Tsunami Reaches U.S. West Coast; One Missing, Boats Crushed
Tsunami Reaches U.S. West Coast; One Missing, Boats Crushed
Kim White/Getty Images
People watch from a road above a beach as tsunami surges hit on March 11, 2011 in Half Moon Bay, California.
People watch from a road above a beach as tsunami surges hit on March 11, 2011 in Half Moon Bay, California. Photographer: Kim White/Getty Images
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Tsunami waves began reaching the western U.S. coast this morning as communities from southern Oregon to Los Angeles braced for swells and rough seas as a result of an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan. Bloomberg's Melissa Long reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was searching for a person swept out to sea in northern California as tsunami waves reached the western U.S., prompting coastal evacuations and sinking or damaging scores of vessels.
Communities from southern Oregon to Los Angeles were warned to brace for swells after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan unleashed waves as high as 23 feet that killed hundreds.
Three people watching the waves were swept away near the Klamath River in far northwest California, Coast Guard spokesman Todd Vorenkamp said. Two made it back to shore and one was missing, he said. Dozens of vessels were damaged at nearby Crescent City, while south of San Francisco, county officials said as many as 20 boats sank in Santa Cruz harbor.
“Our harbor has been destroyed,” said Scott Feller, a harbor commissioner in Crescent City, a fishing town of about 7,600. “We have 35 boats that have been crushed or stacked up on each other that didn’t leave the harbor. Our dock has been destroyed.”
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in four coastal counties, directing emergency management personnel to aid local governments there.
Crescent City was the site of a 1964 tsunami that killed 11 people and has often been struck by giant waves.
“We had a tsunami in 2006 that destroyed half the harbor and this one took out the rest of it,” Feller said.
The peak surge was 8.1 feet (2.5 meters) this morning and “we’re expecting waves all the way through 9 p.m.,” Feller said.
Downtown Deserted
Crescent City’s downtown was deserted and the banks, stores and schools were closed, said Richard Enea, a member of the city council, in a telephone interview from his home a block from the ocean.
A siren sounded at 4 a.m. to warn residents to move to higher ground, and police cars drove through the streets instructing people to evacuate, Enea said.
“We practice this all the time,” Enea said. “It’s not a shock.”
South of San Francisco, waves caused $2 million to $3 million in damage to docks and vessels in Santa Cruz’s small- boats harbor, according to Enrique Sahagun, the county information officer.
“Up to 20 boats might have sunk or have sunk, close to 100 have suffered some kind of damage,” Sahagun said. “On the docks, there’s been significant damage.”
About 6,600 residents received “reverse 911 calls at 6:40 a.m., telling them to evacuate,” he said.
No Escape
In Brookings, Oregon, just north of the California state line, City Manager Gary Milliman said he thought his town had escaped the tsunami after an early surge in the harbor only loosened some boats from their moorings.
Then, about 10:40 a.m., a larger wave rolled through, destroying about 75 percent of the wood-and-metal docks in the commercial port alone and damaging a harbor for recreational boats, Milliman said.
“We were surprised,” he said. “We thought it had passed us by."
Four people were swept away by waves near the Pistol River State Scenic Viewpoint, a state park, Milliman said. They were rescued and one was being treated for hypothermia.
Private Insurance
Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said private insurance would have to pick up the tab for boats that were destroyed.
‘‘A lot of what you’ll see is damage to private property,’’ he said at a news conference.
The Coast Guard temporarily halted oil and hazardous-liquid shipments to the ports of San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles and Oakland after the tsunami warning.
The tsunami’s effect in the U.S. was blunted as it hit at the lowest tides of the day, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement. It had earlier predicted waves of between 2 to 3 feet high around San Francisco and as much as 5 feet near Santa Cruz.
‘‘What we’re telling people is, it depends on the locality, it depends on the ocean floor and the first wave is not always the largest,” said Donna Franklin, a spokeswoman for NOAA in Washington.
Tsunami Alert
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center raised an alert for the West Coast of the U.S. after the strongest earthquake on record for Japan unleashed waves that killed hundreds of people and submerged towns on the Asian nation’s northern coast.
Sirens warning of tsunami waves went off at 5 a.m. in Seaside, Oregon, said Jason Wallis, manager of Cleanline Surf Shop.
“People started making their way up the hill early,” Wallis said. “I grabbed my dad’s ashes, my dog’s ashes, my photos and my favorite guitar and got out.”
In California, the coastal communities of Pacifica and Half Moon Bay closed schools today as a precaution. Five of the schools were designated evacuation centers.
Hawaii was hit by a 4.6-foot wave, according to scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which was anticipating scattered damage, not major destruction.
Damage in Hawaii
The Coast Guard reported “significant damages” to about 200 vessels in Keehi Lagoon on Oahu. La Mariana Sailing Club sustained at least $500,000 in damages when three docks mooring 100 boats were torn away.
A foot of water entered the lobby of the King Kamehameha Hotel on the Kailua-Kona coast of the Big Island. Waves also damaged some Maui businesses near the Kahului Harbor and flooded low-lying areas, said Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa.
Tsunamis are giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea. They typically hit the shore as a series of waves over a period of 10 to 12 hours.
A December 2004 temblor in Indonesia left about 220,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net; Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net; Anthony Effinger in Portland at aeffinger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
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