A tsunami advisory ended Friday evening without much more than a splash felt on the North Olympic Peninsula’s shores.
The magnitude 8.9 quake near Japan and the aftershocks that followed led to slightly higher waves along the coast of Clallam and Jefferson counties, but none were higher than could be seen on a stormy day.
The tide was already on its way out when quake-produced waves arrived at about 7 a.m. Friday, said Jayme Wisecup, a program coordinator with the Clallam County Emergency Management Department.
None of the waves were reported to have reached the high-tide mark, she said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — or NOAA — said the quake increased wave height by 1.9 feet near Port Angeles, 1.7 feet in LaPush, 1 foot in Neah Bay and 0.4 feet in Port Townsend.
At the Hoh reservation in West Jefferson County, wave height did not exceed 2.5 feet, Hoh interim Executive Director Bob Smith said.
“There may have been a wee bit of surge,” he said.
“If you weren’t just sitting there looking for it, you would have missed it.”
At the Makah reservation in Neah Bay, the largest reported wave reached all the way up the beach into nearby grass, said Police Chief Sam White.
No sirens sounded
No tsunami sirens were used because tsunami warning buoys across the Pacific Ocean did not project a major wave hitting the Peninsula’s coast, said Penny Linterman, a Clallam County emergency management program coordinator.
Three tribes on the Peninsula moved residents away from the coast.
Dozens of Makah tribal members living along the shore were moved inland at 6 a.m. Friday. They were allowed to return after a few hours.
In LaPush, the Quileute tribe encouraged its approximately 350 to 400 lower village residents to move uphill to the A-ka-lat Center.
An estimate of how many went to the center early Friday morning was not available.
The tribe also canceled school for the day.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, located just west of Port Angeles along the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 75 miles from the Pacific Coast, evacuated four families from low-lying areas at 6 a.m.
They were notified a few hours later that it was safe to return.
Ediz Hook Road closed
In Port Angeles, Ediz Hook Road along the Port Angeles Harbor was closed from about 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday as a precaution.
Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles at the tip of Ediz Hook was staffed with only critical personnel during that time period.
White said it was the first time in at least 3½ years that Neah Bay residents have had to be evacuated as the result of a tsunami warning.
“We have an observation of water reaching the grass line but not reaching the banks of the coast,” he said.
White said it takes four hours to do a complete evacuation of Neah Bay.
“The coastline is the first [place] we worried about, so that’s where we started,” he said.
At the south end of the Olympic Peninsula, about 60 elderly people ate a pancake breakfast at the Grays Harbor Fire District No. 8 station in Moclips after they agreed to a recommended, but not mandatory, evacuation.
Farther south, about 550 people were evacuated briefly in Pacific County.
When the tsunami hit, a wave of 2 feet was recorded at Westport.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporters Paul Gottlieb and Paige Dickerson contributed to this story.
