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NCJ Daily Online
10 Years Later
One decade ago on March 11, after the Tohoku earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated a wide swath of Japan’s Pacific coast, Futoshi Toba — the mayor of Rikuzentakata — sent out a haunting message to the world: ”We do not want to be forgotten. This is our hope.”
His city was one of the hardest hit as waves up to 62-feet high swept through the port town. Nearly 2,000 men, women and children — almost one in 10 of Rikuzentakata’s residents— were killed on March 11, 2011, including Toba’s wife. More than 3,300 buildings there were completely or partially destroyed. The city’s center was swept into the sea.
Across Japan, the loss was unfathomable: Nearly 16,000 died, more than 6,000 were wounded, whole communities were destroyed and thousands went missing.
About 10 hours later, waves generated by the same earthquake traveled nearly 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to reach the Crescent City Harbor. While most of the Del Norte County-based fishing fleet was able to leave in the early morning hours before the surges hit, 35 boats were crushed and many of the docks were swept away, leaving behind $20 million in damage.
Last to leave was the fishing vessel Amanda B in a daring— and life-threatening — run.
“It was a white-knuckle experience getting out,” fisherman Alan Mello recalled in a video testimonial, one of several put together by the Redwood Coast Tsunami Working Group on a website dedicated to marking the somber anniversary. “Not one of the brighter things I’ve ever done in my years of fishing.”
Crescent City, with its own history of destructive tsunamis, was otherwise spared.
For the most part, other areas of the North Coast were also largely left unscathed, in part because the tsunami arrived during low tide. One person, 25-year-old Dustin Douglas Weber, was killed after being swept into the ocean near the mouth of the Klamath River.
Two years later, in April of 2013, a 21-foot panga boat covered in barnacles washed ashore just south of Crescent City with “Takata High School” handwritten in Japanese characters.
It was from Rikuzentakata and became the first documented piece of tsunami debris to reach California’s shores.
The discovery of the ski , called “Kamome,” soon forged an international bridge between the two cities, leading to a sister-school exchange between Takata High School and Del Norte High School as A damaged dock at the Crescent City Harbor after the March 11, 2011 tsunami generated by a devastating earthquake in Japan. File
well as a sister-city relationship between Crescent City and Rikuzentakata that continues to this day.
“A decade marks an important milestone after a disaster and provides a moment of attention to not only look back but also to focus on tsunami awareness and how better to protect ourselves before the next tsunami hits,” geophysicist Lori Dengler, a Humboldt State University professor emeritus and tsunami expert, says in a news release about the Redwood Coast Tsunami Working Group project to commemorate the March 11, 2011 event. — Kimberly Wear
POSTED 03.11.21 READ THE FULL STORY ONLINE.
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Still Seeing Red: Humboldt County remained in California’s red COVID-19 risk tier when they were revised March 16. But for the first time in months Humboldt County’s metrics crept higher than the state’s, with a test-positivity rate of 2.8 percent (compared to 2.3 percent statewide) and a daily case rate of 8.3 per 100,000 residents (compared 6.5 statewide).
POSTED 03.16.21
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HSU Hoops Sits Out: With collegiate athletics returning to courts and fields throughout the state and country, Humboldt State University’s women’s basketball team has instead decided not to compete due to health and safety concerns. The decision was made collectively that the team will practice as a unit but sit out the season, coach Michelle Bento-Jackson
said. POSTED 03.15.21
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Yurok Connected: The Yurok Connect Broadband project finished installing a new 150-foot tower in Wautec on March 15, linking one of the most remote parts of the Yurok Reservation to high-speed internet. Tribal leaders hailed the milestone as a step toward improving education, healthcare and economic development for tribal members. The project is now 75 percent complete. POSTED 03.16.21
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Digitally Speaking
The number of COVID-19 cases confirmed in the seven days before this edition of the Journal went to press, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 3,383.
POSTED 03.16.21
They Said It
“This is a historic week for our country.”
— North Coast Rep. Jared Hu man after Congress passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that will boost unemployment support, send one-time $1,400 to adult residents and provide relief funds to local governments, including $26.29 million to Humboldt County cities. Posted 03.10.21
Comment of the Week
— Jim Buschmann on the Journal’s Facebook page commenting on a post about the then-upcoming March 14 daylight savings time change. Posted 03.13.21
