Ore. town asks for aid to fix harbor hit by tsunami

BROOKINGS, Ore. — With plastic foam and splintered piers still floating in the harbor, local officials said Saturday they’ll quickly begin seeking government aid to rebuild moorings for fishermen at Brookings.

The tsunami that rolled in the day before from Japan severely damaged the commercial side of the harbor and inflicted a lesser amount of damage on the area for sport fishing and pleasure boats.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley toured the harbor Saturday, after which Curry County Chairman George Rhodes said the commissioners would meet Sunday to start the work to get disaster aid. Typically, that involves disaster declarations that open up recovery programs.

The Oregonian newspaper said that neither the local officials nor the visiting politicians would venture an estimate of how much it would cost.

Local officials need outside expertise to start working up estimates, Kitzhaber’s press secretary, Christine Miles, told The Associated Press.

“They really don’t have that yet,” Miles said. “They don’t have someone there who can give them a good ballpark figure. They need that.”

Commercial fishing in the area has long struggled, and a handful of fishermen attended a press conference with Kitzhaber and Merkley, corralling aides at the conclusion to plead for federal help for the fishing industry.

The damage at Brookings came shortly after Kitzhaber and other state officials had a press conference in Portland on Friday morning, when it appeared that no major damage had been done along Oregon’s coast.

Residents told the Oregonian newspaper there were several surges, but the third was the one that did in the harbor, sinking or beaching seven vessels and ripping out docks.

Commercial fisherman Jim Cross said it came at about 11 a.m. His was one of about 60 commercial craft in the harbor, and he was not among the dozen who pulled their vessels out to sea as a precaution. His escaped with scratches, but others banged hard into each other.

“That was just sickening to watch and listen to,” Cross said, “all them boats crunching over each other.”

Two people swept into the sea north of Brookings said they were unaware of the Japanese earthquake or the tsunami warning when they were walking along the beach near the mouth of the Pistol River.

Julian Bournovielle, 28, of Medford told the Medford Mail Tribune that he and his sister, Ali Fjeldos, 22, of Tremonton, Utah, were with friends at a local campground and went walking along the water line, thinking it was near low tide. They were swept into the water by large waves, he said.

Bournovielle said he managed to save himself. He and others including fire and law enforcement officers rescued his sister. She was treated and released, and went home to Utah Saturday.

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