PORT TOWNSEND — Wind-whipped waves that threatened to pummel Point Wilson Lighthouse last week took out a foghorn but failed to flood the historical lighthouse.
The lightkeeper’s house was less fortunate, with high waters flooding the seaside basement.
The grounds around the 1914 lighthouse and the lightkeeper’s house built in 1879 were left surrounded by drifts of sand, rock and wood debris, Coast Guard Auxiliary members found during a Monday morning damage assessment.
High westerly winds and tides Thursday and Friday combined to thrust waves over and through sections of $250,000 worth of rock armoring, flooding the property.
“This one has done the most damage that I’ve seen,” said Dave Fraseur, who has overseen the lighthouse for Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 47 for 10 years.
Fraseur and other Port Townsend and Port Angeles Coast Guard Auxiliary members on Monday morning walked the lighthouse site adjacent to Fort Worden State Park and inspected the lighthouse and nearby lightkeeper’s home.
Closer to the water
Both structures are now within 100 feet of the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and are protected by the rock wall and little more.
Fraseur, from the top of the lighthouse on Monday, called Coast Guard Group Port Angeles, alerting officials there about the damage.
Less than an hour later, a Coast Guard helicopter flew over the site then left.
Auxiliary members voiced concerns about the loss of the foghorn, which they said left Port Townsend Bay with foghorns only at the Port Townsend ferry terminal and on Marrowstone Island.
Attempts to contact a Coast Guard public affairs officer for comment Monday were unsuccessful.
