3/13/2011
We live here on the Far Southern Oregon coast next to the California border (Brookings). Yesterday at 1:30 am I was awakened by our dispatch to tell me of the earthquake and subsequent Tsunami generated in Japan. A Tsunami warning was issued for our area. Within minutes I was at the Police station and met with our Police Chief, the Curry County Sheriff an our City Manager. As we have planned, practiced and prepared for this type of problem we began to discuss our response. The Tsunami was projected to arrive in our area at 7:15am. By 3:00am we had alerted all area fire responders and emergency personnel. At 4:00am my crews began to go door to door in neighborhoods of low lying areas pre-designed to alert the residents and advise them to prepare to move to high ground. We were told to expect a wave surge of 6-10'. Within 45 minutes we had accomplished this plan and were patrolling the area waiting for the emergency sirens to begin going off in the community. We also assisted the local, county and State Police to block off all road access to the beaches and river areas near the beach. We saw a good and orderly evacuation of low lying areas to stand by at our pre-designed emergency gathering places. 7:15am came and went and nothing was happening other then our community woke up and we had many people wanting to go to the beaches to see the Tsunami. Much work was performed to get people off the beaches and out of harms way. At approximately 10am we began to see multiple wave surges coming in and then sucking back out. This went on for about 30 minutes and then we'd get hit by another group of wave surges for about 30 minutes and then a third about half hour latter. It was determined that the highest wave surge was somewhere near 9 feet. Our coastline received no damage and there were no injuries or damages noted specifically here in Brookings. However, adjacent to our town is an un-incorporated area called Harbor and the Port there sustained major damage both to the docks and numerous boats. Considerable damage was sustained to the docks, many boats were either damaged or sunk an many more were washed out to sea. A half hour South of us in Crescent City California their Port was almost totally destroyed by the Tsunami. Many people who did not heed emergency responder warning and went down on the beaches either were swept out into the waves or in a couple of instances lost their lives. This happened outside of our community. Our community responded well to our emergency warnings both the sirens and verbal. By 2:30pm everything quieted down and we released all controlled areas. All in all our community fared pretty well. We learned much from this natural event as this has never happened here that I am aware of. In the coming days we will gather the emergency response system of the county and discuss all these events to learn and prepare for the next event. We are extremely thankful that no lives were lost here. Although shaken by mother nature we will learn much from this opportunity.