November 16, 2014 ~ Crescent City, OR to Garberville, CA
What I had forgotten was that on March 11, 2011, the devastating "Japanese" tsunami also hit the California coast. There were photos of "before" and "after" on that day at the harbor in Crescent City. By late afternoon, a dozen surges had come ashore: 16 boats were sunk, 32 million dollars worth of damage done and tons of silt deposited in the harbor. As I drove the coast, I would see warning signs for tsunamis whenever entering a low area and then signs announcing I was leaving a tsunami area.
WWW.SLATE.COM
The tsunami capital of the continental United States is Crescent City, Calif.(population 7,542), an economically depressed logging and fishing town just south of the Oregon border. Crescent City is predicted to be the California location hit hardest by the Japanese tsunami; one forecast predicts 7-foot waves, though so far the observed effect has been minimal.
Update, 2:28 p.m. ET: The Los Angeles Times reports 6.5-foot waves in Crescent City causing "significant damage" to boats in the harbor and "most of the docks" and flooding an inland creek. No reports yet of injuries or deaths. Larger surges may follow.
Update, 3:43 p.m. ET: Four people in Crescent City were reportedly swept out to sea, three injured and one believed dead.
They've seen it before. Since 1933, 31 tsunamis have been observed in Crescent City. Four of those caused damage, and one of them, in March 1964, remains the "largest and most destructive recorded tsunami to ever strike the United States Pacific Coast,"according to the University of Southern California's Tsunami Research Center. The 1964 tsunami killed 17 people on the West Coast, 11 of them in Crescent City.
Why is Crescent City so vulnerable to tsunamis? Apparently the main culprit is theMendocino Fracture Zone, an underwater elevation extending westward that guides tsunamis into deeper water, where they pick up speed as they approach the mainland. The West Coast's topography around Crescent City curves inland, which intensifies a tsunami's effect, and the shoreline of Crescent City itself is (as the name suggests) a curve within that curve. The town's name is also, of course, the nickname of New Orleans, itself devastated by flood during 2005's Hurricane Katrina. One lesson would appear to be that if you want to stay dry, don't call the place where you live "Crescent City."
I walked on the docks in the harbor watching seals, sea lions, Common Loons, grebes, ducks and gulls swimming amongst the tied-up fishing vessels. Being a Sunday morning, all was quiet with no wind and the possibility of sun when the morning mist and fog cleared.
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| Harbor - Crescent City, CA |
Just a short way south of CC, I stopped at one of the many small beaches where creeks run into the Pacific. Lucky me....there were two pair of Harlequin Ducks and a few Black Oystercatchers milling with the gulls, grebes and Brown Pelicans. The male Harlequin rivals the male Wood Duck for a striking beauty. They breed far north in Canada, both east and west, and on Baffin Island, Greenland and Iceland. The Pacific Harlequins then winter along the coast but only as far south as central California.
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| Harlequin Ducks - CA |
From the US Fish and Wildlife web site: "The primary reason for their decline was the introduction of non-native arctic foxes to their Aleutian Island breeding grounds for the purpose of developing a fur industry. "
They were listed as endangered in 1967, downgraded to threatened in 1990 and then removed from that status in 2001 due to management efforts on their behalf - a bright spot in the history of wild fauna.
I did drive around for 15 minutes but really gave this refuge short shrift as I thought I could reach Ft. Bragg before dark. But I didn't. I would have had to drive 30 mph or less on a road that never stops S-curving through the coastal redwoods and mountains, and then would have to go south on the coastal highway another 25 miles. Mapquest said three hours, and I had an hour of daylight left, so I stopped in Garberville for the night, using Best Western points. I was advised that I still needed a couple of hundred to qualify. After 20 minutes on the phone ("Is it OK if I transfer you?" ... "Sorry, but that department is closed for the weekend" .... "Can you hold a minute?" .... "OK, I will give you the extra points"), I succeeded. I was appreciative of the"gift" as the rooms were $150. And, for the second time on my trip, BW offered complimentary wine and cheese. Being California, the wine was good and, along with cheese and crackers, was my dinner.
I totally relaxed, catching up on some business and then read the latest John Grisham book (set in strip-mining Appalachia).
There are a significant population of travelers on the road on the coast. When I was sitting in my car in the parking lot talking to Best Western, one such guy walked by with his thick blond hair in a dozen dreads which stuck up in all directions. He had a backpack, looked weary, picked up a half-empty Coke sitting on the curb, finished it and left it on a garbage receptacle before continuing on. Some were obvious recreational long-distance hikers, but most were laden with packs or thick black plastic trash bags; some were pulling or pushing various wheeled contraptions; all were trudging along quietly, one foot in front of the other. Foot-traveling pedestrians are not allowed on the interstates or other freeways but are immediately visible in the small towns along the way. Even in the motel (wine and cheese/breakfast room), there were a few of these road-weary people, somehow either staying here or making a deal to eat.
I made a gas and grocery stop in Trinidad earlier in the day, which is a pretty little touristy town, right on the ocean, with free-spirits also wandering around in numbers and with small massage, jewelry, tattoo, gift, clothing, health food, espresso / juice, surfing, kayaking and fishing businesses. And restaurants, of course. The non-chain grocery stores have a distinct aroma of alternative foods that I call the "ginger smell," distinctive and pleasant (if you like ginger). While walking through the parking lot to my car, I apparently got too close to a pickup as a dog suddenly rose up (fortunately in a car) and nearly took my head off. It snarled and barked incredibly loudly and viciously, freaking me out. And then an odd series of alarms went off, like all the permutation of alarms one hears, each one lasting about 5 seconds. This went on for 30 seconds with no apparent concern except mine.
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| California Coast |
I ate a deli salad in my car and watched a guy pace, in a slightly agitated way, in front of me while waiting for a bus...back and forth, back and forth...another guy stood across the street by the gas station holding a five-gallon red plastic gas container with a pleading look on his face. Just a Sunday afternoon in sunny coastal California.
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| Black Oystercatcher - CA |
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