"All cities around the waterline in the Bay Area may potentially be affected," said Lt. Mariano Elias, San Francisco Fire Department. "Evacuate and go a mile in and 100 feet up if possible - that is kind of a general basis for San Francisco."
We rounded up San Francisco's executive director of the Department of Emergency Management, a first responder and a scientist to explain.
"This is a good trial run for what would happen if we got a magnitude 8.0 earthquake up there. Then the whole Northern California coast would really be in play including the Bay Area, although because of the Golden Gate the waves that would come through would be pointed more less towards Emeryville," said Ross Stein, CEO Temblor, Inc.
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The California Geological Survey created map of places across the state that are in the greatest risk of a tsunami impact.
In the Bay Area, areas in green are not likely to be impacted. Everything in yellow is at higher risk with multiple places in San Francisco along the water.
When we zoom into the Bay, almost the whole island of Alameda, parts of West Oakland and Richmond along with low laying areas in San Rafael, Larkspur and Corte Madera could see flooding.
Here's what you should do if you near these area.
"Not to evacuate your whole house or anything, but to move further away from the area of danger which is obviously where the water is," said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the Department of Emergency Management.
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Moving to higher ground could simply be up to a higher floor inside a building.
"In the 2011 tsunami, there was a middle school 3-4 stories high - everybody was evacuated to the roof, the bottom two stories were destroyed. Everybody came out fine. Just by going to the roof of the building with the children and later being rescued through helicopters," said Stein.
"We really recommend people to just taking a walk if you can to just a little bit to higher ground," said Mary Ellen Carroll.
After getting the alert, many people opted to drive out of the city. Earth scientists don't recommend that approach.
"You need to get 10 feet up. You are much better off just to do it by walking or running. Not getting in the car and running the risk that you will be trapped in a traffic jam as occurred in the 2011 Tsunami in Japan," said Stein.