Last week’s tsunami advisory highlighted the reasons two West End tribes, the Hoh and the Quileute, are seeking higher ground.
The Hoh tribe is close to finally putting 425 acres of land into trust, a move that will allow it to relocate much of its reservation out of a tsunami and flood zone.
In December, Congress approved a bill that transfers 37 acres of the park to the tribe and places another 425 acres it bought over the past three years into trust.
But Hoh interim Executive Director Bob Smith said the tribe still needs to finish some paperwork to make it final.
“As soon as we get everything done, we can start moving, start the process,” he said.
That should be done shortly, with construction of a fire station on the land beginning this summer, Smith said.
Flooding is a nearly constant problem for members of the West Jefferson County tribe, located on one square mile of land at the mouth of the Hoh River.
But the threat of a tsunami has always been in the back of their minds, Smith said.
While he called the response to last week’s tsunami advisory from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center as merely “good practice,” he said it illustrates the reasons why the tribe wants to move to higher ground.
“It will be less for us to worry about,” Smith said. “It will be a lot better.”
Once the fire station, which will double as an emergency response center, is built, the tribe will seek funding for the construction of new homes.
That could be at least another year away, Smith said.
The new homes will allow tribal members to move away from the edge of the river and Pacific Ocean.
Smith said the tribe was prepared to evacuate its members from the lowlands during the advisory, but no order was given since the waves weren’t expected to be worse than on a stormy day.
The Quileute tribe, which has been seeking land out of the tsunami zone for some 50 years, evacuated some of its residents Thursday evening in response to the tsunami advisory and closed its school, which is on low-lying land.
The tribe, which sits at the mouth of the Quillayute River, is waiting on legislation to move through Congress that would give it 772 acres of Olympic National Park land.
The land would be used to move much of its reservation away from the water’s edge and out of danger.
A bill, introduced last December by Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, is waiting to be heard by the House Committee on Natural Resources. Dicks represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
Quileute Chairwoman Bonita Cleveland couldn’t be reached for an interview but said in a statement that Japan’s earthquake, and the resulting tsunami, showcases a “global need for education and awareness,” including the tribe’s need “to move to higher ground.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@ peninsuladailynews.com.
