5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017
Pod: ‘All I do is think about disasters’
Continued from Page 1A
“All of their construction is
concrete, and it crumbled,” she
said.
It was time to look for
another option. But as she
began to look, she also began
dating a man from Astoria.
“I met the fella and started
coming down here on week-
ends and in the summer, and
it’s incredible. This coastline is
everything you would want,”
Johnson said. “The people are
so friendly and it felt a lot like
small-town America again.
And I was really glad to get
back to that.”
Once she decided that this
is where she wanted to be, she
had to give some consideration
to possible outcomes.
“Probably more consid-
eration than anyone proba-
bly would,” said Johnson, who
worked as a pandemic plan-
ner and with disaster recovery
groups earlier in her career.
“All I do is think about
disasters. And that’s what I was
paid to do for the majority of
my career.”
Johnson explained how she
had done nuclear bomb drills
when she was a kid. When she
married, she moved to Kan-
sas, where every spring there
are tornadoes. Her father went
on to retire in New Orleans,
where she lived through three
hurricanes.
“You just start to think of
those things. Not that it is going
to happen, but if it does, you’re
ready.”
Being prepared
“I really wanted to be at like
200 feet elevation in Sahalee
(the hillside neighborhood in
Ilwaco). Everyone wants the
house that is out of reach of the
tsunami.”
Johnson said her friends’
warned her about tsunamis.
“Three hundred years since
the last tsunami. The (Cascadia
Subduction Zone) is liable to
go,” Johnson recalled. “There
is geological proof that it goes
every 300 years. We’re over-
due. So you really don’t want
to be down low.”
But she said romanticism
drew her to the waterside.
“But I thought, you know, I
want to hear the waves. I want
to get to the beach (from her
home). I know up high is cool,
but why wouldn’t I just have a
shelter like I did (in Kansas)?”
And with this in mind, she
began to investigate the pos-
sibilities. She soon found that
an underground shelter wasn’t
practical on the giant sand bar
that is the peninsula.
“I started to do some online
research and found a lot of
options. There were hard plas-
tic containers you can get in.
And then I found information
on the NASA competition.”
In 2011, a former Boeing
engineer, Julian Sharpe, was
featured in the top 10 of the
NASA Create the Future con-
test. His design for a capsule
that could withstand a tsunami
intrigued Johnson.
“I’m very scientific in my
job, so I started to really get
into the details of his design.
It’s fantastic. It takes care of
all the fears you would have,
including fire. That’s the one
that nobody else covers.”
“You know,
people are
saying,
‘Oh great,
you’re under
a debris pile.’
But I’m alive.
That’s a good
problem to
have.”
Jeanne Johnson
Klipsan woman who owns a
tsunami pod
Johnson explained how
busted propane tanks would
leave pools of gas floating
on the water’s surface, easily
ignitable.
“Even if you could hold
onto something in the water.
Even if you were in a boat. The
fire would kill you.”
She said the things she
wanted protection from were
crushing, drowning, cold and
fire. Most tsunami experts sug-
gest that people will only have
around 20 minutes to evacu-
ate before a tsunami hits. John-
son knew that she didn’t want
to take her chances on the road,
and so looked for something
else she could do to save her-
self in that amount of time.
The savior?
“There’s no way you could
A — Outrun it. Or B — Deal
with the panic on the penin-
sula,” Johnson said when asked
why she was deciding to stay
at home, a short distance from
the beach, rather than running
for her life if the tsunami siren
went off.
She began calling manufac-
turers of various tsunami sur-
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6
vival devices, including the one
produced by the company that
Sharpe founded in Mukilteo,
Washington, called Survival
Capsule, LLC.
“I do business development,
and I’m curious about it. I’ve
started up companies in my
youth. I was curious how his
business was going. It’s a very
new idea — and a controver-
sial one.”
Sharpe told her that they
had been mostly doing work
in Japan. He also told her that
the company had been work-
ing with Dr. Eddie Bernard, the
director of the Pacific Marine
Environmental Laboratory, one
of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s
Oceanographic Research Labo-
ratories, since 1983. Bernard is
also considered one of the fore-
most experts on tsunamis in the
U.S.
“I felt like I was making a
really good choice. But then
(Sharpe) said they weren’t sell-
ing in the United States yet.”
Sharpe explained to her that
the need was greater in Japan
and so they had yet to begin
sales in the U.S.
“People in the U.S. may not
be in greater peril, however,
peril may exist,” Johnson said.
“I kind of pushed him a little bit
to sell in the United States now,
instead of later.”
And that’s how Johnson
became the first person in the
U.S. to purchase a Survival
Capsule. The 300-pound spher-
ical pod, which was deliv-
ered late last week, is simi-
lar in terms of size and interior
room to the Gemini space cap-
sules. The capsule also features
an aircraft-style door that seals
when closed.
“I got the two-person cap-
sule, and it’s really small,” she
said. A basic two-person cap-
sule costs $13,500 and the
four-person model sells for
$17,500. Six, eight and 10-per-
son models also are available.
Johnson was featured in
a TV news piece by KING 5
Seattle last week, and she noted
that many people did not have
very encouraging comments on
the story.
“A lot of people said, ‘Looks
like a coffin to me! Looks like
you’ll die in it. Good luck lady,
looks like you’re going to die
in the capsule,’” she recalled.
“Maybe I will, but I’m guar-
anteed to die otherwise. I’m 18
minutes from high ground if no
one is in my way.”
And while the capsule is
small, it has room for a variety
of items. Johnson said she’ll
have a bike helmet, Mustang
life preservers, flares, 40-days
worth of freeze-dried camping
food and water bladders inside
hers. Dr. Bernard suggests that
there would be a four-hour
window in which the tsunami’s
flooding would continue to take
place.
Johnson said she will also
have the ability to tether her
capsule via a 100-foot steel
cable connected to a concrete
plug in the ground outside her
house, essentially turning her
into a buoy. And in the event
that the water becomes deeper
than 100 feet, the sheer pin on
the cable will break, allowing
the pod to float freely. Inside,
the seats feature a four-point
harness. The water bladders,
when full, help create ballast
and keep it floating upright.
It has a ceramic lining to help
protect from heat and cold.
Larger models of the pod can
also feature two doors and dry
powder toilets.
You gotta die somehow
There are many “what-if’s”
when it comes to the Survival
Capsule. What if it breaks its
tether and floats out to sea after
the tsunami subsides? (The cap-
sule features a GPS beacon.)
What if the door is blocked by
debris? (Johnson said she has a
tool to bust out the small port-
holes and launch flares). What
if the hatch starts to leak? (She
plans to have multiple air tanks
and masks inside).
“You know, people are say-
ing, ‘Oh great, you’re under
a debris pile.’ But I’m alive.
That’s a good problem to have
I guess,” she said. “At least I’ve
survived. I’m still safer in there
than I would be outside.”
So despite knowing more
than most people about tsu-
namis, knowing the various
frightening outcomes, knowing
the chances of survival, why is
Johnson still willing to take the
chance?
“People asked me that when
I still lived in New Orleans,”
she said. “Because of all the
great things that New Orleans
has to offer every other day.”
She said for her, it’s a simi-
lar equation here.
“I lived in tornado alley (in
Kansas), where we had 200 tor-
nadoes every spring. I’ve hit 15
deer with a car in my lifetime.
Why on earth would you want
to live in Seattle where Mount
Rainier could blow and that
glacier could melt and every-
body would drown?
“I’m more likely to be killed
on I-405 by a kid on a cell-
phone than I am to be killed in
a tsunami here.”
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Trump announces ‘major’
voter fraud investigation
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump tweeted early
Wednesday that he is ordering a “major investigation” into
voter fraud, revisiting unsubstantiated claims he’s made repeat-
edly about a rigged voting system.
The investigation, he said, will look at those registered to
vote in more than one state, “those who are illegal and … even,
those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long
time).”
Depending on results, Trump tweeted, “we will strengthen
up voting procedures!”
Trump has been fixated on his loss of the popular vote in the
election and a concern that the legitimacy of his presidency is
being challenged by Democrats and the media, aides and asso-
ciates say.
Trump’s own attorneys dismissed claims of voter fraud in
a legal filing responding to Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s
demand for a recount in Michigan late last year.
“On what basis does Stein seek to disenfranchise Michi-
gan citizens? None really, save for speculation,” the attorneys
wrote. “All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general
election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.”
Trump draft order seeks review
on terror interrogations
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is consider-
ing a major review of America’s methods for interrogating ter-
ror suspects and the possible reopening of CIA-run “black site”
prisons outside the United States, according to a draft executive
order obtained by The Associated Press.
The order would also reverse America’s commitment to
closing the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
and instruct the Pentagon to send newly captured “enemy com-
batants” to the site.
The document instructs top national security officers to
“recommend to the president whether to reinitiate a program
of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated
outside the United States and whether such program should
include the use of detention facilities operated by the Central
Intelligence Agency.”
The document says U.S. laws should be obeyed at all times
and explicitly rejects “torture.”
But its reconsideration of the harsh interrogation techniques
banned by President Barack Obama and Congress is sure to
inflame passions in the United States and abroad. While some
former government leaders insist the program was effective in
obtaining critical intelligence, many others blame it for some of
the worst abuses in the “war on terror” after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks in the United States.
Trump moving forward with
border wall, weighs refugee cuts
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will begin roll-
ing out executive actions on immigration Wednesday, beginning
with steps to build his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico bor-
der, according to two administration officials. He’s also expected
to target so-called sanctuary cities and is reviewing proposals
that would restrict the flow of refugees to the United States.
The president is expected to sign the first actions — includ-
ing the measure to jumpstart construction of the wall —
Wednesday during a trip to the Department of Homeland Secu-
rity. Additional actions will be announced out over the next few
days, according to one official.
Trump is said to still be weighing the details of plans to
restrict refugees coming to the U.S. The current proposal
includes at least a four-month halt on all refugee admissions,
as well as temporary ban on people coming from some Muslim
majority countries, according to a representative of a public pol-
icy organization that monitors refugee issues.
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