Thank you David Berry for share---The following is a transcription of a letter written by my mother to her family on March 29, 1964 describing the tsunami less than 24 hours after it happened: March 29, 1964 Dear Family: I dont know where to start or what to say. This is just a note to tell you a bit of what happened. I wanted to send newspapers to all of you, but they just sell out too fast. Our disastrous tidal wave followed the Alaska earthquake. I was concerned about Lois at first, until we heard that Fairbanks was not hard hit. Little did we know what was in store here! The first wave came around 11:30, and all seemed fine, so we went to bed. At 2:00AM the sirens woke us up. Even then we didnt realize what had happened - I did notice that many people seemed to be out for a fire, but I went back to bed. About 15 min. later all sirens and fire horns cut loose at once. Then we realized something had happened. The sky south of town was full of fire from the Texaco oil storage tanks. Word got out that it was the tank farm (Oil Terminals) where George* works that was burning - so Beth** called at 7:00AM to check. George and David went out about 2:30AM to find out what was going on. I went to take a look around 3:30. The oil tanks, a car agency, a garage, and another oil storage tank (Union Oil) were burning by then. The full extent of what had happened did not become apparent until daylight. There were 4 or 5 tidal waves - the 4th one came clear up to 4th street, from about D or C to N - about 30 blocks, plus the area just south of town. The damage is unbelievable. we are high and dry at 10th street, and Georges parents are even higher and dryer. The whole downtown are is either destroyed or badly damaged. I could not go down past 4th (no one can without a permit), but George had a pass to get to the Art Club on 2nd street, so saw it all. Some buildings are gone, some crooked, some smashed in - not a one escaped. Some places simply vanished. Its just sickening - all those businesses demolished - not to mention the 10 or 2 people dead and several unaccounted for. A 10 mo. old baby was swept out of his mothers arms and drowned, along with his sister. Five drowned when a boat capsized. There is mud, sand, driftwood, logs and debris everywhere down town, all being bulldozed out today. A new shopping center opened in February - and was ruined. Its amazing how cars etc. were tossed around and smashed. Even an earthmover was overturned. Its unbelievable unless you see it. Logs did so much damage - smashing right through walls of stores and out the other side. The whole are is roped off, under martial law and under quarantine. Some houses were moved right out into the street. One 2 story building*** was picked up and then set down at a 45 degree angle from where it was. The Oil Terminal, where George works, was not damaged - it is 1 mile south of town, and water did not get inside. There is driftwood all over the place down there, and the phones are out. George brought paintings from the Art Club here to house today - what could be salvaged, that is. He took the broom, shovel, and hoe down today and tried to clean out the Art Club. Some people had close calls - a few store owners were watching for trouble at their stores, and were caught by the big one - they had to swim out. Water was 5 to 10 feet deep in most places. This has just been a general picture - we are very lucky ourselves - all we lost was a chair. We had loaned 4 chairs to the Art club - we have 3 wet ones back, the 4th vanished in the flood. We are so fortunate ourselves. Of course the Alaska tragedy was worse - but this is closer to home. Gov. Brown was up here on highway business Thurs. - he came up from Eureka yesterday to inspect the area. Love to all, Isabel
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 08:18:21 +0000
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