Pacif­ic Coast of Amer­i­ca and Tsunami
After the Tsuna­mi orig­i­nat­ed by the Japan Earth­quake on Fri­day, March 11, 2011; then sev­er­al Amer­i­can coun­tries began to issue warn­ing, to their pop­u­la­tions locat­ed near the Pacif­ic Coast.
Mar­co Loar­ca, TG9ANM, ECAG AREA D of IARU R2; report­ed that dur­ing these day, the CRAG (Club de Radio Afi­ciona­dos de Guatemala), was able to main­tain com­mu­ni­ca­tion via VHF- UHF with radio oper­a­tors locat­ed near the Pacif­ic of Guatemala.
Jorge Sier­ra, LU1AS, ECAG Area G of IARU R2, report­ed that RECNA (Red Chile­na Nor Aus­tral), mon­i­tored the fre­quen­cy 7.070 and from 17:00 local hours, the VHF-UHF Net­work was activated.
Daniel Lam­oureux VE2KA, report­ed that there has been no dam­age from the Tsuna­mi, on West­ern Coast of Canada.
A.R.E.S (Ama­teur Radio Emer­gency Ser­vices) of the Cen­tral Cal­i­for­nia Coast, San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, on Fri­day, March 11, 2011, approx­i­mate­ly 08:00 AM PST, report­ed the follows:
Sirens wailed and reverse 911 alert­ed res­i­dents in low lying beach zones of San­ta Cruz Coun­ty today for the impend­ing dan­ger of the Tsuna­mi released as a result of the 8.9 earth­quake in Japan.
Ear­ly Fri­day morn­ing the San­ta Cruz Coun­ty A.R.E.S. Team acti­vat­ed the San­ta Cruz Coun­ty Tsuna­mi Resource Net in advance of the antic­i­pat­ed 5 to 7 foot wave. It was expect­ed to reach the San­ta Cruz Coast around 8:00 AM.
More than 30 local A.R.E.S. radio oper­a­tors staffed and manned served agen­cies includ­ing the San­ta Cruz Coun­ty Emer­gency Oper­a­tions Cen­ter, Evac­u­a­tion Cen­ters, The Red Cross, Sal­va­tion Army Corp Can­teen Truck One, San­ta Cruz Coun­ty Har­bor Coast Guard Aux­il­iary and a num­ber of local Fire Departments.
In addi­tion to the served agen­cies, a num­ber of hams pro­vid­ed remote obser­va­tion of the coast line and com­mu­ni­ca­tions capa­bil­i­ties at the evac­u­a­tion centers.
As expect­ed, the dev­as­tat­ing Tsuna­mi waves impact­ed the coast and did an esti­mat­ed 15 mil­lion dol­lars of dam­age to the San­ta Cruz Har­bor. More than 100 boats, includ­ing fish­ing ves­sels, plea­sure boats and yachts, were either dam­aged or sunk as a result of the waves.
San­ta Cruz was not alone in receiv­ing sig­nif­i­cant dam­age as a result of the pow­er­ful waves. Cres­cent City, locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 500 miles North of San­ta Cruz, also received heavy dam­age caus­ing Gov­er­nor Brown to declare these areas dis­as­ter zones. One per­son died as a result of being swept out to sea with the high waves.
73, Cesar Pio San­tos A. HR2P, EMCOR of IARU R2.