Man bounces 150 feet down a Bodega Head cliff; survives
Posted Thursday, Jan. 16, 2007 --------- Pagers sounded for West County first responders about 2:15 a.m. Thursday. “Bodega Bay Fire respond for a fall victim Bodega Head. Details unknown at this time, but initial report is victim fell 100 feet.”
State
Parks Rangers and Lifeguards went sirens screaming down Westshore Road. Resident
Deputy Charlie Bone just beat Bodega Bay Fire ambulance, fire engines and
Fire Chief to the north parking lot on Bodega Head.
blankCharlie started at a trot toward the
victim about a half-mile north of the parking lot. The State Park Lifeguards
and Rangers were already 3-400 yards ahead.
blankThe victim,John Hunddlest, a
22-year-old man from Arkansas, had tumbled off the cliff top trail,
down about 150 feet to the rocks at sea level. His companion had
asked other bystanders to call for help. (There was no cell phone
reception from the trail at that point.)
blankThe man lay in a crevice
itself 20 feet deep.
blankOn the way to the scene,
Bodega Bay Fire Chief Sean Grinnell radioed dispatch
to ask them to alert the Coast Guard Station that helicopters
would be in the area. A Coast Guard C-130 transport plane
was practicing low-altitude maneuvers over Bodega Bay.
blankDispatch advised Sonoma
County Sheriff’s helicopter Henry-One was enroute
with an eight-minute ETA. REACH-One’s ETA was 12
minutes.
About the time the Lifeguards and Rangers reached the victim, Henry-One’s
rotors were heard. Deputy Bone started relaying information to the rescue helicopter.
blankREACH-One landed in the open area south
of the Parking lot. They would transport the victim to the trauma center.
Henry-One was actually a substitute aircraft that didn’t have the
space to transport a trauma victim. Click
on the photo to see a gallery of photos at the scene,
Henry-One landed on the cliff above the victim and prepared its 100- foot belly mount long-line rescue equipment. Sergeant Eric Thompson hung from the long-line while the aircraft jockeyed to a spot above the victim. Winds at the time were a strong 20-30 mph from the west.
Henry-One lowered Thompson to the victim. With the help of Lifeguard Brit Horn and Ranger Tim Murphy they secured the victim to a “stokes litter.” Pilot Paul Bradley lifted Thompson and the litter up and back to the Parking lot.
After the litter reached the ground, Bodega Bay Fire Paramedic Joe Perez, Team REACH paramedic Ben Oogle and Flight Nurse Mario Palmieri prepared the patient for transport to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital trauma center.
By 3:15 p.m. the lucky Arkansas man was on his way to the trauma center.
Shark bite reported at Dillon Beach
Posted 1:12 pm, Sunday Dec. 10, 2006 -------- A Sonoma County man was bitten by a shark off Dillon Beach today. Royce Fraley, 43, of Guerneville was attacked while surfing the big surf off shore at Dillon Beach. His board took most of the attack. Fraley suffered three wounds to the groin. The shark was estimated to be eight feet long. Dozens of other surfers were in the water at the time of the attack -- most were unaware of the encounter. Fraley was taken by private vehicle for medical treatment. His wounds were not life-threatening.
Fraley was prone on his board when he felt a swelling pushing up. The shark bit through the board and nicked his groin. Farley hung onto his board as the shark took him down about 15 feet. The shark let go and he "popped up like a cork."
Captain Rick Wonneberger of Marin County Fire said Fraley and a partner were not very far offshore. -- not as far out as the surfing hot spot known affectionately among locals as "the shark pit." Afterward Fraley recounted his experience with other surfers on shore. Fraley was visibly shaken.
Fraley had a close encounter with a shark several years ago while surfing at the mouth of the Russian River.
Megan Halavais, Bodega Bay, who was attacked by a shark off Salmon Creek Beach last year, said, "I know exactly what he is going through."
Later estimates of size based on tooth marks put the shark at 12-15 feet and 1200 to 2000 pounds.
Posted 12:29 pm, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006 -------- Marin County Fire Tomales Station and Bodega Bay ambulance responded to a reported shark attack at Dillon Beach. They were dispatched at 11:50 am. Ambulance was cancelled by dispatchers with a report that the victim was being transported by private vehicle. Unusual conditions of wind and waves have created a very popular attraction for surfers about a mile offshore. Very steep, smooth waves have attracted dozens of surfers.
All photos by Greg Schnitzer
Click
on thumbnail to see enlargement. 
Fraley's
surfboard 
Read
an interview with Royce Fraley published in the San Francisco Chronicle
Dec. 24, 2006 
Boat rescued as wind and waves drive it to the rocks
By Marsha Wilgis
Posted Monday, Nov. 27, 2006 -------- A quickly worsening storm early Sunday afternoon put the vessel North River within minutes of crashing into the rocks north of the Parking Lot.
The skipper put in a call to the Coast Guard his engine was acting up. He reported the boat was slowly making way to Bodega Bay. The engine soon gave out and the storms intensity grew.
Well into the rescue, as the Coast Guard was making way, the skipper commented he hoped they could be there within 10 minutes or he and his passengers would have to go in the water and swim for shore.
The North River was almost on the rocks with the anchor not holding in 15 foot waves. The three men on board noticed a moss covered derelict crab trap in the water and took hold of it, slowing their drift towards the beach enough for the Coast Guard to facilitate a rescue.
At 12.22 p.m, the Coast Guard threw the North River a line and pulled them away from the rocks and put her under tow to Bodega Harbor.
The last comment heard was the skipper offering the Coast Guard rescue boat the take of crabs from his 7 crab pots he apparently was checking.
The Parking Lot is up near Sereno Del Mar. The Coast Guard had great difficulty determining just where the boat was because the skipper was unfamiliar with his positioning device. Coast Guard dispatchers had him do a 1 to 10 count and pinpointed his position as being North of Carmet, not near Salmon Creek as he earlier reported. At the end, the skipper got his positioning device to work properly and the Coast Guard was able to swoop in and make the rescue off the parking lot.
TSUNAMI CAUSES DAMAGE IN CRESCENT CITY
Posted 9:40 pm, Wednesday, November 15, 2006
An earthquake off the Russian Kirul Islands – measured at 8.1 Richter – caused tsunami waves across the Pacific. The highest wavesto reach the Pacific Coast were at Crescent City.
Waves caused boats to rip from their moorings. Several boats rammed into docks. The 3:30 pm tsunami in Crescent City resulted 10 boats damaged, some drifting free.
Crescent City Harbormaster Richard Young, quoted in the Crescent City Triplicate, said H and G docks were destroyed and F dock was severly damaged. Damage estimates range up to $700,000.
The rate and speed that the waters rushed did more damage than the size of the surges, Young said. The water was described as a rolling river.
"It didn't even look like a wave — the water was just raising and falling rapidly," he said. "It was the rate of change rather than the magnitude of change."
According to the National Weather Service Tsunami Warning Center's Web site Crescent City's tsunami measured 35 inches. The reported height at Port Orford was 15 inches. Point Arena Cove saw 21 inch waves. The federal service reported the tsunami at 8 inches at Point Reyes. See http://WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV
Lori Dengler, chairwoman of the Humboldt State University geology department, said the largest surge measured five feet. The tsunami was predicted to be the most severe in Crescent City. Diffculty in predicting how the wave interacts with shoreline led the Weather Service to underpredict the wave. Crescent City's harbor configuration leads to a sloshing effect, amplifiying and replaying water movement.
No reports of initial damage were reported anywhere else on the Pacific Coast or Hawaii. A swimmer in Hawaii was slightly injured when pulled by the receeding water before the waves struck. The wave was only three-feet high.
Thousands were evacuated by civil authorities in Japan.
The wave was generated by an earthquake overnight near the Kuril Islands, off the northern coast of Japan. The wave buffetted Crescent City six hours after the earthquake.
The Southern Kurils islands were occupied by the Soviet Union in the closing days of World War II. Surrounded by rich fishing waters they have promising offshore oil and natural gas reserves. They also have gold and silver deposits.
