August 7, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
New Yorker story stirs fears, provides dubious advice
I
just want to thank The New
Yorker magazine for letting
us all know that a hugely de-
structive earthquake and tsunami
could hit us at any time.
If it hadn’t been for that story,
we on the North Coast might never
have realized the danger we are in.
It’s not like I and other local
journalists — including author
Bonnie Henderson, who wrote
the book, “The Next Tsunami:
Living on a Restless Coast” —
haven’t been writing about this
for many years.
Entitled “The Really Big One”
with a subhead, “The earthquake
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Northwest,” the story, written by
Katherine Schulz in the July 20
New Yorker, is accompanied by
a topographical map of the west
coast of North America in red.
At the coastline, from south of
the California border extending to
beyond Canada, the map looks like
it has been ripped apart; a wide
jagged band of white — resem-
bling a huge wave — covers all of
the west coast and heads east.
The caption next to the illustra-
tion says, “The next full rupture of
the Cascadia subduction zone will
spell the worst natural disaster in
the history of the continent.”
Scary, huh?
I have followed the Cascadia
subduction zone earthquake and
tsunami story for over eight years.
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2007 included an interview with
Rob Witter, formerly of the Ore-
gon Department of Geology and
Mineral Industries (now with the
U.S. Geological Service in Alas-
ka), who had just discovered that
sand originally from the beach in
Cannon Beach had been thrown
about a mile east of what is now
U.S. Highway 101 during a past
tsunami. Witter made the discov-
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mining its properties and age in
several areas between the beach
and forest east of town.
State geologists created a new
map for Cannon Beach, showing
that land higher than 30 feet in el-
evation wasn’t as safe as experts
originally thought. The tsunami
inundation zone now reached 80
feet high.
With that news, the research in-
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Coastal and Ocean faculty, along
with staffers from DOGAMI,
roamed the coast, seeking clues
revealing the potential intensity
and destructive path of the next
Cascadia earthquake and tsunami.
They wrote reports about the
sturdiness of local schools and
other buildings. They created
a model of the city of Cannon
Beach in OSU’s wave research
laboratory, knocked it down with
model tsunami waves and stud-
ied their effect, then recreated the
I MPRESSIONS
B Y
NANCY
McCARTHY
The potential Cascadia
earthquake and tsunami
isn’t news to us.
town and started all over again.
They created a computer sim-
ulation of Seaside, showing how
long it would take a tsunami to
reach shore, then Necanicum
Drive, then the highway and Wah-
anna Road and how many people
would die as the waves washed
over them.
A similar computer simulation
was done for Cannon Beach, as
well, showing how many people
might make it across the Fir Street
Bridge and to high ground on the
north side, as well as to other ele-
vated areas in town.
A year after the 2011 tsunami
hit Japan, the principal from Kes-
ennuma Junior High School in
5 Minutes with…
Michael Soprano
there was another retail bakery in
Seaside?
A: No. We moved here in 2006
and I believe they all had already
closed down since then. Talking
with the locals here, I heard many
stories of Harrison’s Bakery that
was here forever and a lot of the
reminiscing about the old baker-
ies here. And the entire commu-
nity is so excited to have another
one again. It’s been too long. You
know I grew up in the South, so
even though this is a busy town,
it’s still a small town and every
small town needs little small-
town, homey businesses, like a
small bakery. When I put this
place together, that’s the kind of
the vision I had. As you can see,
there’s the old-school display cas-
es, and a lot of the history is still
here. The built-ins behind the cas-
es on the wall there are actually
original to the building. They’ve
been here forever. The old safe
next to the cash register has been
here for who knows how many
decades, used over the years. I
just wanted this to look like it’s
always been here and I wanted
when people walked in for them to
have a nostalgic feeling. Between
the decor and the atmosphere and
then tasting all the stuff I have in
The City of Gearhart
Community
Emergency
Response Team will host
an informational work-
shop, Wednesday, Aug.
15, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the
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transcend it from simply following
a recipe or mixing ingredients and
transform it into a true culinary art?
Q: How long has this been something A: It is an art form, just like any-
thing else. I’m not classically
you wanted to do?
trained. I’m self-taught, but still
A: I’ve baked on the side, on my there has to be that creativity be-
own, just about my entire life. hind it, and that passion behind
When I was pretty young, my it, just like if you were painting
mother used to do it a lot for family a piece of art to hang in a gal-
and friends. And I was the young- lery. Anyone can kind of connect
est son, so I was always in the the dots and make it look like
kitchen helping out. That’s where something else, or make it taste
the love of baking started. And like something else, but I enjoy
I’ve always enjoyed it. I actually pairing unique combinations, I
have a background in electronics, enjoy recreating the stuff I re-
and this isn’t really a technology member enjoying as a kid. And
driven area. So that necessity for then as far as with the custom
a career out here kind of rekindled cakes, I really enjoy that side
that love of baking and enough too. I was always an artist grow-
people said, “My goodness, you ing up. I love doing that kind of
need to sell this. It’s amazing.” I thing. And I’ve said before, this
¿QDOO\OLVWHQHGWRWKHPDIHZ\HDUV is just kind of artistry with icing.
ago, and it’s just grown faster than I enjoy creating those and peo-
I thought imaginable.
ple seeing them and enjoying
them. If there was no such thing
as bills, I would probably do it
Q: What do you think it takes for a
for free. I love watching people
person to take baking or cooking, and
enjoy it that much.
highlight countywide alert
systems, personal and fam-
ily safety and preparedness
including demonstrations
and displays. Countywide
tsunami maps will be
available.
Encore Dance Studio
to host open house
Encore Dance Studio
will hold an open house
and customer appreciation
barbecue to kick off the
studio’s 20th anniversa-
ry celebration. Festivities
take place at 3631 High-
way 101 North in Gear-
hart, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 4
to 6 p.m.
Instructors will be avail-
able to answer questions,
give studio tours and help
students choose classes
for the fall. Dancewear
will also be available for
purchase. Online registra-
tion is open now at www.
getyoudancing.com.
This fall encore is offer-
ing more than 70 classes
per week in two locations.
Classes are available for
all ages from 2 1/2 to adult.
School bus drop-off and
transportation is available
from Seaside Heights. For
more details, visit www.
getyoudancing.com or call
503-717-1637.
Q: What are some of your favorite
Probably the biggest thing is just
doing things outdoors with my
family. This is a great place to live
to be able to do that kind of stuff.
A: I enjoy it all. Some of the spe-
the cases — I wanted it to take
them back to their childhood. And
so far I think we’ve been pretty
successful. I get a lot of, “Oh, this
reminds me of my grandmother’s
house,” or, “Oh, this reminds me
of what my aunt used to make.”
I get a lot of that, which is what
I love.
Gearhart to host
CERT workshop
But we already knew that,
didn’t we? Well, at least the rest
of the nation knows now.
My question is this: Will The
New Yorker story make any dif-
ference in our urgency to prepare
for an event that, geologically
speaking, could happen any time?
I hope so, because, to be honest,
no matter how much we local
journalists covered it, our stories
never garnered as much attention
as this one story has.
But what’s going to be inter-
esting on a whole other level is
the local fallout from the July 28
New Yorker’s follow-up story to
Schulz’s original article.
Schulz answers several ques-
tions that arose following her ini-
tial story. This is what she advises
tourists:
“If you are an out-of-town-
er planning to spend a night in
the tsunami zone: don’t....Go to
the coast by day, for sure. But if
you’re staying overnight, book
a vacation rental, hotel room or
campsite outside the inundation
zone.”
For the coastal towns that de-
pend on overnight visitors, this
New Yorker story might portend
another, immediate disaster.
Nancy McCarthy recently
retired as editor of the Seaside
Signal and the Cannon Beach
Gazette. Her column appears
monthly.
things to make? Or do you have
specialties?
Get to know Michael Soprano, the owner of Three Little Birds Bakery, which recently
opened a retail store on North Holladay Drive. Soprano originally is from Asheville,
N.C., but moved to Seaside in 2006 with his family. He baked and sold custom-made
cakes wholesale for about three years before opening his retail store in late June.
Q: Do you remember a time where
the Tohoku region told the story
of how his school, at an elevation
of 150 feet, became a shelter for
six months. At least 16,000 peo-
ple died in the 9.0 earthquake and
resulting tsunami, considered to
be the most devastating natural
disaster ever to hit Japan.
Locally, residents in Seaside,
Cannon Beach and Gearhart cre-
ated committees and prepared
for the Big One. They conduct-
ed drills, stored supplies, trained
Community Emergency Response
Teams and continued to perform
myriad other tasks to ensure the
public’s safety. State geologists
drew new tsunami maps for all of
the Oregon coast.
And at each step, I and other
reporters were there, updating our
readers and listeners on the latest
developments. Some people paid
attention and prepared. Others
ignored it. Until The New York-
er writer discovered that the west
coast faced potential, overwhelm-
ing disaster.
“When the next full-margin
rupture happens,” Schulz wrote,
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west) will suffer the worst natural
disaster in the history of North
America.” It will kill 13,000 peo-
ple and injure another 27,000, she
says, citing the Federal Emergen-
cy Management Agency’s esti-
mates. Shelter will be needed for
1 million people.
cialties that, since we’ve been
open, have really stood out: my
Almond Joy bars, or my version
of an Almond Joy bar. Those sell
out daily. I can’t make enough. I
probably sell about 50 of those
per day. I also do a raspber-
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out daily, as well. That was one
I actually just tried as a variation
on the standard cinnamon roll and
it’s become a hit and I have to do
them every day now to keep up
with demand.
Q: You were once involved in the
electronics industry. Do you miss it at
all?
Seaside City Council Meeting, 7
p.m., Seaside City Hall, 989 Broad-
way, Seaside, Council Chambers.
Sunset Empire Park & Recre-
ation District Board Meeting,
5:15 p.m., Bob Chisholm Commu-
nity Center, 1225 Ave. A.
Thursday, August 13
Monday, Aug. 24
Gearhart Planning Commis-
sion, 7 p.m., Gearhart City Hall,
698 Pacifi c Way.
Seaside City Council Meeting, 7
p.m., Seaside City Hall, 989 Broad-
way, Seaside, Council Chambers.
Wednesday, Aug. 19
Tuesday, Sept. 1
Seaside Tourist Advisory
Committee, 3 p.m., City Hall, 999
Broadway.
A: I do. I have three girls. They’re
the “three little birds.” The bak-
ery is named partly after them and
partly after the Bob Marley song.
Q: Have any of your daughters shown
an affi nity for baking?
A: All of the kids love helping out,
especially the taste-testing part.
Q: What are some of your favorite
outdoor, recreational things to do?
A: We do a lot of small road trips.
There are too many to mention
times that we’ve just said, “Hey,
A: Honestly, no. About three we’ve never been down that road.
years ago, when I transitioned to Let’s see where it goes.” We do
custom cakes, was one of those that a lot with the family. The kids
mid-life epiphanies. I realized VHHP WR ORYH LW:H ¿QG D ORW RI
that I was good at electronics, neat, interesting, out-of-the-way
but I didn’t enjoy it. So it was places that way. Just pack a picnic
WLPHWR¿QGVRPHWKLQJ,GLGHQMR\ and pile in the van and just drive.
doing. Opening up a bakery here
is very hard work. I mean, I fall Q: What is your favorite part of
asleep quickly when my head hits Seaside?
the pillow. But at least now I fall
A: Growing up in the South, I re-
asleep with a smile on my face.
ally love the Southern hospitality.
And here it’s a lot the same, just
Q: What sort of things do you like to
without the accents. I love the
do in your free time?
fact that this community is really
A: Right now I don’t have much. involved with bettering itself and
I do have a family with kids. I everyone here is friendly. It’s re-
love spending time with them — ally helped me transition to move
doing barbecues, things like that. from the East Coast and not be
I enjoy woodworking. As a matter so homesick. I mean, this is my
of fact, the cases here, I built my- home now. I really love it here.
— Katherine Lacaze
self. So I enjoy that kind of thing.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Monday, Aug. 10
Q: So you have kids?
Seaside Planning Commission, 7
p.m., Seaside City Hall, 989 Broad-
way, Seaside, Council Chambers.
DEATH
July 17, 2015
HALFORD, Nathaniel ‘Nathan’ Bradley, 30, of Sea-
side, died in Seaside. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary in Sea-
side is in charge of the arrangements.
2I¿FLDOVFHOHEUDWH)RRG%DQNGHEXW
The South County Com-
munity Food Bank celebrat-
ed its successful community
driven campaign during an
ice-cream social and rib-
bon-cutting ceremony July
25 at the food pantry’s new
facility on North Roosevelt
Drive.
The site opened in Janu-
ary after volunteers moved
equipment and food from
the pantry’s temporary loca-
tion, at the former Coastal
Research & Maintenance
building, to the new location,
north of the Seaside School
District’s bus barn.
For more information, visit
www.southcountyfood.com.
PHOTO SUBMITTED/KATHLEEN PETERSON
South County Community
Food Bank board member
Neal Wallace, right, and
Seaside Mayor Don Larson
prepare for the ribbon-cutting
ceremony.
pow ered b y
Ro b ert Ca in , LD
45 yea rs of
experience
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