Ocean Shores school officials remain wary of new tsunami tower

When a tsunami forms, some coastal communities can see rising water in as little as 20 minutes.

In preparation, those communities have begun building tsunami evacuation towers. These towers are often built in the center of a community or near schools to give residents access to higher ground.

But building these towers is expensive, and some small coastal communities are wary of signing onto their construction.

Last month, the North Beach School Board voted against the construction of a new tower near the Ocean Shores Elementary School. This was despite the fact that grants would have covered the majority of the costs for the tower.

"Tsunami towers are designed to give, in this case, the students of Ocean Shores elementary about 10 to 15 minutes to get up that tower," said Michael (Sully) Lockett, a reporter with The Daily World based in Gray's Harbor County. "Ocean Shores is itself pretty low lying, lots of canals and such. And so it is, as a community, at a much higher risk than a number of other places."

A number of tsunami towers have gone up on the Washington coast in recent years. Last year a new tower was opened up in Tokeland and can host up to 400 people. There's another tower in the Acosta School District in Westport.

Planning for the Ocean Shores tower began in 2018, before the pandemic ultimately delayed a decision on construction. The final cost is estimated at $13 million, and funding for the tower would have come from a variety of sources including an $8 million grant from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), $3.5 million from a FEMA grant, plus contributions from a legislative appropriation and Ocean Shores city funds.

But for those grants to make it to the district, they had to pass through the North Shore School Board. In a 3-1 vote, board members decided against the funding.

"There were a number of concerns voiced by members of the public and by the school board, from the structural state of other schools that needed the money... concerns about the efficacy of the tower," Lockett said. "The public was very vocal during that meeting."

Lockett said Ocean Shores Mayor John Martin is exploring other opportunities for the city to access funds from OSPI and FEMA for the tsunami tower.

"From listening to the comments from the community at the school board meeting, it sounds like the community needs to have more discussion on the remediation of the tsunami risks there," said Randy Newman, director of school facilities and organization at OSPI.

In an interview with Soundside, Newman said that $8 million was part of a $100 million provided by the Legislature as part of a school seismic safety program. Those funds can be used for other projects, either at the North Becah School District or at other districts along the coast. Schools in Cape Flattery, Neah Bay, North Beach, and Long Beach are looking at relocation or seismic upgrades.

"We find that their earliest schools, most of them have bene built with unreinforced masonry," Newman said. "So basically brick buildings that don't have any steel support built into them. And we know that modern schools are built with reinforced steel and meet modern seismic standards that came into effect around 2005."

Newman's office encourages local communities to hire structural engineers to assess buildings for retrofitting. OSPI can provide grant funding for that process. The office is currently working on assessments to develop a cost estimate on how much retrofits across the state would cost.

Read Michael Sully Lockett's reporting for The Daily World by clicking here.

Hear the full conversation with Lockett and Randy Newman by clicking the "play" button on the audio above.