California Tsunami
June 12, 1998
In 1964, a tsunami tidal wave smashed ashore where our motorhome was parked, overlooking the harbor at Crescent City, CA. If we had been there then, we would have been under about 20 feet of very turbulent water as the wave came ashore at the speed of several hundred miles per hour. An underwater earthquake out in the Pacific Ocean near Alaska had triggered the wave. What is now an open, city park along the waterfront was then part of a town that was partially wiped out by the wave. Fourteen folks died. “Not to worry” claimed our RV park manager, “we now have warning systems in place. Once a week the alarm is sounded as a test so that folks will understand its meaning.” If we are lucky, the warning would provide several minutes to hop in our car and travel inland far enough to escape the next wave. Was the view of the harbor with its harbor seals, sea lions, common murres, western seagulls and Atlantic loons worth the risk of staying three days in such a place? The odds were in our favor that another tsunami would not occur while we were there and the benefits of having ready access to Redwood National Park, the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and several shoreline viewpoints which overlooked the Pacific Ocean made the risk worth taking. Actually, I will remember that site as one of our favorites.
On a high cliff near the mouth of the Klamath River, we watched whale spouts periodically dotting the surface of the ocean far below. Earlier in the day they were difficult to see, but in the late evening, the spray was highlighted against the setting sunlight so that we could see them over a mile away at sea. The receptionist at the Redwood National Park Visitors Center in Crescent City was very interested in our sightings. “We get very few reports of sightings at this time of the year” she claimed. “However, there is a resident pod of grey whales that live year-around at the mouth of the Klamath River, so your sightings are believable.”
The weather was either rainy (locals refer to it as liquid sunshine or "frizzle" -- made up of fog and drizzle) or high winds greeted us during our three-day stay. The large seas, whipped up by the high winds, provided us with a greater appreciation for the hazards of living near an ocean. Winter storms can drive waves so high that they break the upper lighthouse windows in the offshore St. George Reef Lighthouse. Several lighthouse keepers have died while doing their job since the lighthouse was first built in 1892. The incentive for building the lighthouse was due to the fact that a ship, the Brother Jonathon struck a rock in 1865 near the lighthouse. Two-hundred and fifty folks died -- only 19 survived. The lighthouse was finally abandoned in the 1970's but is now being restored as a tourist attraction. Tourists will be ferried by helicopter to the lighthouse which has no boat landing.
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