AfterMATH

A day after the tsunami, we toured (doesn't that sound so damn official?) the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor. I was immediately underwhelmed by the reports of damage and destruction that had been estimated, at that point, to be $17 million dollars.

In one day's time the estimate had spiked $7 million from the initial estimate of $10 million.

As of today the estimate stands at $26 million. (Note that this is simply the amount of damage to harbor property and not personal property, you know....the boats! 18 sunken vessels add $4 million to the total sum.

You would be hard pressed from the waters surface to account for how this insane price tag could ever be tallied. Aside from a small section called "U-dock" the harbor and its vessels look unscathed.

During the tour it was quite evident that a floatilla of officials from many branches of law enforcement and military were piled into little rubber boats patrolling up and down the stretch of waterway. What wasn't clear...what the hell they were doing (aside from looking so damn official). I'm sure they were busy with something or other....or other.

Today our congressional representative from the 17th district, Sam Farr came to town to assess, with many other important looking people, the damage from the lens of a congressional representative. He too seemed quite underwhelmed in his follow up interview, broadcast on KSBW, but nearly promised that if we could somehow grow that damage estimate to $46 million our county would qualify as a federal disaster zone. I assume that means we then get a shit ton of aid from Washington D.C.

There was an air of promise that we could somehow eclipse that mark. Professional divers from everywhere are being brought in to exhume chunks of steel and plastic from the murky bottom of the manmade waterway. Meanwhile, divers regularly employed by the harbor have been officially sidelined to allow the pros to do their business. Afterall, why pay locals who know the harbor like their backyard to clean up their domain when we can consign the task to far more expensive agents who can really give us a chance of reaching that magic mark....that glowing goal of $46 million?

Oh yeah baby, we can grow that estimate! It's gonna happen!! That's right, U-dock....a federal disaster zone, dare to dream!