Tsunami causes millions in damage in California
Marisa Lagos, Tom Stienstra,Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle March 11, 2011 04:05 PM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Saturday, March 12, 2011
(03-11) 17:05 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A deadly tsunami roared 5,000 miles across the ocean and slammed into Northern California on Friday, destroying harbors from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border and washing one man out to his death in the sea.
The West Coast damage was less than it could have been because the tsunami hit during low tide, and nothing on the scale of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that spawned it in Japan and killed hundreds there. But that was small consolation to the victim's survivors or sailors and business owners now facing millions of dollars in damage to docks and boats.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, saying "conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist due to the tsunami and water surge."
Near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, three friends who had gathered to take photos were swept into the ocean. Two of the men made it back to shore after unsuccessfully trying to rescue their 25-year-old friend. His name was not immediately released.
Harbors damaged
In Santa Cruz and far north Crescent City, where the most severe damage took place, the harbors looked like a giant had haphazardly stirred the water with an equally giant stick, slamming boats into each other, upending others and turning docks into splinters.
Bruce Bruno, 73, of La Selva Beach came to the Santa Cruz harbor Friday morning to check on his salmon fishing boat, Pezdela, and wound up watching the destructive tableau unfold. As he looked on helplessly, a yacht slammed into his Pezdela, smashing the engines.
"It was surreal," Bruno said. "At first, the waves looked like nothing, and then all of a sudden they started hitting the pier on the north side and the boats lifted up - and then the piers started ripping apart.
"From there, the ocean just tore everything up. It was very dramatic."
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the worst of the waves passed along California's coastline by late afternoon, but emergency officials were warning people to still stay away from the shore until this morning at least.
"We're really trying to push the idea of staying away from the beach," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Eric Swanson. "We're still on alert for additional swells and surges of water, which means everyone else should be, too."
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