Clallam Bay tsunami tower getting a new home
Workers install a tsunami-warning loudspeaker, dangling at left, on a pole at Clallam Bay’s Slip Point last July 3. The 60-foot tower came down in March and will be relocated. -- Photo by Donna Barr/for Peninsula Daily News
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News
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It's actually in the Fire District No. 5 engine house waiting for a new home.
Here's how it got there:
The state Emergency Management Division erected the All Hazard Alert Broadcast System last summer atop a 60-foot-tall tower at Slip Point on Clallam Bay's east shore.
Site of a lighthouse built in 1905 but long since torn down, the property has been surplused and promised to Clallam County.
The county even leases the lighthouse keeper's quarters for a West End sheriff's deputy — which maybe was why a former sheriff and a former emergency director thought it belonged to Clallam County.
But the deal hasn't gone through yet, and Slip Point still belongs to the Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard said the land likely overlies Native American artifacts, perhaps remains.
"They were concerned because the entire site is historical and archaeological," said Bob Martin, the current head of Clallam County's Emergency Management Division.
Down comes the tower
So in March, down came the tower.
Tentative plans call for it to be set up at a small county park across state Highway 112, pending acoustic tests by the state, a state Environmental Policy Act review and an archaeological/cultural survey.
Until then, Martin said Monday, Clallam Bay and Sekiu residents can count on several other warnings of a tsunami, including:
Residents in any low-lying area, Martin said, also should know that if they feel a large earthquake, a tsunami almost surely will follow.
Will broadcast instructions
Once the tower is re-erected, he said, it will provide not just a warning tone but a verbal explanation of what is happening, plus instructions of what to do.
Martin said should a tsunami be generated in Alaska or around the Pacific Rim, pressure-detecting buoys will measure the wave and transmit information on it to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.
The center, in turn, will issue warnings or advisories about the tsunami's predicted arrival and its height.
At that point, the state will activate every All Hazard Alert Broadcast System on the outer coast and the Strait if appropriate.
The system, Martin said, also could be activated to warn of other dangers, such as an escape from the Clallam Bay Corrections Center or a forest fire.
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: June 09. 2008 9:00PM