Visitors take photos as a surfer takes a wave at about the time the effects of a tsunami were expected, at Surfrider Beach in Malibu, Calif., Friday, March 11, 2011. Though waves surged in other areas along California’s coast from a tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake in Japan, there was little noticeable change in conditions at Malibu, where the beach was not closed to the public. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon).CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press
NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – A tsunami surge from Japan’s magnitude-8.9 earthquake swept along the southern half of California on Friday, rocking boats, turning harbor waters brown and drawing sight-seers but causing little apparent damage.
At Morro Bay on the San Luis Obispo County coast, hundreds of people were evacuated from low-lying areas, the harbor and embarcadero out of concern, said police Chaplain James Berg. Swells knocked some boats loose and damaged a dock when the initial surge arrived, he said. Evacuees were sent to a veterans building and a supermarket parking lot.
Spectators gathered along vantage points along the coast from Malibu to San Diego, hoping to see the phenomenon.