March 13, 2011

Yurok man is tsunami victim

Man swept out to sea sought a new beginningLeaving his teenage drug abuse behind in Oregon, Dustin Weber was seeking a new beginning along California's rugged far northern coast, happy to be in the land of his mother's heritage, the Yurok Tribe.

Yet before Weber could get a proper start, the 25-year-old was swept out to sea at the mouth of the Klamath River by a tsunami surge generated thousands of miles away by the earthquake off Japan's coast. Rescuers were unable to reach him Friday and called off their efforts; he is presumed dead, though his body has not been found.

His would be the first death of a person on the West Coast by a tsunami since 1964, when 11 people in nearby Crescent City died from the surge created by an earthquake in Alaska.

"His life was always challenged with drug issues and being Indian," said his mother, Lori Davis, of Bend, Ore., after searching miles of beach with family members and friends for her son's body.
Comment:  For more on earthquake victims, see Blame Indians and Haitians for Problems?

Below:  "This February 2009 photo released by Bonny Elliott via NewsChannel 21/KTVZ.com, on Saturday, March 12, 2011, shows Dustin Weber at his mother's house in Bend, Ore. Weber, 25, was swept out to sea during Friday's tsunami in Northern California. Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson says Weber was swept away and disappeared while taking pictures of the tsunami near the Klamath River." (AP Photo/Bonny Elliott via NewsChannel 21/KTVZ.com)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the tsunami's horrible. I've seen the news, and how much of that map of Japan is orange and yellow is just horrifying. And Obama wants to continue pursuing nuclear power in spite of the risk? Four reactors melted down in the course of four days. Four, which also means "death" in Japanese...I couldn't have written a better warning.

(Granted, it's possible to pursue nuclear power somewhere that's not near a fault line or a shoreline, but still...)

Jaine said...

Anonymous
yikes, Noooo to nuclear power anywhere. I live in NZ which is nuclear free but we still have those who advocate it. Technology to harness natural sustainable resources is getting better all the time. Why can't Obama and other nuclear advocates put their time and effort into those.

dmarks said...

And it seems that they are only safe on paper.

In the real world, in Japan and the US, contractors build something shoddy that doesn't meet specs, government officials cover up accidents and near accidents, and plant workers and supervisors violate strict safety protocols out of sheer laziness.

Yeah, Homer's at work.