Scrambling in Crescent City
We were sitting at a Police Chief's meeting in the Crescent City Cultural Center located on Front street when I felt the earthquake. The lights inside were moving and the Chief told everyone to go outside. We left and drove home to W. 7th Street. Most phone lines were not working. I was able to call my daughter who was working at the Contra Costa Dispatch Center and she told me about the Tsunami warning. I couldn't get through to my parents who live on 3rd street, so I started walking to their house to let them know. Two blocks from my house the Tsunami siren went off so I turned around and ran home with my dog. I was able to get through to my parents by cell phone, they were leaving their home to go to my brothers house. My husband and I each drove a car and tried to get out of town. It was chaos, people speeding and trying to get out of town. I passed an accident and looked to make sure they were ok. I was on the phone with a friend from Antioch who had been looking at the weather on the Internet and saw the warning. He told me the warning was cancelled. Traffic was so backed up, it would have taken us at least an hour to drive a 10 minute route, so my husband and I turned around and went home. The Police cars were still going by our house telling us to head to higher ground. We are out of the evacuation route by two blocks. We live a block from the ocean and sit up high. Even though they test the siren once a month, it still scares me. I was born and raised here and remember as an 8 year old in 1964 the devastation that happened in our town. Several times as a child we were evacuated. I listened to the local radio stations who let people call in and talk about the earthquake and I finally fell asleep at 11:00 pm.
-- Beth Enea, Crescent City, Calif

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Evacuating passengers
I'm in Ucluelet, B.C. When the tsunami warning went off I was at work at the Canadian Princess Fishing Resort. I was doing night laundry/housekeeping duties. My work partner called me out of the bottom of the ship where the laundry room is and we had to evacuate. We also got stopped to evacuate all the guests on the ship. It was pretty scary as my hands were shaky trying to read the lists of rooms that were occupied. Knocking on doors evacuating guests while the only thing on my mind was my children who were at home. My daughter, who is 13, was watching her brother who is 5, and they were 10 to 15 minutes away from where I worked. And there I was, so it seemed, wasting my time evacuating guests that I probably may never see again in my life. I was a wreck. I just wanted to go home. Then the man who seemed to be in charge asked me and my partner if we shut everything off, we had to go back in to shut the dryers and lights and everything off. It was so scary. I kept looking at my partner, who is also my niece, and I just wanted to hug her because she had three little children at home all under the age of five. The evacuation process could have been better, as everyone didn't seem to know where the place was to all meet or go. Right now I'm scared to let my children go to school, as it is 10 minutes away. Last night they weren't letting traffic go into the town of Ucluelet. My son's father's family wants him and my son to move to Boston Bar on the mainland. I'll never leave home, and I wouldn't let my son move away either. I just pray and hope there won't be a tsunami. I'm just going to be more prepared now. I got a list off the internet of what to pack in case of a natural disaster. I think it really eased my mind, because I was up until 3 or 3:30 this morning with a million things on my mind.
-- Madeline Ann George, Ucluelet, B.C., Canada

A memorable birthday
My family and I were just about to the singing after a restaurant dinner for my sister's birthday when the phone rang with a friend hastily explaining the Tsunami warning to my cousin. She in turn quickly told us with wide eyes that "the emergency broadcast thingy" had gone off, interrupting all TV and giving coastal residents in my area "20 minutes to get to high ground." At first I really couldn't believe it -- then you could see word spreading around the restaurant as more and more people pulled out their cell phones and paced back and forth from their tables to the TV in the bar. Soon people started to leave rather hurriedly and everyone got even more nervous. My sister's boyfriend who suffers from sudden panic attacks -- had one for the first time in many months. As my parents decided my sister and I and the other family at the table should go to their house (safely several hundred feet up into the mountains) I went to make sure my sister's boyfriend was ok -- I found him hovering over the sink, rinsing out his mouth. It was about then that we started hearing the size and location of the culprit quake. At that time they were calling it a 6.4 (not 7) and identified its location up near Crescent City. Immediately I thought of the Asian tsunami and its 9.something magnitude -- much, much bigger than a 6.4. I was pretty sure this was just a case of some jittery nerves after all the pictures last Christmas but no one wanted to take any chances. It was just as we paid our bill (and even took the obligatory birthday Polaroid) that word spread they had cancelled the warning. Still slightly on edge everyone got into their separate cars and went home a little more excited than they arrived -- and I stopped to check out the surf along the way.
--Casey Noland, Aptos, Calif.

A different perspective
I had just gotten off a plane to Nevada when my phone started blowing up. I work for Marriott ExecuStay Insurance Housing Solutions (we find temporary housing for families displaced due to catastrophes). I had insurance adjusters from Allstate, State Farm and Safeco calling me making sure we had someone on call. For an industry that gets so much negative press about bad service, I was surprised at how many adjusters were being proactive ... only minutes after the warning was announced. It made me feel great about the industry and proved a real concern for public safety.
--Melanie Vandevanter, Mountain House, California

One inch rise
Driving south on Hwy 101 on the Oregon coast between Florence and Coos Bay, I was turned around by a police roadblock. The officers present warned of a possible tsunami. Since I was at a spot approximately one mile from the actual ocean shore, I was a bit miffed and skeptical. But, I turned around anyway. When I returned to my residence in Florence, I telephoned the local office of Oregon State Police and was told that buoys off the coast recorded a one-inch rise in seas and that the tsunami warning had been cancelled.
--Vince LaRocco, Florence, Ore.

Bringing back memories
I was on my way back from Shasta. I did not know till my husband called and told me of the warnings on the radio. It scared me because it brought back memories of the 1964 tsunami. I lived in Crescent City, Calif. I was 4 years old at the time. It was very scary! We lived only a block from the beach. The sirens kept sounding, and no one knew what was going on. We were very lucky! I also remember a bunch of whales beaching themselves on shore by the lighthouse.
--Devvi Silva, Santa Rosa, Calif.

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Overloaded phone circuits
I live in Oceanside, Ca, which is north county of San Diego.Our area was given a tsunami warning until 10:30. Our local weatherman told us there was very little chance of any problem, because of the type of earthquake. It was very difficult to make any telephone calls, overloaded circuits.
--Diana Barsalou, Oceanside, Calif.

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