where tsunamis are a way of life<\/a>, the Tuesday evening barflies gathered at Port O\u2019Pints Brewing Co. were decidedly blas\u00e9 about the possibility of impending disaster.<\/p>\nThe TVs on the wall were still playing the Giants game and the CBS sitcom \u201cYoung Sheldon\u201d instead of CNN or local news. And the roughly two dozen patrons were drinking and relaxing, though plenty were looking at their phones.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople really don\u2019t start doing much until you hear the sirens. Right now, most people are just hanging out, waiting to see if it progresses. And if it progresses, you gotta go, go go,\u201d said bartender and Crescent City native Jacob Swift.<\/p>\n
This was far from his first tsunami-alert rodeo.<\/p>\n
When the tsunami advisory in the region was upgraded to a tsunami warning, patrons commented on it, then returned to their business, Swift said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get these fairly often. Often enough to where nobody\u2019s really panicking right now,\u201d Swift added.<\/p>\n
Port O\u2019Pints owner John Kirk picked up the phone and noted that despite being a ways from the rugged coastline, the bar was technically in the flood zone.<\/p>\n
Kirk, who works by day delivering babies as the county\u2019s only OB-GYN, said he wasn\u2019t drinking that night because he was on call.<\/p>\n
The vibe in his Irish brewpub remained fairly chill, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the water starts rolling up on us, well, somebody will probably run,\u201d he noted drily.<\/p>\n
Redondo Beach<\/p>\n
Manny Jimenez has worked at Old Tony\u2019s, a classic bar and seafood restaurant on the Redondo Beach Pier, for 42 years.<\/p>\n
Featuring souvenir mai tai glasses and faded photos of celebrities on its walls, the old-fashioned watering hole was built over the Pacific Ocean in 1952.<\/p>\n
Jimenez, 65, is now bar manager at Old Tony\u2019s, where he was at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. He told The Times that he had never heard of a tsunami damaging businesses on the pier.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig waves, yes, but not tsunamis,\u201d he said, noting that \u201c15-, 20-foot waves\u201d occasionally would cause some damage before the pier was rebuilt following a catastrophic fire on May 27, 1988.<\/p>\n
Jimenez said the laid-back nightspot would not be taking any extra precautions due to the looming tsunami and would close at midnight as usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything can happen. You never know. It\u2019s Mother Nature,\u201d he said as he gathered empty glasses patrons had left on the bar. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Beach<\/p>\n
The approaching tsunami was the topic of discussion outside the entrance of the Queen Mary, the iconic ship that has been docked in the Port of Long Beach since 1967.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got three hours until the tsunami hits,\u201d a man told his friends outside the entrance as they prepared to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe better get out of here then,\u201d a woman responded.<\/p>\n
Nearby, Madison Aguilera, 21, and her two friends, Azalia Ortiz, 23, and Omar Mora, 20, stood outside the ship.<\/p>\n
The trio were driving from Pico Rivera on the 710 Freeway to Long Beach when they got an alert about a tsunami. They said that, because the earthquake had occurred in Russia and the tsunami would likely not be very strong in Southern California, they decided to keep heading to the ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom was saying, \u2018Why are you going over there?\u2019\u201d Aguilera said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would affect us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three friends said they wanted to see the ship up close. They also wanted to see it from the inside because it was haunted.<\/p>\n
As Gloria Rodriguez, 57, waited in the parking lot for her partner and daughter to finish a tour that focused on the ghostly legends of the Queen Mary, the Sacramento resident was checking on family in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re going to be fine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said her relatives live near the water but that, because the tsunami had been all over the news, she was sure they were on top of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told us what time it\u2019s going to hit,\u201d Rodriguez said. But she didn\u2019t think a possible tsunami was as big deal in Long Beach. \u201cIt\u2019s only going to be a foot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hawaii<\/p>\n
Nearly two years to the day after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century decimated Lahaina, residents of the historic Hawaiian town once again found themselves bracing for nature\u2019s wrath.\u201dRight now, we\u2019re traumatized,\u201d said Dominga Advincula, a longtime resident of the foothill neighborhood where the Lahaina blaze ignited.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEvery hour, they make the sound of sirens for everybody to leave the ocean and it makes us traumatized again for what happened in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advincula\u2019s hillside home survived the 2023 fire, and it was where she and her family were gathered early Tuesday evening: Given the elevation, she hoped it would remain a safe shelter.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d been sent home from her job at a Kaanapali hotel after the warnings blared. Nearby roads were crowded with people trying to get to higher ground, she said.<\/p>\n
But she was optimistic that the worst would not come to pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, nothing will happen because everyone is aware this time,\u201d she said, in a reference to the 2023 blaze, when the island\u2019s sirens never rang, and many lacked sufficient warning of the flames. \u201cAnd its broad daylight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the Santa Monica Bay to Hawaii and beyond, coastal residents had their day upended by a faraway,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[19958,12883,67198,1582,276,67002,67195,2385,2961,224,5337,67197,3546,2331,8153,67196,67119,624,3427,14164],"class_list":{"0":"post-104080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bar","9":"tag-beach","10":"tag-bianca","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-california-coast","14":"tag-coastal-resident","15":"tag-day","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-manny-jimenez","20":"tag-people","21":"tag-phone","22":"tag-siren","23":"tag-tsunami-advisory","24":"tag-tsunami-alert","25":"tag-wall","26":"tag-wave","27":"tag-way"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114940729457392300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}