Rebuilding Crescent City Harbor

Crescent City is rebuilding its harbor following the devastating 2011 tsunami. RCAC’s short-term $3.7 million gap loan and $8.1 million revolving line of credit keep the project afloat between federal and state disaster funding disbursements.

Repairing the harbor, a major commercial fishing port for both Del Norte County and Northern California, is urgent in a county with 13.5 percent unemployment and a median household income of $20,133. Two hundred jobs depend directly on harbor facilities, and another 100 jobs indirectly. RCAC financing is critical to restoring the local fishing and tourism industries.

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Produced and Edited by Jeremy Raff
Music by Zacharias Flynn

Fishing town struggling in aftermath of tsunami

The aftermath of the March 11 tsunami in the inner boat basin in Crescent City. (NOAA's National Ocean Service/Flickr)

July 22, 2011 | Matt Drange

It’s been four months since tsunami waves generated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Japan ravaged the harbor in Northern California’s Crescent City, destroying pilings and sinking 16 boats after ripping them from their docks.

But the diminutive harbor is still a long way from functional, crippling to a local economy dependent on the fishing industry. Tsunami victims, meanwhile, are finding little help in disaster relief, much of it in the form of reimbursements and loans they can’t afford.

Excluding the inmates who reside in Pelican Bay State Prison, Crescent City is home to about 4,200 people. The town already took a significant hit when most of the lumber mills and fish processing facilities were shuttered in the last decade, forcing hundreds to leave in search of jobs. Once home to eight lumber mills and three fish processing plants, Crescent City is down to just one of each.

“In a small community, when you lose 100 jobs, it’s a big impact. Maybe five years ago, in the good ol’ days, if you will, it wouldn’t have been so bad,” said Bill Renfroe, executive director of Crescent City’s Tri-Agency Economic Development Authority. “But today, with everybody struggling, it’s a serious impact.”

Tsunami surges deposited more than 78,000 cubic yards of sediment in the inner boat basin, making it as shallow as 4 feet in some areas and effectively shutting out boats longer than 15 feet. The harbor is the largest dungeness crab exporter on the West Coast. At one time, it had more than 100 fishing vessels; now there are only a handful.

Read the rest here.

California City Charts Course in Tsunami’s Wake

By Tamara Audi

CRESCENT CITY, Calif.—Somewhere under the murky waters of this city’s demolished harbor lay the remains of Marty Lopez’s fishing business.

“That boat kept me alive for 27 years,” said Mr. Lopez, gazing out at the harbor where his boat, the Nellie, sank in the March 11 tsunami. The Nellie, like many boats here, wasn’t insured.

Japan’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed thousands and yielded an unfolding nuclear disaster. No one was hurt when the tsunami arrived in Crescent City, but the wave destroyed its harbor, threatening the economic future of the 157-year-old fishing village just south of Oregon.

Average Value of Commercial Seafood Landings 2000-2009 (Source: CA Dept. of Fish & Game)

“We’re fighting to survive,” said Richard Young, the harbor master, in an interview last week. He surveyed the damage to the small but vital fishing industry: Forty-seven boats—many of them part of the commercial fishing fleet of about 100 boats—were damaged, and 16 more were sunk.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Young told an official in another city where he had recently accepted a position as harbor master that he wouldn’t be taking the job. “Things are so bad here I just can’t leave,” he told the city official on the phone.

The harbor’s wooden docks are in pieces; chunks of broken concrete are pushed to the edges of the harbor. Masts and bows poke out of the water as divers work to map the underwater wreckage. Smashed boats are crushed against each other and the harbor wall.

Read the rest of the story at The Wall Street Journal.

Oregon Coast tsunami: Serious damage reports from Brookings, Crescent City ports

By The Oregonian

Friday, March 11, 2011, 2:30 PM

Reports of serious damage are coming from the Port of Brookings-Harbor in the wake of Friday’s earthquake-tsunami in Japan.

Chris Cantwell, the port’s operations supervisor said 70 percent of the port’s commercial basin was destroyed.

“A third of our sports basin destroyed. We have boats on top of another. Probably half-a-dozen sunk,” he told The Oregonian.

Cantwell said the first wall of water came in about 8:05 a.m. Friday. Three waves in all came in before 10 a.m. The third one inflicted the most damage.

“We had one fatality … dead body found in a boat. Not entirely sure the guy died during the tsunami. Possibly before,” he said.

Read the rest of the story here.

Crescent City harbor destroyed; 4 people swept into sea, 1 feared dead

Crescent City Harbor (Jeff Barnard / Associated Press)

By Mike Anton and Shan Li

Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

March 11, 2011, 12:01 p.m.

Eight-foot waves from the Japan tsunami destroyed much of Crescent City harbor, battered boats, closed the 101 Freeway and left one person missing.

KDRV-TV reported that four people were washed out to sea Friday. Three were hurt and one is feared dead.

Local residents reported that about three dozen boats were “crushed” in the harbor and that surging waters significantly damaged or destroyed most of the docks. Ocean water surging up Elk Creek north of the harbor reportedly lapped up to front doors of the community’s cultural center.

Read the rest of the story here.

Waves destroy Crescent City Harbor docks

Times-Standard

Posted: 03/11/2011 10:03:13 AM PST

Officials in Crescent City are reporting damage after tsunami waves began hitting the harbor this morning.

“The harbor has been destroyed,” said Crescent City Councilman Rich Enea in a phone interview at 9:45 a.m.  “Thirty-five boats have been crushed and the harbor has major damage. Major damage.”

Del Norte County Sheriff Cmdr. Bill Steven said most of the docks at the harbor are gone. Additionally, a recent surge filled the entire harbor and they are expecting that some of the other waves could send water into the harbor’s parking lot, Steven said.

Enea said no injuries have been reported at this point, which he attributed to plenty of tsunami preparedness exercises and the diligent work of first responders in sealing off the harbor.

The councilman said he’s heard about 100 people have shown up to a Red Cross shelter at Del Norte High School. He said tsunami waters have made it near the doors of the Crescent City Cultural Center, and he fears the worst is yet to come.

Read the rest here.