If you live near Camano Island’s shoreline, work by the water or have a favorite beach, include that place in your emergency planning. Know whether it is in a tsunami hazard area and where you would go to leave it.
Washington Emergency Management’s tsunami guidance applies to Puget Sound and the Salish Sea as well as the outer coast. The useful starting point is your particular location, rather than a town name or a general idea of how close you are to the water.
Start with the maps for the places you use
Island County’s tsunami page links official inundation maps for north Camano and south Camano, along with its local mapping resources. Washington’s tsunami map resource page provides access to state mapping, including the Geologic Information Portal.
An inundation map shows modeled flooding; an evacuation map may also identify routes and assembly areas, according to the National Weather Service. Use that distinction when planning how to leave a hazard area.
Check the home, workplace or beach you actually use. Where an official evacuation map is available, learn its routes ahead of time. Where one is unavailable, Washington Emergency Management recommends asking local emergency management for route advice. Camano residents can contact Island County DEM at 360-679-7370.
Walk through the plan with your household
Choose a place outside the mapped hazard area and learn how to reach it. Practice the route before you need it. Discuss how you would manage the trip with children, pets or someone who needs assistance, and keep a small evacuation bag ready.
Bring neighbors into that conversation where helpful. Ask who might want company or extra help, and make sure the people using the plan know the meeting place and route. Visitors staying near the shore need those details too.
Shaking can be the first warning
The National Weather Service lists strong or long shaking, sudden unusual water movement and a loud ocean roar as natural tsunami warning signs.
During shaking, drop, cover and hold on. If you are in a hazard or evacuation zone or a low-lying coastal area, move to your planned safe place as soon as you can do so safely. NWS says to act after a natural warning without waiting for an official alert. Follow evacuation signs toward higher ground or farther inland if you cannot reach your planned place.
On a beach or near water, move to high ground or inland after any earthquake, as soon as you can safely.
If you are already outside the hazard or evacuation zone, NWS says to stay there unless local officials instruct otherwise.
Set up more than one way to receive alerts
Island County’s myAlerts service offers emergency and community notifications by text, email and other contact methods. The county lists tsunami sirens at Driftwood Shores and Iverson Beach on Camano.
Sirens are an outdoor warning method. Washington Emergency Management says they are not intended to be heard inside buildings. Keep other alert channels available, such as Wireless Emergency Alerts and NOAA Weather Radio. The state’s alerts page explains the options.
Readers on the Snohomish County side can use SnoCoAlerts, which tailors notifications by location. Marysville Alerts provides a city signup option.
Wait for the all-clear before returning
Stay outside the hazard area until local officials give the all-clear. Later waves may be larger than the first.
NWS advises staying out of the water and away from beaches and waterways during a tsunami advisory.
Information checked Nov. 1, 2026. Sources: Washington Emergency Management Division, Island County Department of Emergency Management, National Weather Service, Snohomish County and City of Marysville.
