Long May They Wave

In Southern California, a red sky in the morning may just mean another smoggy day and not necessarily a sailor’s warning. So the city of Long Beach has married initiative and technology to retain a century-old mariner’s tradition that seemingly had been doomed to the deep-six: the flying of a large red flag whenever a storm warning was in effect.

To save money, the National Weather Service announced several months ago that it no longer would notify every marina whenever small-craft advisories were being put into effect because of forecast high winds or storm conditions. Boaters would have to monitor the National Weather Service radio channel on their own.

But many mariners do not have radios on their boats and had become accustomed to watching for the large red flags that were posted when warnings were in effect. On Long Beach’s Alamitos Bay, for instance, the flag is flown over the city Marine Bureau office, easily visible to all boats headed out the channel for San Pedro Bay and the ocean. The bureau has followed the cumbersome procedure of monitoring the radio forecasts every two hours to see if warnings were in order.

With the help of Jan Hall, the Alamitos Bay-area City Council member, and the city Police Department, a better system was developed. The police routinely receive weather warnings by Teletype. Hall arranged for installation of data fax machines at the Police Department and Marine Bureau for instant transmission of a storm warning whenever it was received on the police Teletype. “It goes right to our office and the flags go up,” declared Marine Bureau Manager Dick Miller.

Now, the city is looking for a source for more flags since the Weather Service will stop supplying warning banners as soon as the existing supply is exhausted. If necessary, the Marine Bureau staff will make its own, Miller said. A sailor’s delight.