Like many of you I was up particularly early this morning as news of a possible tsunami coming to our shores circulated. 3 a.m. for me. After watching and reading and listening to news for like three hours and debating what my family wanted to do I eventually ended up at the Peninsula evacuation site, the upper and lower campuses of Ilwaco Middle/High School. They were open at 4 a.m. letting people like Guadalupe Bonce in for shelter. The only thing Bonce brought with her from her home was a painting of the Catholic icon, Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Most folks came to get to high ground, but in the course of being there they also found themselves with a high enough vantage to see the mouth of the Columbia and the Port of Ilwaco and grouped together at the top of Hilltop hill with cameras, binoculars and radios waiting for a big wave that never came.
Inside the school buildings people were taking care of each other, which is always a heartening thing to see.
After being there about an hour and a half it was clear that the initial danger had passed, though school superintendent Boyd Keyser advised folks that they could stay as long as they liked as the "all clear" had not yet been given. And, in fact, as of 10:30 a.m. when I'm writing this it still hasn't been. What a crazy morning. I need a nap.
-DKM
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