Tsunami sweeps 5 to sea, rips out Calif. docks

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Tsunami sweeps 5 to sea, rips out Calif. docks

A tsunami swept at least five people watching the waves out to sea Friday and

ripped docks out of harbors in California, spreading the destruction of a

devastating Japanese earthquake to the shores of the United States.

By JEFF BARNARD and JAYMES SONG

Associated Press

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Crescent City, Calif. —

A tsunami swept at least five people watching the waves out to sea Friday and

ripped docks out of harbors in California, spreading the destruction of a

devastating Japanese earthquake to the shores of the United States.

Four people were rescued from the water in Oregon, but one man who was taking

photos in Northern California was still missing Friday afternoon. Coast Guard

helicopters searched for him near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte

County, Calif., after his two friends made it back to shore.

About 25 miles north, four people were swept off a beach north of Brookings,

Ore. Two got out of the water on their own and the others were rescued by law

enforcement and fire officials.

A man was found dead aboard a commercial vessel in Brookings, but sheriff's

officials said it appeared to be from natural causes.

The large waves shook loose boats in that weren't moved in time and tore apart

wooden docks in at least two California harbors.

" This is just devastating. I never thought I'd see this again, " said Ted ,

a retired mill worker who lived in Crescent City when a 1964 tsunami killed 17

people on the West Coast, including 11 in his town. " I watched the docks bust

apart. It buckled like a graham cracker. "

The waves didn't make it over a 20-foot break wall protecting the rest of the

city, and no home damage was immediately reported.

Damage estimates in Crescent City were in the millions, and more boats and docks

were hit in Santa Cruz on California's central coast. Surges are expected

throughout the afternoon.

President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is ready to

come to the aid of any U.S. states or territories who need help.

Earlier, the tsunami hit Hawaii before dawn, rushing up on roadways and into

hotel lobbies on the Big Island and low-lying areas in Maui were flooded as

7-foot waves crashed ashore.

Scientists warned that the first tsunami waves are not always the strongest, and

officials said people in Hawaii and along the West Coast should remain vigilant.

Tsunami warnings continued in California and Oregon, but were downgraded to an

advisory in Hawaii, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie said the islands were " fortunate

almost beyond words. "

" All of us had that feeling that Hawaii was just the most blessed place on the

face of the Earth today, " he said.

The tsunami, spawned by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, killed hundreds as

it slammed the eastern coast of Japan, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and

people as widespread fires burned out of control. It raced across the Pacific at

500 mph - as fast as a jetliner - before hitting Hawaii and the West Coast.

Sirens sounded for hours on the islands and the West Coast before dawn and

roadways and beaches were mostly empty as the tsunami struck.

It is the second time in a little over a year that Hawaii and the U.S. West

coast faced the threat of a massive tsunami. A magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile

spawned warnings on Feb. 27, 2010, but the waves were much smaller than

predicted and did little damage.

Scientists then acknowledged they overstated the threat but defended their

actions, saying they took the proper steps and learned the lessons of the 2004

Indonesian tsunami that killed thousands of people who didn't get enough

warning.

This time around, the warning went out within 10 minutes of the earthquake in

Japan, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

in Honolulu.

" We called this right. This evacuation was necessary, " Fryer said. " There's

absolutely no question, this was the right thing to do, " he said.

The warnings issued by the tsunami center covered an area stretching the entire

western coast of the United States and Canada from the Mexican border to Chignik

Bay in Alaska.

Many islands in the Pacific evacuated, but officials later told residents to go

home because the waves weren't as bad as expected.

In Guam, the waves broke two U.S. Navy submarines from their moorings, but tug

boats corralled the subs and brought them back to their pier. No damage was

reported to Navy ships in Hawaii.

In the Canadian pacific coast province of British Columbia, authorities

evacuated marinas, beaches and other areas.

Officials in two coastal Washington counties used an automated phone alert

system, phoning residents on the coast and in low-lying areas and asking them to

move to higher ground.

" We certainly don't want to cry wolf, " said Sheriff of

Washington's Pacific County. " We just have to hope we're doing the right thing

based on our information. We don't want to be wrong and have people hurt or

killed.

In Oregon, hotels were evacuated and shops stayed shuttered in the northwest

tourist town of Seaside, where arcades, salt-water taffy shops and seafood

restaurants line a beachfront boardwalk.

Large waves didn't materialize, and by noon coastal residents were expected to

be able to return home.

" We weren't really worried about it, " said Bergman, whose roommate woke him

early Friday.

Latin American governments ordered islanders and coastal residents to head for

higher ground. Coastal officials from Mexico to Chile were hauling boats from

the sea, closing ports and schools and preparing to evacuate thousands of people

ahead of the tsunami's expected arrival at 5 p.m. EST.

Heavy swells rolled through ports and marinas of Mexico's Baja California resort

of Cab San Lucas, and the major Pacific cargo port of Manzanillo was closed.

Several cargo ships and a cruise ship decided to wait out a possible tsunami at

sea rather than risk possible damage in a harbor.

The Honolulu International Airport remained open but seven or eight jets bound

for Hawaii turned around, including some originating from Japan, the state

Department of Transportation said. All harbors were closed and vessels were

ordered to leave the harbor.

About 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.4 million population resides in Honolulu, and as

many as 100,000 tourists are in the city on any given day.

A small 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island just before 5 a.m. EST,

but there were no reports of damages and the quake likely wasn't related to the

much larger one in Japan, the USGS said.

The worst big wave to strike the U.S. was a 1946 tsunami caused by a magnitude

of 8.1 earthquake near Unimak Islands, Alaska, that killed 165 people, mostly in

Hawaii. In 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile caused a tsunami

that killed at least 1,716 people, including 61 people in Hilo. It also

destroyed most of that city's downtown. On the U.S. mainland, a 1964 tsunami

from a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Prince Sound, Alaska, struck

Washington State, Oregon and California. It killed 128 people, including 11 in

Crescent City, Calif.

--

Associated Press Writers contributing to this report include Audrey McAvoy in

Honolulu, Petski and Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles, Garance Burke in San

Francisco, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle, Nigel Duara in Seaside, Ore., Jeff Barnard

in Crescent City, Calif., Rob Gillies in Toronto, Chang in Pasadena,

Calif., Price and Carson in Phoenix. Niesse contributed from Ewa

Beach, Hawaii.