‘We’ve had these warnings before’ : Wave Threat Makes No Big Splash

Police switchboards were swamped with calls from jittery Orange County residents Wednesday night, asking when the 50-foot waves would hit their waterfront homes, and gawkers, hoping for the view of a lifetime, flocked to the beaches here to watch the swells.

But by late evening, the nervous had been fortified and the curious disappointed. The giant tsunami that was expected to hit the West Coast of the United States following a major Alaskan earthquake never materialized.

Debbie Ott and her Newport Beach family were gathered around a warm bonfire on the Balboa Peninsula late Wednesday, facing a very calm sea for what Ott jokingly called their “last hurrah.”

Her brother-in-law, Mitch Gray, had heard about the quake--which measured 7.7 on the Richter scale and struck the town of Adak, Alaska at 3:47 p.m.--on a television newscast earlier in the evening. He also had heard that the tsunami, or huge sea wave, might develop and hit the California coastline, reaching Orange County some time after 10:30 p.m.

Not Taken Seriously

But Gray didn’t take it all that seriously. He didn’t tell the rest of his family about the potential peril.

“We’ve lived here all our lives. We’ve had these warnings before, but nothing has ever happened,” Gray said.

Although deputies at the sheriff’s Harbor Patrol stations in Newport Beach and Dana Point were swamped with calls, they said there was no problem on county beaches.

“Nothing whatsoever,” said Capt. Harry Gage, county harbormaster. “There’s been nothing reported up along the coast. We understand there was some fluctuation of the water level in Hawaii, but no damage there.

“The wave was predicted to hit Crescent City (in northern California) at about 9:45 this evening and we haven’t heard anything from them,” Gage said. “People have been calling here who have been very very nervous, and we advise them that if there is a place for them to go, they should. If you’ve got an alternative, why sit and stew?”

As a precautionary measure, officials closed the Huntington Beach pier and the beach itself at 10:30 p.m. There were no other beach closures reported.

Just before the wave was expected to pass by Orange County, a crowd of about 250 people massed near the Huntington Beach pier. As they looked on, a lifeguard tried to coax a lone surfer out of the water with a bullhorn.

Switchboards Swamped

Orange County Fire Department switchboards, as well as those in most local beach cities, also were hit with calls, mostly from people who had concerned relatives on the East Coast.

Rick Harlow, 25, did not appear concerned as he ferried cars and people back and forth between Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island.

“If there was something serious going on, they would be telling us right now. Of course, those might be the famous last words,” Harlow said.

Harlow received updates on the wave via a marine band on the ferry’s radio. But most people walking through the Balboa Fun Zone late Wednesday night weren’t even aware that a quake had hit Alaska earlier in the day.

‘Nobody Pays Any Attention’

“Everybody just plays here. Nobody pays any attention until it hits,” said Nancy Will, an El Toro resident, who, with her husband, was showing Orange County’s beach sites to relatives from Colorado.

“What? Are you serious? That’s neat,” said Socrates Ostoposides, 20, who lives only feet from the ocean in the Newport Beach area. “It should be exciting. Maybe I’ll bring out my surf board.”

Ostoposides grudgingly admitted that the potential peril was “scary, but I don’t think it’s going to come.” He added that he and his girlfriend “will be out at the beach at 10:30.”

Jeff Morris, 19, a Long Beach City College student, was typical of the misinformed trudging the beaches in Orange County Wednesday night.

‘Thought It Was Just in Alaska’

Morris said he had spent the day surfing, heard about the quake and subsequent wave threat on the radio, but “I thought it was just in Alaska,” he said.

The surf was moderate at Seal Beach. A flag whipped slightly in the cool wind, the stars were out in force in the cloudless sky and there was a clear view of Long Beach and the Queen Mary. The pier was dotted with fishermen and couples.

Kelly Weise, 17, of Long Beach lounged on the pier, embracing her boyfriend.

When asked if she had heard about the wave warning, she said, “We sure have, and we came out here to watch it.”

And she wasn’t really afraid, she said, “not as afraid as I am of getting radiation poisoning (from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster). I’m deeply scared of that.”

Times staff writers Roxana Kopetman and Barry S. Surman contributed to this story.