No-show brings wave of relief

Marisa O’Neil

At first, it sounded like a bad joke. A tsunami warning?

But as news came in Tuesday night of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake

off the Northern California coast -- one that could cause a tsunami

along the entire West Coast -- disbelief gave way to fear and

confusion. And though the warning was canceled about an hour later,

it left people in low-lying areas such as the Balboa Peninsula stuck

in a mass exodus of traffic, packing their belongings or wondering

what to do.

“It was the biggest mess out here and the scariest thing in my

life,” peninsula resident Gay Wassall-Kelly said.

News of the warning came slowly and sparsely over televisions and

radios. Residents looking for information jammed police dispatch

phone lines.

The department fielded 650 calls between 8 and 10 p.m., Sgt. Bill

Hartford said. They normally get 35 to 40 in that time.

Newport Beach lifeguards evacuated about 200 people from local

beaches and the Newport and Balboa piers, Fire Department spokeswoman

Jennifer Schulz said.

Newport Beach police monitored the situation but did not evacuate

the area, Hartford said.

But many residents weren’t clear if they should stay or go,

Wassall-Kelly said. She and her family decided to grab what they

could and leave for higher ground.

“We get in the car and the entire alley is full of people backing

out of their houses,” she said. “By the time we get to 20th Street,

you can’t move because the traffic is jammed.”

People who felt more comfortable leaving the area did the right

thing by evacuating, Schulz said. But if the area needed to be

evacuated, police and fire personnel would have made it clear with

sirens and announcements, she said.

“If we have an imminent threat, we would use all the resources

available to make an orderly evacuation,” Hartford said.

The best way to stay informed in any emergency is by tuning into

the Emergency Alert System, broadcast over most television and radio

channels, he said. That system gets information just as quickly as

police do, he said.

The city of Newport Beach has a section devoted to tsunamis on in

its emergency management plan. That plan is posted on the city’s

website.

The threat of a tsunami in Newport Beach is considered low to

moderate, according to the plan.

The plan includes an evacuation map for tsunamis and other

emergencies. Information about tsunami dangers is also in the most

recent Newport Navigator, distributed by the city.

Tsunamis and other emergencies are covered in the city’s Community

Emergency Response Team classes, Schulz said. The classes, which will

start again in September, teach people how to respond in emergencies.

The website for the classes also includes a list of items to keep

ready should an emergency arise.

But it’s important to think of those things ahead of time and not

wait until a disaster strikes, Schulz said.

Tuesday’s warning served as a wake-up call to many in the

community.

“That was a drill,” Wassall-Kelly said of Tuesday’s quake. “That

was a warning, and we’re not prepared.”