “one of the two most important nesting areas in the world for Olive Ridley turtles,” according to information on Wikipedia.

The community of Ostional designed the evacuation drill based on materials provided by the International Tsumani Information Center’s (ITIC) Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Plans, and Procedures Project (known in meteorology circles as TEMPP).

ITIC is a joint partnership of United States National Weather Service and the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

The coastal community of Ostional received assistance on the ground with evacuation maps created by the National University’s Sea Level Observing Network for Central America (RONMAC-UNA, its initials in Spanish); the Costa Rican National Emergency Commission also aided in preparing the evacuation drill.

RONMAC-UNA manages a tide gauge network in Costa Rican. Tide gauges for monitoring sea levels are currently operating in the waters off Quepos and Herradura – both on the central Pacific coast, Papagayo – on the northern Pacific coast, and Limón – on the Caribbean coast

The network provides tide forecasts for Costa Rica’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and undertakes research on coastal threats. Their current research focus is on tsunamis and riptides.

Tsunamis are a rare natural disaster that can cause many deaths in one single event, whereas virtually omnipresent riptides (known as “corrientes de resacas” in Spanish) are responsible for the death of on average one person per week in Costa Rica, said the network.

Since the devastating M9.3 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami in December 2004 that killed nearly 230,000, both the ITIC together with the U.S. Richard H. Hagemeyer Pacific Tsunami Warning Center have been involved in supporting the establishment of a Global Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System that covers the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, as well as the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. The ITIC maintains and develops relationships with intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, the scientific community, local authorities and the general public to support preventive actions and plans.

The Ostional Wildlife Refuge is a 85.7 km² (33.1 sq mi)^[1] Wildlife refuge of Costa Rica, part of the Tempisque Conservation Area, was originally declared a protected area in 1982, and its status has been changed several times since then, including covering a larger area both on land and out to sea. It was created to protect important nesting beaches of the Olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea).