Northcoast Tsunami Center concept for Crescent City
CRESCENT CITY - Crescent City is the tsunami capital of continental America, with 38 tsunamis in the area since 1933. For that reason, the concept of a tsunami center on the north coast is getting some attention.
Crescent City Harbor Master, Charlie Helms presented the idea to the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning. The center would be an evacuation site but would also teach visitors interactively about tsunami threats and methods of prevention.
The center would be three stories, complete with conference rooms and a 3D/4D movie theater. If approved, Helms would go forward with finding corporate funding for the estimated ten million dollar project.
"You need to be alert, you need to be aware because these things will keep happening. So we thought it would be a good thing to have at the entrance to the harbor, an actual vertical evacuation site. This is something FEMA had studied back in 2008, if you can't get away quick enough, you need to get up out of the way. The harbor was reconstructed to withstand a 50 year tsunami. We're actually waiting for data from NOAA to see how high the water may go for a 50 or a hundred year tsunami," said Crescent City CEO Harbor Master, Charlie Helms.