Far Waves and Fallout

The word”tsunami” is Japanese for “far wave”.  On March 11, 2011 the sirens warning of a far wave went off in our town.  Of course the part of town that is in danger of being hit by a tsunami is the part of town farthest away from the sirens so the people in danger from the event never heard the warning.  Fortunately the police were on the ball and went around knocking on doors to wake folks up.  It was only 4:00AM.  I heard the sirens and went back to sleep, assuming that it was caused by some mistake by a city employee.   Carel did not hear the siren but got up at his usual time of 5:00 AM and got the news about the disaster in Japan from CNN.

We had our day planned and that involved taking the dog to the kennel and driving up to Aurora, Oregon for the annual Antique Spinning Wheel Showcase.  Since the tsunami was not due to hit before 7:30-7:45 AM, we decided to wait until the kennel opened so we could check with them before taking the dog.  Called the kennel, they were open and accepting guests and had an evacuation plan in place if need be.  The fist wave was later than predicted finally arriving at 8:30 AM and proved to be pretty much of a non-event.  So we dropped off the dog and hit the road at about 9:00 AM..

Driving along the coast, we saw that the ocean was acting strangely.  We could not tell if it was high tide or low tide - whichever way one of us saw it, by the time the other had a chance to look, it appeared to be the opposite.  We both noticed the large waves offshore and saw whitecaps coming up the Rogue River at Gold Beach.  We heard nothing more of it until we checked into our motel for the night and turned on the news.

Brookings took pretty much of a direct hit by the tsunami.  Damage estimates to the port are at 7 Million Dollars.  Crescent City, CA got hit even worse with more damage to the port and one dead.

I, for one, am glad that this was a “Far Wave”.  Just seeing the damage that it did here, I can’t imagine the damage done in Japan even with all of  the extensive television coverage. Note to self:  Never get up close and personal with a tsunami.

Of course the tsunami and preceding earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear power plant.    The last reports I heard were that they thought that the core of one of the reactors might be cracked.  Government officials have assured us that we are in no danger from radiation.  I sure hope not -we were in Wales on April 26, 1986 when there was this little disaster called “Chernobyl”.  Welsh sheep were still being checked for radiation in 2008.  Looking on the bright side, if we do get another good dose of radiation, then we shall glow in the dark and think of all that money we’ll save on electric bills.