STEVE INSKEEP, host:

For years now, geologists have been warning coastal communities of a fault off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They say it is similar to the fault that caused the Indian Ocean's tsunami last December.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Forty-one years ago, a 9.2 magnitude quake in Alaska produced a tsunami that ripped down the Pacific Coast. It slammed into Crescent City here in California, just below the Oregon border, killing 11 people. NPR's Richard Gonzales has the second of two reports on how isolated coastal areas, like Crescent City, are trying to prepare for their next big one.

RICHARD GONZALES reporting:

Many of the survivors of the 1964 tsunami say downtown Crescent City never really recovered from that disaster. Quaint stores and tourist shops were replaced by drab government buildings and a deserted pedestrian mall called Tsunami Landing. Tucked inside is a nearly forgotten memorial to those who died.

Mr. GARY CLAWSON (Former Crescent City Resident): `In the shadow of their wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be one. Dedicated to those who lost their lives...

GONZALES: Former resident Gary Clawson reads the 11 names on the memorial plaque.

Mr. CLAWSON: John Fields, William Clawson, Agatha Clawson...

GONZALES: Almost half of the names are those of Clawson's parents, fiancee and two employees. He plucked them from a rooftop the night giant waves washed over Crescent City, but the boat capsized and his loved ones were lost. Clawson says the event is as vivid as if it happened yesterday.

Mr. CLAWSON: People will stand and look you right in the eye and say, `I could never have gone through that. I would never be able to.' But believe me, when the time comes, you have to do it. You have to live with it, and you do go on with your life. That's what it's all about.

GONZALES: In the years since the 1964 tsunami, researchers have been curious about Crescent City. Its harbor, shaped like a crescent, jets into the Pacific Ocean making it one of the most exposed communities along the West Coast and a sitting duck for tsunamis. Crescent City thought it was headed for another one this past June when a tsunami warning was issued for the entire Pacific Coast. Three minutes after the bulletin went out, Rowe Van Hall(ph) was on the air at his radio station KPOD broadcasting emergency information, but his phone lines soon jammed.

Mr. ROWE VAN HALL (Radio Announcer): Not just here but at emergency services, the 911 dispatchers. I had my cell phone sitting next to our traditional land line phone in the studio, but very quickly, none of that worked.

GONZALES: Hall told listeners to seek high ground away from the shoreline. But when the phones were restored, he started getting calls from people who had driven in the opposite direction toward the waterfront to watch the tsunami come in.

Mr. VAN HALL: I was horrified and I said, `You have children in your car?' `Yeah, well, I just want to let you know we're down here at Beachfront Park and we're waiting for that wave to come in. This is going to be really cool, and we've got a front row seat.' And I thought, `This is not the Fourth of July fireworks; these are your lives at stake, folks.'

GONZALES: Fortunately, this year's warning was a false alarm. The earthquake 90 miles off the coast did not cause a tsunami, but it did reveal problems in the statewide alert system. And in Crescent City, it taught city manager David Wells some valuable lessons. Wells says it's great that 4,000 people were evacuated in less than a half-hour, but he worries that in a major tsunami, many local emergency responders will perish. And Wells wonders whether he can count on getting help from the outside when he needs it most.

Mr. DAVID WELLS (City Manager, Crescent City): As we can see from large natural disasters, it's difficult if you have good roads. FEMA or any other group is going to have to judge where they're going to get the biggest bang for the buck as far as providing assistance--that is typically of the large population centers.

GONZALES: No one knows that better than Allen Winogradov. He's the emergency services coordinator for Del Norte County. It's only a half-time position and Winogradov says he has very few state and federal dollars for emergency planning.

Mr. ALLEN WINOGRADOV (Emergency Services Coordinator, Del Norte County): All of my time is going towards managing grants to buy equipment for terrorism, which isn't our number-one concern in Del Norte County. Our number-one concern is floods, earthquakes and tsunamis.

GONZALES: Crescent City has a warning system in place, the centerpiece of which a donated 1960s-era civil defense siren. The city also has clearly marked evacuation routes. And if there's a problem, Crescent City is counting on its residents to take care of themselves.

Unidentified Girl: Ponchos, toothbrush and toothpaste, snap light.

GONZALES: These teen-agers are assembling tsunami-ready supply kits for their families in two buckets. One for food and another for emergency supplies to last 72 hours.

Unidentified Girl: And toilet bags...

Unidentified Man: And water...

Unidentified Girl: ...and water.

GONZALES: They're students and members of the Tolawa Indian tribe. Tsunamis are an important part of their tribe's lore, says their teacher Loren Bommelyn, who tells the story of great wave from the sea that swept in hundreds of years ago.

Mr. LOREN BOMMELYN (Teacher): The wave was so substantial that it literally removed everything manmade from the Earth. And very few people survived. First, they dug a pit in the ground of their first home again, and then life started over from that.

GONZALES: And this isn't just legend. Studies show a history of catastrophic tsunamis in the area. A 700 mile-long fault runs offshore from Northern California to southern British Columbia. It's called the Cascadia Subduction Zone. It's where two of the massive plates making up the Earth's crust grind together. The edge of one is forced beneath the other. The enormous buildup of pressure eventually leads to an earthquake. Troy Nicolini of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the last time there was a major release of pressure along that fault was in 1700.

Mr. TROY NICOLINI (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration): People living in the counties along the Northern California coast, you know, they'll say, `I've been here for five generations and we've never had a subduction zone earthquake, so why should I worry about it?' Well, yeah, in that brief little moment of time, there hasn't been one, but historically, there have been very, very big tsunamis and there will be very big tsunamis again.

GONZALES: And scientists say there will be little warning because the shifting fault that creates the wave is close to shore. In Crescent City, they'll feel the ground shaking perhaps only moments before the town should evacuate.

(Soundbite of children playing)

GONZALES: At Beachfront Park, built on top of the debris left by the '64 tsunami, dozens of children are playing soccer. Among them are two children belonging to Allen Winogradov, the half-time county emergency services coordinator. He says despite Crescent City's history, people do become complacent, and that's dangerous in a small isolated community with limited resources.

Mr. WINOGRADOV: I've done everything that I can do out of my own pocket as well as through donations. I was hoping there would be a lot of tsunami mitigation money coming through after what happened in Southeast Asia.

GONZALES: But that disaster was almost a year ago, and so far, Winogradov has seen no money for tsunami preparedness. In the meantime, he's gotten an evacuation map printed in the local phone book. In his spare time, he goes to schools to talk about getting ready for a disaster. And Winogradov makes sure that the tsunami warning test goes off as planned the first Tuesday of every month.

(Soundbite of siren)

GONZALES: Richard Gonzales, NPR News.

(Soundbite of siren)

MONTAGNE: Part one of our reports on the danger of tsunamis is at npr.org.

(Soundbite of siren)

MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.

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