When harbor officials warned Kenneth Stagnaro of a tsunami heading from Tonga for the Santa Cruz Harbor last weekend, he decided to take his two boats out to sea.
Out there, Stagnaro, who runs a whale watching and charter fishing business, felt he could ride out the worst of the tsunami.
It’s what he and dozens of other large boat owners did in 2011 when a violent tsunami from a magnitude-9 earthquake in Japan capsized boats in the harbor and shredded whole docks, pulling them into the ocean, causing about $20 million in damage, and a total of $100 million in damage to harbors along California’s coast.
