Local

Westport residents wake up to tsunami watch

WESTPORT, Wash. — At the West Wind Café in Westport, the talk over breakfast was the threat of a tsunami that never came.

“I get to work and my co-worker said, 'Did you hear about the tsunami warning? And I said, 'What?'” said Debbie Howard, who moved to town about six months ago.

One of her regulars, Bryan Erickson, also found out the news when he got up Tuesday morning.

“I woke up at 6 a.m. and my phone was blowing up with text messages,” said, Erickson who is a local fisherman.

He said he was asleep on his boat when the earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska, sending fears of potentially deadly waves hitting the coast from Vancouver to Mexico.

KIRO 7 reached out to Grays Harbor Emergency Management office where staff clarified that Washington was under a tsunami watch and not a warning.

Scroll down to continue reading

Trending headlines

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP

A watch is considered the lowest category alert that, according to officials, did not warrant an areawide siren or alarm telling people to get to higher ground.

A siren that has been part of an annual drill here in Westport over the last few years.

Emergency officials did send out a text alert overnight to cellphones of first responders in this town of about 2,500 people. Residents who had signed up on an email list on the county’s emergency management website also received them.

On that website and on social media, Grays Harbor officials did alert the public about the tsunami watch overnight.

There are also tsunami evacuation routes posted online. In this fishing community, locals say the water can both be a blessing and a curse.

“It would wipe out this whole town,” said Erickson. “This is our livelihood. That is a big deal if a tsunami comes through here.”