Earthquake in Alaska has local residents recalling 2011 Tsunami in Santa Cruz
While there was no Tsunami threat here on the Central Coast after the earthquake in Alaska, some boat owners say it has them taking precautions.
After the 8.9 earthquake in Japan in 2011, a Tsunami hit the coast of Santa Cruz bringing millions of dollars in damages to boats and docks at the Santa Cruz Harbor.
Perry Miller recalls the scene, “we were watching boats tip up and sink like the Titanic sank and all the sudden they were disappearing. And then the big wave came through, well not the big wave it was only about 3 feet tall but the whole ocean behind it just ripped the harbor apart.”
Miller says now whenever a big quake hits, he takes precaution, “we are immediately on the phone, figuring out how big the tsunami could be, what kind of waive we are dealing with, if there is one in fact. So I actually talked to Doug this morning and he said I don’t know I’ll come down and check it out, I checked out all the lines to make sure they’re safe and secure.”
Santa Cruz Harbor Officials do have protocols in place for when the next one hits. “People’s lives are more important than anything. One of the very first thing we do is we call everyone that lives in the Harbor, lives on a boat, all the live a boards get notified and they are there to help knock on other boats and make sure there’s no one down here,” says Deputy Harbor Master Sean Rothwell.
Boat owner, Ron Mehuron, says he’s thankful for the alert system in place and says boat owners need to take those warnings seriously. “The Santa Cruz Harbor office is really good about notifying us of swells and they recommend that we double tie our boat so we have plenty of warning to take care of that,” says Mehuron.
Deputy Harbor Master Rothwell says after the 2011 tsunami they did make some changes, “a lot of the docks at that time were very old, and so that’s kind of what we learned is if it’s about to go, the tsunami will speed that process up. So it really just made us extra extra aware of, if there is a loose bolt, there’s a missing component here, there’s something that needs to be fixed; it needs to be fixed now.”
