When the tsunami warning sounded this afternoon, KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson moved to higher ground, Homer High School, to meet the evacuees for this audio postcard.
Transcript:
KBBI:
Cathy Flores. Thanks for talking to me. You've got three cars and six people and a dog.
Flores:
This is my family. This is my son. This is my daughter, Serena, my granddaughter Mia, daughter Rosie. My daughter, Sarah, over there, and the dog, Buddy. We all live in different places. I live on Landing. She lives on Maddox. She lives on Klondike.
KBBI:
And everybody needed to get uphill? Oh, you're my neighbor. Do you make a plan ahead of time? Like," If this happens, we're all gonna meet up at the high school?"
Flores:
Yes, it's happened before, and this is what we do.
KBBI:
Which family member are you? You're Sarah Lusy. And you said you saw the water recede? Where were you ?
Lusy:
At my front door I could see, I could see the water from where I live and I could see the water receding back. I could see the ripple of it going back there. Pretty. And then, I got this and I looked and you could see it really clear.
KBBI:
That's a really nice scope.
Lusy:
Well, it's actually a telescope. You could see somebody on the side of that mountain.
KBBI:
So, you were on Klondike and you took out your scope, your telescope.....
Lusy:
See, I can just see the water was being a little weird, like different than it usually is. We had the scope, I looked through it and I could see the water going. You could see it going back.
(....basketball sounds.....)
KBBI:
Are you guys supposed to be in class right now?
Edson:
No. We homeschool. We live down on Kachemak Drive. So, we just got done with class.
KBBI:
And then the earthquake - did you feel it?
Eyoab:
We didn't feel it. One of our friends called, actually, and said that he felt it.
Edson:
I'm sure if you'd been paying attention, you could have felt it, but yeah, on the radio, they said it was 55 miles from Sandpoint 7.4 for the preliminary. So who knows if that's going to change.
KBBI:
Right. So you guys just came up here to evacuate and brought your basketball?
Edson:
(Gestures to a Great Dane)
KBBI:
Oh, how many of you do you have, what do you have?
Edson:
That Great Dane right there. And in the back of the other Land Rover is....
Eyoab:
...my Siberian Husky. That's a nine month old, Great Dane. She's still growing.
(...sounds of tsunami warning....)
KBBI:
Kathy Sagal, where do you live? I'm actually in the zone. I'm right across from Beluga Lake Lodge. I was cuddling with my cat at the time who's in the backseat. And I said, "That was an earthquake. We're going to get to tsunami warning. Just get ready 'cause we're leaving."
KBBI:
You've packed some things.
Sagal:
This is actually because I'm moving in about a week by Alaska ferry down to the lower 48. Almost everything I own is in this car.
KBBI:
So have you evacuated up here before? Yes, I have. I believe I've been a part of two other Tsnami evacuations.
(tsunami warning sounds ...out....)
