Sheriff's tsunami reaction appropriate

Editor's note: We have corrected typographical errors in this letter since it was first posted.

To The Eagle:

In response to the article by Ruby Murray entitled "Questions continue on tsunami warning" (The Eagle, 4/7/11), I would be interested in knowing how many people on the island or lowlying areas were actually panicking the night and early morning of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. You really have to ask those residents why they didn't take the initiative and evacuate their homes on their own if they were having a sleepless night because of concern about their welfare.

If the same people would have just turned on their televisions, they would have seen that the whole west coast was keeping track of when the tsunami would reach the west coast and what the severity of it would be. If we can't trust what the national emergency personnel are telling us, then who can we trust?

There was never a reason for people in our county to panic. From the information I got, it never got to an emergency evacuation point. There is absolutely no reason why the residents of Wahkiakum County shouldn't have all the confidence in the world in the Sheriff's Office or other county departments for that matter. You can--coulda, woulda, shoulda-- question the decision made that morning until you're blue in the face, but the bottom line still is that no one had to go through the stress of an evacuation and we are all alive and well. If the Sheriff's Office would have initiated an emergency notification, I'm sure there would have been those residents that would have criticized the department for panicking and going through an unnecessary evacuation.

This seems to be one of those situations where the Sheriff's Office would have been damned if they do and damned if they don't.

It's been over a month since this tragic event and I would hope that all of us could finally move on. However, it seems there are still those few who don't want to accept and give credit to the Sheriff's Office for not making a rash decision to do an emergency notification. With the information they were getting that night and in the early morning, it was certainly the right decision to make.

Carol A. Richardson

Cathlamet