SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 VOL. 48, NO. 8 75¢ islandssounder.com
The reality of a tsunami
A special evening of music – page 9
Sheriff responds to Sounder crime survey by CALI BAGBY Assistant Editor
The map shows levels of tsunami inundation on the islands. Orange represents 16 - 18 feet, dark pink 14 - 16, purple 4 - 6 and blue 0 - 2. The map was created by county staff. by CALI BAGBY Assistant Editor
Big tsunamis come every 300 to 600 years, and the last one for the west coast was 315 years ago, which means a disaster could be headed our way. “There are a number of quake scenarios that could impact the islands,” said Brendan Cowan, director of the county’s Department of Emergency Management. “All are real, and could potentially happen tomorrow.” The good news is that when the tsunami comes islanders can be ready. According to the DEM’s new webpage entitled Common Tsunami Questions, “In the most likely scenario, San Juan County will have plenty of warning (due to the large quake we feel) before a tsunami in the form of an extremely large earthquake.” The tsunami could come in 45 minutes or less after a large quake, which is defined as rating 5.0 or greater on the logarithmic scale. Although 9.0 would be incomprehensibly larger than a 5.0,
Cowan describes both as large enough to cause concern. “In general, the larger the quake, the bigger the tsunami, but there’s an almost limitless number of scenarios that could cause a tsunami,” he said. “By focusing on the 9.0 quake with our maps, we’re looking at the most studied/best understood and one of the potentially most damaging events.” What complicates matters is that not all quakes cause tsunamis. The quake has to lift the sea floor to be followed by a tsunami, and according to Cowan, the majority of undersea quakes don’t cause a tsunami. To understand how likely it is that a tsunami is headed our way one has to look back to 1700 – and a forest submerged by salt water. For many years quake experts believed that the closest fault, the Cascadia subduction zone, was safely aseismic. When they found mysteriously sunken Northwest forests that appeared to have been killed by salt intrusion in the year 1700, their
SEE TSUNAMI, PAGE 6
San Juan County Sheriff Ron Krebs said he was not surprised to find that 59 percent of 240 participants in a recent poll said drug activity was their main worry when it comes to crime in island communities. “I knew that was a primary concern,” said Krebs. He already has some plans in place to address these issues, but cannot share specific tactics with the public at this time. “We are going to be paying more attention to places where there are known drug hangouts in Friday Harbor and other places where there are concentrated areas of activity,” said Krebs. “We will also focus on the way drugs are getting on the island.” Drugs was one of several topics in the poll, which was created by the Islands’ Sounder in January. A total of 268 islanders responded to the poll – 33 answers were skipped. See the results of the survey on page 7. What Krebs found most startling about the poll was that only 16 percent of survey responders checked excellent in response to deputies’ professionalism in their interactions with the community. “My goal is to change that quickly,” said Krebs. “There is absolutely no reason that our deputies should not be professional and friendly in our community.” Krebs said the perception of unprofessional deputies may be because the memory of the Christmas Eve incident in Friday Harbor. The incident involved Deputy Felix Menjivar pulling over a San Juan Island man driving a trailer, which carried more than a dozen holiday carolers, including several children. The ensuing verbal exchange between the driver and Menjivar became heated and, according to several witnesses, that dispute nearly escalated into an altercation. Witnesses say that at one point the deputy lunged at the driver, but was restrained by a second officer who arrived at the scene. Krebs said he would not be surprised if this image of the deputy was still fresh in the community’s memory.
“They should remember,” said Krebs. “It was fairly recent and a big incident in our town.” Krebs, who was sworn in as sheriff in January, has several goals to improve the sheriff ’s department. His three-month plan includes getting his deputies “back on track.” The new sheriff said the recent sheriff election in November and a lack of morale in the department has been a problem. Now that the elections are over, Krebs said, “We can focus on keeping the community safe, which is our job.” His other goal is to increase training on dispatch due to complaints about a lack of unprofessionalism. “We are building a strong foundation and building on that,” Krebs said. Other plans in the works are to hold town hall meetings so he can stay informed about the issues affecting each island. “Without knowing people’s concerns, it’s really a guessing issue,” said Krebs. “I know there are big issues out there and I want to focus on those concerns and make people feel safe.”
SEE SURVEY, PAGE 7
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