Wreck topples tsunami siren

PORT ANGELES — Parts of the city of Port Angeles have been left without a warning system in the event of a Cascadia earthquake and resulting tsunami after the alert siren near Boat Haven on Marine Drive was toppled from its support pole during a traffic wreck early Friday morning.

Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Cameron, who also serves as the county’s emergency management director, said he hoped that other area sirens would be enough to provide adequate warning should a tsunami occur before the destroyed one could be replaced.

“Well obviously we have to rely on the other two sirens,” he said Friday morning. “We have one out by the (Morse Creek) estuary and then we have one at First and Lincoln. So hopefully they’ll reach down this far.”

Cameron said the siren is operated by the Emergency Management Division of the Washington Military Department, but that the county kept it operational locally. It was one of 122 warning sirens scattered along coastal waters around the state.

“The tsunami sirens are actually installed by the state,” he said. “We maintain the batteries and take on some of the responsibility for it, but the state will have to be the ones to come back and fix it.”

In Clallam County, sirens are located at La Push, Neah Bay and other locations on the Makah Reservation, Hoko River, Clallam Bay and Sekiu the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation, Port Angeles, the Dungeness and Jamestown communities north of Sequim, Blyn and Diamond Point.

In Jefferson County, three warning sirens are stationed around Port Townsend with additional Pacific coastal units near the Hoh reservation and at Queets.

Cameron and Patrol Sgt. John Keegan watched on Friday as a public utilities truck from the City of Port Angeles hoisted the crumpled unit onto a county-run trailer to be hauled off to a county storage yard. Cameron said that it might be possible that the state could salvage parts from it.

But with a key siren out of commission in Clallam County’s biggest population center, the temporary gap in warning coverage could be a concern, Cameron noted.

“We hope to get it back up as soon as we can,” he said.

The toppled siren was discovered as the result of police responding to two men arguing at the Fairchild Heights apartments, said Port Angeles Police Corporal Bruce Fernie.

When police arrived, the two men were arguing about a recent collision, according to the arrest report. After interviewing the men, an officer drove to the 700 block of West Marine Drive and discovered the downed siren, it stated.

David W. Jackson, 35, Port Angeles was arrested for investigation of DUI and hit-and-run attended property damage. He was still in the Clallam County jail early Friday afternoon in lieu of $1,500 bail or $15,000 bond.

Karina Shagren, Washington State Military Department communications director, wrote in a Friday afternoon email, “Our hazards program is tracking. I’m told our emergency management division is currently working with our partners in Port Angeles to figure out next steps.

“The state doesn’t actually own that siren, Clallam County does. Obviously, we will work with them to help get it resolved.”

Shagren also wrote that the sirens are just one way to get tsunami alerts, and it’s important to be signed up for other ways as well, which people can learn about at https://mil.wa.gov/alerts.

In a Friday afternoon email, Cameron wrote that the timeline for replacement is unknown, as is the potential cost.

“We have expert installers at the state. We have placed a call into the division that is charge of this at state. We are trying to see if we have a cost estimate available.

“Again, the state takes the responsibility for the installation and the siren itself, and we locally are responsible to pay the power bill, which is nominal, and we replace the backup batteries.”

Cameron wrote that in the interim, that area simply will receive no coverage. Until the siren is repaired, there is another one near the estuary, and one at First and Lincoln.

“With any luck, people in the vicinity of the boat haven may hear those. We will also send out a focused alert to that area via our Code Red, which sends out an emergency message to any hard lines and subscribers in that area, and an IPAWS, an acronym for Integrated Public Alert Warning System.

This will allow us to send out an alert to cell phones that are in the area at the time.”

The regular tests on the other sirens will continue as normal, according to Cameron.

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Photojournalist Keith Thorpe can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 59050, or at kthorpe@peninsuladailynews.com.

Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.