Stories from Alaska |
The Earthquake & Tsunami of 1964 |
My wife and I were with a group listening to a short wave radio tuned to the marine radio frequency. The ACS (Alaska Communication System) operator was attempting to get the status of our local fishing fleet. Later, it was found that 46 boats of the king crab fleet were destroyed and 86 damaged. The Salmon fleet suffered, too, as several canneries and 55 salmon seiners were destroyed. It continued to be a very long night. The aftershocks continued to shake our Island every hour or so. We could hear the roaring of the water cursing through the channel and around Near Island. More Kodiak residents kept arriving at the school seeking shelter and warmth. Some hot food and drink helped, too! The lights shining into the dark night from the High School had attracted families who, when the first tidal wave hit town, had rushed up the road towards the top of Pillar Mountain. With the temperature close to freezing those sitting on the side of the mountain were cold and frightened as the ground shook and the water roared below them. Several Auxiliary Power Plants were running and providing electricity at the High School, the ACS building, and the Police Station. The hallways in our school slowly got more crowded as these residents arrived from Pillar Mountain. Finally, morning arrived. The staff of school employees was able to serve a basic breakfast of eggs and toast and hot drinks. It was evident everyone then eating or standing in line waiting felt a closeness and togetherness that morning. We had survived the night! It was time to greet the new day and see what was left of our town. Kodiak Airways had lost all of its ground facilities. With just two aircraft left we were almost out of business. The owner and employees met together that morning to discuss our future. Our supply of aircraft fuel was destroyed. The only fuel remaining was what Harvey Flying Service had in their tanks. My log book shows I flew that day for 25 minutes. I note that we were looking for our Cessna 180 floatplane, which had last been seen heading to sea still tied to its floating dock. I had city officials aboard and we did a quick inspection of the damage around town. It was a short trip because of the uncertainty of our fuel supply. Meanwhile, throughout our town, people were returning to their homes, the lucky ones looking for anything of value at their former home sites. After my flight I arrived back to my house to find Karin heating and cooking on our two burner Coleman stove. She and the girls had worked hard cleaning up all the items, which had come loose during the quake. We had no power or heat, and no fireplace either. We all were wearing our coats. I inspected around our house and foundation to look for quake damage. Our little home seemed to have survived all the shaking and rolling it had gone through. There were some cracks in the foundation and a few nails loose here and there. But overall, the house still seemed tight and secure. We were truly thankful for our blessings during the last 24 hours. The End |
Eight Hundred feet below me, the water of the Ouzinkie Narrows lay cold and gray. I glanced towards Pleasant Harbor in the distance, not knowing that young Chris Opheim was hanging onto a piece of equipment in his Father's Saw Mill, the ground rolling and shaking violently, the Saw Mill starting to shed some of its roof. It was 5:36 in the afternoon on Good Friday, March 27th, 1964. Another forty years and nine months would elapse before the Earth would shake, tremble and roll and launch a series of Seismic Waves similar to what I would experience during the next 30 hours or so. Unlike this Alaskan quake with its 114 deaths, the catastrophic quake and tsunami, which occurred on December 26th 2004, left hundreds of thousands dead. |
During the next seventy-two hours Kodiak Island would experience fifty-two aftershocks. Ten of these occurred within the first twenty-four hours. Eleven aftershocks were over 6.0 on the Richter Scale, the largest being 6.7 in magnitude. My wife and our two small children were at home when the quake hit. The first indication of a pending quake came to my wife, Karin, while she was bending over to place a pot on a lower shelf; she felt a tingle on the bottom of her feet and heard a buzzing sound. In seconds the tingle became stronger and her suspicion was aroused. Being a native of California, Karin knew all about earthquakes. As soon as the tingle got stronger, she froze for a second and became very alert. Instinctively she knew that this was no ordinary movement below her feet. She rushed to pull her youngest daughter, Cindy, out of the highchair as the first shock rolled under the house. Clutching her daughter tightly, Karin ran to stand inside the kitchen door frame. She called out to her second daughter: "Kristine! Stand in the doorway! Now!" The second roll rumbled under her feet. Shaking and rolling, she braced herself and her daughter as her small home swayed under the assault of the earthquake. Relief flooded through her as she saw her oldest daughter appear in the doorway at the other end of the room. The shaking grew worse. "Hold on to the sides of the door, Kris! It's an earthquake! Stay right there! Don't move!" The frequency of the shocks were more rapid now, and stronger, too! The wood frame house was creaking, swaying and rocking. From the corner of her eye she caught the movement of her teak bookcase tilting out away from the dinning room wall. It was going to tip over, but she threw out her free arm to push it back against the wall while holding her three year old in her other arm. Books from the brick & board bookcase fell and scattered to the floor. Noise of pots and pans shaking & falling came from behind her in the kitchen. A cupboard door popped open and its contents scattered and rolled across the floor. She saw a picture fall from the wall. Using her legs she fought to maintain her balance in the doorway as the quake was now shaking her home with a measured frequency rumbling through the bedrock below her foundation. Again and again, she pushed back the tall bookcase which was trying hard to fall over. |
As a girl reared in California she had experienced a number of quakes. All had not been much longer than a minute's duration. So, as this shaking continued with its shockwaves rolling beneath her feet, during the second and then third minute she became more frightened as she continued to catch and push back her bookcase each time it tried to fall over. Both her daughters were silent as she looked across the room at Kris and said, "Hang on Kris! It won't last much longer." "Dear God!!! Protect the three of us! O Lord! Is it ever going to stop?" She watched her daughter Kris holding tightly to the door jam and smiled at her. Three months short of her sixth birthday, Kristine was acting like a mature young girl, staying put in the doorway as she experienced her first earthquake. |
Karin continued to pray: "O God! Please make it stop!" But the quake kept on for minutes and minutes! Panic slowly got the best of her as the rolling and shaking continued unabated. She had lost count of all the times she had saved the bookcase from falling over. Time was standing still! Then, almost at once, it was all over! No more shaking. No more rolling. No more rumbling from below. Silence pervaded the house. She called Kris over to her. Still holding her youngest, and with her other arm around her older daughter, she prayed: "Thank you dear Lord for keeping us safe!" Karin was happy the earthquake had stopped. But had it? Within minutes the rumbling and shaking started again. "O' God!" she prayed. "No! Not again!" The house creaked and the hardwood floor beneath her rolled and shook violently. Holding her two daughters tightly she tried to brace all three of them in the doorway. Then, without any notice whatsoever, it was all over. The stillness of the moment was a memory Karin would cherish for the rest of her life. |
This is just one eyewitness account of the terrifying earthquake which shook the Kodiak area shortly after 5:30 p.m. on March 27th, 1964. It was the greatest quake ever recorded in North America. On this day, as a pilot working for Kodiak Airways, I was in the air during the quake, flying back towards Kodiak and home. It was my last flight of the day. After I shut down my engines, a member of the ground crew came running up and, calling up to my cockpit window yelled, "You missed a really big earthquake, Bob! It was really strong!" Looking around, I didn't see any damage to our Hanger or Office Building and hoped the same was true for my home and family. Going quickly into the flight office I noticed that the power was off. But, the phone still worked. I phoned home. My wife answered. "How are you and the girls?" I hurriedly asked. "Thank God we are all fine," she answered. "But it's a mess around here. This was the worse quake I've ever been in! It seemed like it would never stop! I held Cindy in the kitchen doorway and Kris stayed braced in the hall doorway. The teak bookcase wanted to tip over but I saved it." "What about the house? Any damage?" I asked. "I don't know," she answered. "All I know is that it's over and me and the girls are safe." I hung up after telling her I had a few minutes of paperwork to do before I could head home. Twenty minutes later, I found myself in the bakery buying some bread when two young boys ran in and yelled out that the boat harbor was flooding and the water was coming up the street! As I backed out of my bakery parking space I looked towards the boat harbor and saw the flooding moving towards me. I drove up the hill to my house, thankful that our little home sat high on the side of the hill overlooking the downtown area. As I pulled into my driveway, my wife stood outside waiting for me. "They want you down at the Airways right away," she said. "The water is flooding and you are to fly a plane up to the landing strip by the lake." Giving her the bread and a quick kiss I quickly backed out and headed toward the Airways. I had driven about two minutes when suddenly I realized the big mistake I was making. Logically, If the shore is flooding I certainly wouldn't want my car down there. Consequently, I stopped and parked, leaving the key in the car. I ran as fast as I could straight down the hill and saw water flooding into the aircraft parking area. My Chief Pilot, Al, was splashing through the water towards one of the two Grumman Amphibians sitting in the parking area. Seeing me approaching, he called out, "Grab the Widgeon and take it up to the strip. I'll meet you up there." As I climbed up into the Grumman Widgeon amphibian the freezing, cold water was just below my knees and rising quickly. Securing the door I settled into the cockpit and quickly started both engines. Al had one of his two engines turning and soon both aircraft were warming up and getting ready to takeoff. I was half afloat as I started to taxi out towards the flooded channel where we made our takeoff and landings. The water level was rising so fast that before the plane reached the other side of the parking area it was floating! |
Retracting the landing gear I applied takeoff power and started down the channel. Scattered up ahead were many floating items and debris. I skidded left and right to try to miss the debris. Using my flaps I was able to pull my aircraft up into the air after a short takeoff run. I called Al, who was behind me, on the radio and warned him of the debris. The plane was light in weight as my fuel level was low. From the air, I circled over the downtown area and could see several large fishing boats floating and crashing into buildings near the boat harbor. The docks in the boat harbor had broken loose and many of the boats were still tied to their docks with no crew aboard. The water was swirling the boats around and pushing them into the downtown business area. I saw several boats making their way out into the bay, under power. A sight I will never forget was the five or six brand new Renault R-8 sedans floating near their new car lot next to the flooded dealership building. I heard later that they were still floating when the water started to recede and they were sucked out into the bay where they eventually sank. |
Low on fuel, I lowered my landing gear, lined up on the gravel runway and soon was parked on the Harvey Flying Service ramp. Al also landed and parked next to my plane. Miraculously, as it were, we had saved two planes: one Grumman Goose and one Grumman Widgeon. Soon Al's wife arrived and took me to my car. When we arrived on the side of the hill where my car was parked, looking down we noted that the channel, strangely enough, was almost empty of water. Where did the water go? Having hardly finished the thought, suddenly we saw the sea starting to pour millions of gallons of water into the channel -- but it ran in the other direction! Faster and faster it ran, rising higher and higher until it reached a whopping 22 feet above its normal level. The roar of the gushing water was almost deafening and truly frightening. The three of us, Al, his wife and myself, stood awestruck as we watched Mother Nature gone wild! The water flowed through the channel at what was later estmated to be at 40 miles per hour. Dock piling were being snapped with the sound of gunshots and booming. Debris choked the channel as it hurried out into the bay. Pieces of docks, half sunk buildings, boats, some manned but most empty of their crew, ran past below us. A skiff with two persons on board, their outboard motor running, headed down the channel caught in the current. Its driver was trying hard to miss all the debris and get to safety. With loud booming and snapping, the Airways dock and main Hanger was pulled away from land and sucked out into the rapid current of water in the channel. Inside our Hanger was another Grumman Goose, in for maintenance. A large supply of hard to find Grumman spare parts were stored upstairs over the machine shop, which was part of our hanger. All this was now swinging out into the channel. The heavy weight of the machine shop pulled the hanger down. A hanger door partially opened and we three saw the Goose, inside, trapped as the hanger sank lower and lower heading out into the bay. In less than three minutes it was gone below the water. The Airways office building was close to our hanger and with the hanger now gone, the water rushed against this building and soon it, too, was moving out into the raging waters, slowly sinking as it headed out into the bay. The Airways was gone! All that remained were the two aircraft Al and I were able to save. |
"Look!" Al's wife cried. "Isn't that the Donnelly & Acheson Warehouse and part of the fuel dock?" Here it came. Half sunk, moving down the channel and heading out into the bay. Then we smelled the fuel. Was it diesel or gasoline, or both? The main fuel tanks were up high on the bank, still above the water. Hopefully, the valves had been shut of as the pipes running down to the fuel dock had been snapped off. It was later that I found that the operator at the Kodiak Electric plant, during the first part of the earthquake, had pulled the master switch and shut down all power to the city. This helped keep the city safe from fire as, during the tidal wave, power poles and lines were tore down. (The power in the town of Seward was not shut off and half of the city burned down.) It was almost dark when one of Kodiak's four police cars pulled up. Jerry, one of our 'cities finest,' told us that everyone was being asked to go up to the Kodiak High School. They were expecting aftershocks and no one knew what the water might do next. The school was up on top of the hill. I headed back to my house to pick up my family but found them gone. |
It was only later that I found that the tsunami generated by the earthquake struck with destructive force all along the coast of Alaska between the southern tip of Kodiak Island northeastward to Cordova. The communities hardest hit by the seismic waves were Seward, Whittier, Valdez, and Kodiak. Villages on Kodiak that were completely destroyed were Kaguyak and Old Harbor. 70% of Afognak and half of Ouzinkee were destroyed. In Kodiak damage was to the downtown business district, canneries, businesses, and homes along the beach areas of the town. It was over 30 minutes after the quake when the water started to rise, without an initial withdrawal, and within 15 minutes or so reached 22 feet above normal. The second and third wave followed at about 55 minutes between each. The fourth wave, about an hour and a half after the third wave, was the highest and reached 30 to 35 feet above normal. It was about 11:20 pm when this highest wave hit. Everyone in town was asked to assemble at the Kodiak High School Complex. These buildings had been built to California Earthquake Code and were considered the safest around. And, aftershocks, some measuring 5 and up to 7 on the Richter scale, which were major quakes in themselves, were occurring about every 50 minutes or so. Checking back at my home and finding it empty, I caught up with my family at the school. The city residents were picking out places to rest and sleep. Blankets, sleeping bags, were appearing in the hallways. We were asked to try to stay in the hallways, not the classrooms, as it was safer. The cafeteria was opened and food and warm coffee & tea were being handed out. I talked with one of my fellow pilots whose home had been washed out into the bay. His wife was a piano teacher and she had just lost her grand piano along with her home. The clothes on their backs and their car were all that was left. Everyone was in a degree of shock. No one knew what to expect next! Would these strong aftershocks cause more tidal waves? Everyone would freeze and stop whatever they were doing and just hold on as these aftershocks shook the school and our island. Smiles of relief followed the ending of each aftershock. Our two girls were asleep when the highest and strongest wave hit our town about 11:20 p.m. |
View of a street named "Alaska Way" in Kodiak. The photo on the left shows the street before the Tsunami. The photo on the right is after the Tsunami hit. |
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A fishing boat that was thrown ashore |
One of the many fishing boats that was washed ashore |
The damage to many buildings was extensive. |
