More tsunami sirens planned

County, tribe get grants for alarm system

  Del Norte County and the Yurok Tribe will significantly increase the brigade of tsunami sirens in the region after both received money from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Together, the tribe and the county will be able to buy and install 10 or 11 more sirens, be able to activate them with a push of a button, and provide the warning devices to communities that currently do not have them.

Grant funds are coming separately to the two entities. The county is expecting to receive about $122,000 and the Yurok Tribe nearly $194,000.

Del Norte County Emergency Services Manager Cindy Henderson said the sirens installed with this money will significantly increase the audible coverage area of inundation zones from 16 percent to 95 percent.

Currently, the only sirens in Del Norte County, outside of Klamath, are located at the Crescent City Harbor, the Flynn Administration Center on 9th Street and at the Smith River Rancheria, Henderson said.

With the $122,000 grant, the local Office of Emergency Services plans to buy six more sirens, three for Crescent City, one for the Smith River area, and two more that will be place in other parts of the county. The money will also be used to ensure all these sirens, as well as existing ones, have remote activation technology that can be set off from the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office.

“When all is this is done,” Henderson said, “We’ll have nine remotely activated siren systems in place.”

Only the tsunami siren atop the Flynn Administration Center can now be remotely activated.

Through its grant, the Yurok Tribe also plans to upgrade its tsunami warning system with push-button activation, as well as expand its coverage area to isolated communities around the reservation, such as Weitchpec and Tulley Creek.

Yurok Tribe Emergency Services Coordinator Labecca Nessier said the $194,000 will be used to buy and install sirens in remote parts of the reservation. Some of these, she said, will use solar power because there is no infrastructure in place to run them.

“These are locations where there’s not power or phone or radio,” Nessier said. “It’s kind of important to get something up there.”

The grant will also be used to install another siren in Klamath. Right now there are three in the community, she said, but only one can be remotely activated. But like the county, Nessier said the money from the grant will be used to make sure all the sirens include the remote activation technology.

For the Yurok Tribe, these sirens are part of an effort to make the Klamath area tsunami-ready. The tribe will be installing evacuation route signs Monday, and later that week will receive its official tsunami readiness certification.

But Nessier said just because the tribe has made significant strides in the past couple years, there’s always more that can be done.

“There’s always places to grow,” she said. “It’s an ongoing process to maintain and keep the community educated and prepared as much as possible.”

Humboldt County also received more than $100,000 as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association grant.

Tsunami drill 

Del Norte County will take part in a “live code” tsunami test March 25. The drill will also include Humboldt and Mendocino counties but will not involve evacuations. It is meant to test communications systems that would be used if a real warning was being issued.