Brian and the Tsunami Warning

It was 6:34am in the morning on March 11, 2011 when I awoke to the sound of my work cell phone ringing. From the hotel bed I just looked at the phone ringing on the desk across the room and wondered who the heck could be calling me at this time in the morning. It was Friday morning and I was in Eureka, CA conducting a site visit at the Humboldt County Chapter. I was extremely exhausted because I had been conducting site visits to the Northern California CSC chapters all week. I decided to let the phone go to voicemail.

A minute after I let my work phone go to voicemail my work cell phone and my personal cell phone started to ring. I knew then that something was up and that I had better answer the phone. I looked at my caller ID on my phones and it was the 2 Humboldt County CSC members Wayne and Phillip calling. I answered my work phone and Wayne on the other line told me that there was a tsunami warning for Humboldt County. That woke me up immediately!

After I heard the news from Wayne I decided to go to the front desk of the hotel to see what was going on. I walked to the front desk of the hotel and noticed that the front desk person was in a panic. I told her I knew about the tsunami warning, if Wayne hadn’t informed me about the tsunami warning the sirens that were going off by now would have alarmed me to the fact that something wasn’t right. The lady at the front desk told me that emergency services said that there was no need to evacuate the hotel. They were only evacuating people up to 3rd street. The fact that the hotel was located at 4th street didn’t bring the front desk person or me much comfort.

As I walked back to my hotel room I ran into the young mother that was traveling with her infant son. I met this mother when I first checked into the hotel. When she saw me she immediately remembered that I worked for the American Red Cross. By now she had heard about the tsunami warning and asked me what we should do. I guess she forgot about me telling her that I was more of a grant manager than an emergency responder for the Red Cross. I told her that I was going to swing by the local chapter to see if there was anything I could do or to get any information. I promised her that I would contact her with any news that I got.

It was a little before 8:30am before I arrived at the Humboldt County Chapter. When I got there the place was humming with volunteers responding to the disaster. By the time I got to the chapter they had already opened up a shelter for about 200 people that were evacuated from the coastal areas. Both CSC members, Wayne and Phillip, were already at the shelter serving the evacuated disaster clients.

At the chapter I ran in to Christina Jones Koczera the Disaster Director for the Humboldt County Chapter. Christina is also a former CSC member that served during the 2009-10 program year. I stood there proudly watching as one of my former members stepped up and took control during this time of disaster. As she juggled all her responsibilities Christina found the time to tell me that the 101 Freeway out of town was temporarily closed as a precaution due to the tsunami warning. I asked her if I could be any help at the chapter and she told me that they had it covered. Christina reminded me that if I got stranded in Eureka that I could become a disaster client. She told me I should go back to my hotel and take care of myself first.

I went back to my hotel after I left the chapter. I shared with the young mother the news about the 101 Freeway closure. I then went back to my hotel room.

Once I got back to my room my stomach started to rumble from hunger. All the restaurants in town were closed. It was at this time that I wished I had my disaster supplies kit with me. I usually carry one in my car but I was driving a rental car this week. I ended up grabbing a soda and a stick of beef jerky from a gas station on my way out of town for breakfast (not exactly the breakfast of champions). In the future I will always have my kit with me.

I kept listening to the news and finally at around 11am I heard that the 101 Freeway was open. Once I heard the news I got into my car and headed out of town on my 12 hour drive back to Los Angeles.