Tsunami wave from Japan 8.9 magnitude earthquake hits Hawaii, West Coast; photographer swept to sea

BY CHRISTINA BOYLE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Friday, March 11th 2011, 9:02 AM
Updated: Friday, March 11th 2011, 4:15 PM

Barnard/AP

A fishing boat lays on its side in shallow water in the boat basin at Crescent City, Calif., after a tsunami hit the coast Friday.

Tanner/AP

A Honolulu Fire Department helicopter hovers low over Waikiki Beach.

Powerful seven-foot waves swept a photographer taking tsunami photos out to sea in northern California on Friday as the natural disaster began pounding the West Coast.

Two other people with the still-missing photographer managed to swim back to shore after going in the water near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County.

The deadly swells tore apart the wooden docks in Crescent City, Calif., a small logging and fishing town where 35 boats were severely damaged or destroyed.

PHOTOS: JAPAN IN CHAOS - HUNDREDS DEAD, BUILDINGS LEVELED, STREETS FLOODED

"Boats are on their sides, just crushed,"Councilman Richard Enea told the Daily News. "All our floating docks are gone. It's millions of dollars in damage."

Ted Scott, a retired mill worker who was living in Crescent City when a 1964 tsunami killed 11 residents, was stunned by the power of the waves.

"This is just devastating," Scott said. "I never thought I'd see this again. I watched the docks bust apart. It buckled like a graham cracker."

The city of 7,600 people near the Oregonborder is about 7,000 miles away fromJapan.

Further south, the swelling surf inflicted more than $2 million to the docks and boats in the harbor at Santa Cruz, saidEnrique Sahagun, the county information officer.

The tsunami rolled through Hawaii with little impact Friday as the West Coast braced for its arrival from California toAlaska.

"All of us had the feeling that Hawaii was just the most blessed place on the face of the earth today," said Gov. Neil Abercrombie after the island avoided major damage.

Residents of northern California evacuated their homes as officials warned of waves reaching heights of seven feet - a fraction of the 33-footers that pounded coastal Japan.

President Obama was awakened around 4 a.m. with word of the natural disaster.

Waves hit the deserted Waikiki shoreline in Honolulu, Hawaii earlier Friday. (Pemoni/Getty)

Officials in and around Crescent City, Calif., sounded tsunami warning sirens while urging residents of low-lying sections to find higher ground.

AMAZING IMAGE: WHIRLPOOL TRAPS BOAT OFF JAPANESE COAST

San Francisco police closed a 4-mile stretch of highway running along the city's western edge, while cargo operations were suspended at the Port of Los Angeles.

Some beaches were closed, while others remained open - including Santa Cruz, where surfers took advantage of the big waves.

"They are starting to roll in," said Jordan Scott, spokesman for the California Emergency Management Agency.

In Oregon, officials closed down schools along the coast and advised residents on thePacific Ocean to evacuate.

Hawaiian authorities closed down all three airports as a precaution after the earthquake and accompanying tsunami hit about 3,800 miles west in Japan.

Residents fled to shelters after an ocean-wide alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington were also affected.

But initial reports showed the biggest wave to hit the state was about six-feet high, landing on the island of Maui. That wave was followed about 15 minutes later by a five-footer.

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

With News Wire Services

Share256

From NYDailyNews.com

From Around the Web

Mom Kills Son for Potty Training Accident, Then Eats Pizza (The Stir By CafeMom)
Carnival Cuts 2011 Outlook Amidst Rising Fuel Prices (CNBC)
Walla Walla, Washington Hotels (USA Today)
Should You Start a Carbon Offset Program? (OPEN Forum)
How Are Companies Going Green?(LIVESTRONG.COM)

[what's this]

Ads by Yahoo!

36 comments | See All Comments »

To comment, Register or Log In
[Discussion guidelines]

jakeymagoo

10:20:17 AM
Mar 11, 2011

Very classy of the NYDN to run a moronic, humorless ad about some guy's chest hair at the beginning of a story that covers a terrible tragedy. It's bad enough that we are held prisoners for 30+ seconds before we can see a news story, and it's worse when one of the random ads is as revolting as the one on there.

Report Offensive Post

Spiderman2012

10:26:50 AM
Mar 11, 2011

It's a shame that the Obamas weren't visiting Japan when the earthquake hit.

Report Offensive Post

bullheaded516

10:31:00 AM
Mar 11, 2011

Salsumba, if the Mayans were so smart, why did they go extinct?

Report Offensive Post

bullheaded516

10:36:37 AM
Mar 11, 2011

Salsumba, is "god" mad at that Japanese, because they have their own religous beliefs? I guess that all loving god is PUNISHING and KILLING those asians, becasue they may have different beliefs? If you go to hell because you don't go to church and bow down to great one, then what happend to all the early Chines, Japanese, Hawaiins, Native Americans, South Americans, that lived on the panet, but hadn't been exposed to early Christianity? Does your god just bend the rules for them?

Report Offensive Post

mettrain

10:52:20 AM
Mar 11, 2011

I don't understand what all the panic is about. Put Charlie Sheen on the California coast facing the Pacific. He can "cure" any approaching tsunamis with his brain. Catastrophy averted.

Report Offensive Post

maninthemiddle

3:29:55 PM
Mar 11, 2011

Hopefully this will be a lesson for all future photographers not to enter the water during a tsunami.

Report Offensive Post

jesuswalks

3:39:28 PM
Mar 11, 2011

jakeymagoo, +1

Report Offensive Post

jesuswalks

3:41:13 PM
Mar 11, 2011

Yeah God is punishing the Japanese for not being Christian. That's why they have the longest lifespan in the world.