Quake prompts brief West Coast tsunami scare  

07:06 AM PDT on Wednesday, June 15, 2005

From KING5.com and Wire Reports

SEATTLE – A major earthquake that struck about 80 miles off the coast of northern California provided a brief scare and evacuation when tsunami warning sirens went off, but there were no reports of significant damages or injuries.

The 7.0-magnitude quake struck at about 7:50 p.m. Tuesday about 90 miles southwest of the coastal community of Crescent City and 300 miles northwest of San Francisco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists were waiting for signs of any powerful ocean waves to reach tide gauges placed up and down the West Coast.

A tsunami warning went in effect immediately for the coastal areas from the California-Mexico border to Sitka, Alaska, including the Oregon and Washington coasts.

The warning was later downgraded to a tsunami bulletin, which means there could still be some effect from the earthquake in some areas. The bulletin was canceled at 9:15 p.m.

"It appears from the mechanism of the earthquake that this was a strike-slip event so the motion was horizontal, not the vertical displacement that typically leads to a tsunami," said Ved Lekic, a seismologist at the University of California Seismographic Station in Berkeley.

Clallam County Sheriff's Department evacuated low-lying areas; and Long Beach and Ocean Shores residents had been advised to head to higher ground. Any ships at sea were advised to remain at sea and any ships at shore were advised to remain there.

Witnesses felt buildings shaking along the northern California coast.

"It was just a rolling sensation," said Jim Andresen, a fire captain in Humboldt County who is stationed just outside Eureka. "I've felt worse in the past. It didn't seem like it was that bad, lasted probably 15 seconds."

The tsunami siren system in Crescent City was activated at 8:14 p.m. and continued for about 40 minutes, Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson said.

The sheriff's office led the evacuation of about 4,000 people — mostly from Crescent City. Wilson reported some minor traffic accidents but no injuries. He said it was the third evacuation he has taken part of in his 27 years in law enforcement.

"You have a short time frame to deal with it," Wilson said. "We had approximately 20 minutes to evacuate and we cleared out about 4,000 people. There was some disruption of phone service, which hampered the effort. But we had a great response from volunteers, local enforcement and the CHP."

Xiojin Yuan, the owner of the beachfront Hampton Inn and Suites in Crescent City, said police quickly told him to evacuate the guests at the 53-room hotel.

"People evacuated in a really orderly way. The police and firefighters in Crescent City did an excellent job," Yuan said.

He stayed alone at the hotel to make sure no one was left behind. "My car was the only one in the parking lot," he said.

Crescent City was struck by a tsunami after an earthquake four decades ago. Eleven people were killed after waves reaching as much as 20 feet destroyed half of the waterfront business district.

In the spring of 1963, a magnitude-8.4 quake in Alaska generated tsunamis that caused damage there and in British Columbia, and in the states of Washington, California and Hawaii. More than 120 died.

The area hit is where the North American, Pacific Ocean and Juan de Fuca plates converge and has earthquakes of this magnitude about once a decade, said Lucy Jones, the scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey office in Pasadena.

"This is a relatively common event," Jones said. "It's what is called a triple junction where three plates come together."

The USGS reported many aftershocks in northern California in the hours after the initial quake but none were significant.

Even though this earthquake did not lead to a tsunami, Jones warned that one similar to the devastating tsunami that hit Asia last December could happen in California.

"We the potential for an earthquake just like the Sumatra one," she said.

The latest quake was similar in strength to the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake of 1989 that killed 40 people and caused about $6 billion dollars in structural damage in the Bay Area.

"But unlike Loma Prieta, this was located off shore so the damages were not heavy," Lekic said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration runs the warning system, which includes 25 other countries with Pacific coastlines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.