Whip refers to the Emergency Position Indicating Beacon by its initials: E P I R B. It is generally pronounced "Eperb".
Port Angeles, the town that Howard and Elizabeth Griffin called from the Occupational Hazard, is on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, across the Juan de Fuca Strait from Victoria, British Columbia. A major fault line runs along the middle of the strait, and the two cities are on different tectonic plates.
Peter Benchley wrote the source novel, and was executive producer of the television adaptation.
In the book, Whip's daughter, Dana, is in her mid-20s. In the made-for-tv movie, she was a teen. Missy Crider was 21 when the movie aired.