The impetus for this document being the number of tsunami events we've now witnessed in recent memory. Ports are at risk from tsunami waves, after all the name in Japanese means harbor wave. This particular document looks specifically at the threat from Caribbean tsunamis, but the preparedness concepts apply to most ports.
The one thing it doesn't address is the need for immediate action when there isn't time to evacuate a port area due the proximity of the geological event that is causing the tsunami. In the Puget Sound waters of Washington State you could have a tsunami generated by the Seattle Fault that would give only a few minutes for any protective actions to be taken. In the Seattle port area a wave is generated almost immediately leaving no time whatsoever to get to higher ground. It is one of the reasons I call Harbor Island in Seattle as one of the most dangerous places to work. Built on soils that are made up of fill it is highly likely to liquify and then you have a tsunami wave on top of you almost immediately.
While the linked plan above calls for people to disembark from ships that cannot put out to sea and to move to higher ground, I personally think being on a ship, inside is perhaps the safest place to evacuate to if there is no time to get to higher ground.
