When the Music Stopped Playing

I was 11-1/2 years old at the time the Great Alaskan Earthquake struck. We lived in the basement unit at 1505 Orca Street in Anchorage. When the quake struck, Father was working, Mother was cooking dinner in the kitchen at the far end of the house, and the baby was in his high chair close to Mother. I was lying barefoot on Mother's bed, singing a popular song with the radio. My brothers were outside playing. As usual, our parakeet, "Pretty Boy," flitted about his cage chattering incessantly.

Unlike the older of my younger brothers, who never realized a quake hit, the noise of the earth's rumbling and the crashing of dishes alerted me instantly that something was terribly awry. Seconds after the rumbling and violent shaking began, Mother screamed from the kitchen at one end of our basement unit, "Get Out! Get Outside!" The radio crashed to the floor, our dinner flew off the stove, chairs scooted and fell, books and crafts flew into our flight path. I can only imagine what "Pretty Boy" experienced in his cage suspended from a spring in the kitchen.

Spurred by the tone of Mother's voice, I instantly scrambled off the bed and instantly lost my balance as my feet hit the wobbling tile. I tried to stand again, and fell after one or two steps. Mother came rushing through, clutching the baby, her face tight with tension, screaming even more hysterically, "Get Outside! Now! Run! Run!"

I scrambled and ran, but as the earth continued to shake violently, I once again fell, landing directly in Mother's path. Mother hurtled over me with the baby in her arms, screaming in a voice raw with fear and despair, "Get Out! Get Out! Get Out!"

As I watched her disappear through the front doorway, suddenly a fierce emotion seized me, and I began to crawl furiously on all fours. By the time I reached the front doorway, the earth's shaking had stopped. Mother was outside at the top of the stairwell with my 2 younger brothers, looking towards the dark basement, paralyzed with fear and trepidation, her eyes searching. I'll never forget the look on her face when I finally appeared. If she could have, she would have flown down the stairwell to me, but since she had two other children to consider and one of them was in arms, she stood at the top of the stairs and called to me. Regaining my footing, I ran up the flight of stairs to her. Within an instant, mother was once again the stern mother hen, clucking orders, and instructing us to climb inside the Rambler and wait for her.

We obeyed. As we huddled together, cold and scared in the back of the Rambler, mother ran in search of my brother, Robert, screaming his name throughout the neighborhood as she quickly scoured the streets. Within a few minutes, Mother returned to the 3 of us, empty handed and dejected. Ordering us to stay, she ventured into the basement alone, and returned with our coats, the car keys, and her purse. When she noticed my bare feet, I recall her lecturing me on never going barefooted again and then she fell silent and put the Rambler into gear. As she drove to East Northern Lights Boulevard to fetch our father, dodging asphalt eruptions and asphalt cracks and valleys in the roadway, tears streamed down her face. We remained silent.

Gratefully, our basement unit was relatively undamaged and by nightfall, my brother Robert was returned home, unharmed. Our home became a refuge for three other families and a young man. From that point forward, life for the next several days took on a surrealistic feel.

Altogether, there were 23 of us in that basement refuge. Fortunately, one of the men, Curtis, worked at Fort Richardson, and through him, we had access to military water in large cardboard boxes containing flexible plastic containers with spouts. We supplemented that water with boiled snow treated with Clorox. It was the children's job to collect snow in pots to melt so we would have water for washing and the toilet. I remember during the next few days that the radio ran day and night-playing only news-there was no time for music.

Early every morning for the next couple of weeks, my Father left together with the other men. I remember they would return long after dark, filthy and exhausted. They would sit down and eat voraciously while the womenfolk doted on them and then, one by one, they would turn into bed, murmuring about the sights they had seen that day. All I knew was that they were volunteering along with other men from the city to help clean up the mess, and to repair broken gas, water, and sewage lines throughout the city.

There were five women and it seems they never slept! If you wanted to find one, you could always find them gathered round the wooden picnic table in the kitchen, sleeping babies in their arms, murmuring together. When the women were not in the kitchen, they were caring for the children and men.

I was the oldest of all the children, so it was my responsibility to keep the younger ones out of the way of the adults, coordinate the many snow-gathering expeditions, and round up the kids for mealtime. By mid-week, our meals consisted of unremarkable government rations that I believe may have come from the military bases.

All the children (there were nine of us not including the two babies) shared a full-sized bed set up in the parlor area. It was comforting to sleep with company, even though we were arranged like so many clothespins, lined up neatly, side by side, our heads at opposite ends of the bed. Most of the children slept well, but I could not for each time I felt a tremor, I would sit up, ready to run again.

Eventually, life began to return to normal. We were all shepherded to one of the undamaged schools in the area to receive our typhoid shots. I remember watching my brother, Robert, the older of my younger brothers, stagger over to the glass windows after receiving his typhoid shot and then fainting to the floor. I thought it was rather comical at the time. In fact, I'm still chuckling at this moment, as I recall how his eyes rolled up into his head and he sank to the floor with an unceremonious sigh.

Eventually, the schools reopened. I attended Fairview Elementary. Twelve blocks away, the Denali school had been rendered unusable, so we shared our school by attending in shifts. Fairview started the day with the early morning shift and Denali took the late shift. During those days, classes and playground times were shortened. Long after I had gone home, Denali students were just beginning the school day.

Permission to play on the school grounds came only after the Denali students had gone home late in the evening. I remember how much my brothers and I loved to ice skate. After the Good Friday earthquake, we rarely had the opportunity to skate at the school playground. Father's answer to our dilemma was to help us build our own ice rink in the backyard. Although crude, and full of bumps that could send you flying through the air, the rough rink generated many happy memories for the entire neighborhood until the Spring thaw.

Interestingly, after the 9.2 earthquake, "Pretty Boy" never flew again, choosing instead to walk about his cage walls and floor or on the floors and tables of our home. If "Pretty Boy" wanted to get down, he jumped, or used drapes for ladders, but he never flew again.

Of course, after school started, everyone began trickling back to their own homes. The radio started playing music once again. Although it was nice to have my own bed back again, I missed having everyone nearby. During a disaster, there is something inexplicably comforting about being able to share in the company of another human being. There is yet an even more inexplicable comfort to experience when the music returns.

by Georgiana (Jana) Llaneza

My Mom and Dad were very hard workers. Both worked more than one job. And being African American in Alaska, there were only two places where the adults all hung out. The original place was called the Flats; there were two restaurant bars and a small store. They all got together on Fri, Sat and Sun after church. Sometimes they would take us kids to Big Lake. These men were all from Texas or back east and they were here to make money so they could move back to Los Angeles or somewhere where they could start a life. And in some cases they were going to stay and work on the Pipe line that was coming.

The second place was opened by one of the richest black guys we knew. He was a friend of my dads as my dad was a jack of all trades. And, he had done some construction work and painting for him. His name was Mr. Ford as I remember and he built what would be called a strip mall today. It had a soul food restaurant, barber shop, beauty salon, pool hall and a night club. As they say, the place was jumping. The Fords would invite me, my baby sister Debbie, Mom and Dad over for dinner. My mom and dad had many friends that I remember. They have almost all passed away. They were hard working and hard partying folks who loved each other and shared everything.

There are a million stories I could tell. My father was a jack of all trades, superintendent of the Presbyterian hospital, janitorial contracts with Elmendorf and Fort Richardson. On weekends he took on jobs like cleaning up factory buildings and stripping floors and such. That is where I came in. I did all the work. He would show me how and watch me do all of the work. I would get a pancake breakfast at the soul food restaurant or a Steak and Egg breakfast at one of the bars in the flats. We lived at 1427 Orca in a prefab home with a full basement.

My father and I made up the basement into a nightclub and on Fridays he would have his own parties with a blues band, gumbo or chili, poker and numbers in the back. I would serve drinks for tips. My Mom and Dad where known for their hospitality. I remember many visits from friends in need. That day was like any other day. This day was the day we would prep the yard to grow grass. In Alaska grass dies during winter, but my dad insisted on planting Grass every year. So, two of my friends and I were in the process of cleaning the yard of rocks and raking to get it ready for seeds. We finished about 5:30 and went inside to watch Fireball XL5.

We were all lying across my mom's bed watching Fireball XL5 coming on when it hit. My friend Andre said, it is an earthquake. I had no clue what that meant. All I knew was the entire world was shaking violently. We fell to the floor and started towards the living room. My father was yelling for us to get under the kitchen table as he was holding my sister in the front door frame. After about two minutes of really violent shaking, it started to rock back and forth very hard. I couldn't stay under the table. I had to see. You could see cars rolling in the street. The street opened up a couple of times. The telephone poles were swaying back and forth.

As scary as that sounds we seemed to get used to it and we just held on until it finally stopped. I remember the next events very well. The most important one was what my father said. He said I have to leave you guys and head to the hospital. It must be a mess over there. My sister and I were in shock. From time to time we had people stay with us until they could get back on their feet. My mom and dad were known for that. We had the prettiest nurse staying with us. I can't remember her name. Her boyfriend was a black doctor in the strategic air command. I remember people used to say. Anyway, she said her boyfriend would be coming to see about her. He did and took her and my sister up to a SAC military site. My father told me to leave with Andre and my other friend Bruce. Someone would come for me.

We ran from my house looking at the devastation as we ran. We ran past Fairview Elementary and only chairs had fallen. We were hoping to be out of school for a while. No such luck, the school was good to go. We ran to Andre's house where his mother was still freaking out. She was so worried about Andre and Bruce my other friend. There were like 20 people there and all of them with a scared look in their face. A bright orange light shot through the sky right after dark and some of them screamed. A few minutes later a long black Lincoln pulled up. A large man in a heavy overcoat came to the door and asked for me. I remembered him. He was the henchman of one of my father's poker friends. He asked for me and never spoke another word. I got in the back of the Lincoln and he took me home. He drove me home which was like three blocks.

When I went in, my dad had come back and set-up a generator, but he had to leave right after that. My mom was sitting there with a small light, a bunch of bottles of booze and Nat king Cole playing on the turntable. She said, are you hungry? I said no mama. Right then my dad showed up and took me with him back to the hospital. The hospital had dropped four feet straight down. We had a makeshift flashing light atop the car. When we got to the edge of town they had military guards set-up and the waived him through. We went to the hospital. All of the patients were gone. Now, there were only soldiers sitting around.

I went down to the cafeteria as that was my favorite place when visiting my dad's job. It was destroyed and there was no way I was getting anything to eat that night... After those events I remember, the neighborhood fathers guarding the water, military rations out of the can. Going on double shift with Denali and selling newspapers in downtown Anchorage. I was out of school at noon everyday. I was able to save up live 3-5 dollars a day selling newspapers in downtown Anchorage as my friend and I were the first kids in downtown everyday with new papers. I owned the entire Mattel fanner 50 gun set. I'm writing because the girl who wrote when the Music Stopped was my neighbor. We lived at 1427 Orca and we all went to school together. Fairview Elementary was one block down the street.

I was 11 ½ as well. Her brother and I were best of friends. Finding her story was like being back there in 1964. My father worked 48 straight hours and was written up in a small article in the news paper. He was being praised for getting to the hospital and helping to get all of the patients moved to the other nearby hospital We moved to Southern California after that ( right in the middle of the Watts Riots) and I have worked in Information Systems ever since. And of course Disaster Recovery has always been my favorite work.

I even worked as a project manager for an outsource firm which basically does Disaster Recovery as a method to transition entire Data Centers. I moved the Rockwell Space Division Data Center which houses the as built shuttle manual for each shuttle flight. When John Glenn came to Anchorage after his historic flight I was the kid who led the rest of the kids into the street to shake his hand.

Ron Waters

Fort Richardson Accounts

Fort Richardson is an army base adjacent to Anchorage.

My dad was stationed at Fort Richardson. We lived across from ball fields and boy scout and girl scout huts. I remember the man made ice skating rinks. I also remember every minute of the Alaska Earthquake. It was supper time. My dad had the rank for that set of quarters. A lot of the people in that bldg. came to our basement for shelter. Food came out of cabinet, fish out of fish bowl. Streets with cracks. Tops of bldg's down town even with streets. I don't know which was worse, the quake, or tremors after, for so long.

I was almost 6 years old. My Dad was in the Army, and we had just been stationed at Ft. Richardson, Anchorage, Alaska. I had climbed a small lamp pole, and was sitting on top of it, when a man came home from work, parked his car, and went inside his building. I remember looking at his car jiggling, and thinking "he must have left it running". About then the force knocked me off the pole, and I went running home. I must have fallen several times running home. The earth was moving so much, you just couldn't keep your feet under you. Once home, things were falling off the walls, and I saw my Mom crying for the first time ever. That scared me to see her crying. That meant this was REALLY bad. I don't remember how long it lasted.

But I remember the after shocks and tremors that for days afterward, would come unexpectedly and we would get scared thinking "here it comes again". After the main event, I remember going to neighbors houses and comparing damage...some peoples refrigerators fell over. Think about the force required to do that! Our favorite street that we would sled down, got a big crack in it, running across the street. I think it was maybe 5-6 inches wide. I don't know how deep it went, but to us kids, it was a bottomless pit that went all the way to China. We just kept sledding right over top of it. The days and months that followed found me scared to get near the water, because I thought it was going to suck me in like all the houses and structures that destroyed near the coastline and harbors etc..... We lived there until 1967, when we transferred to Ft. Lewis Washington. I loved Alaska. It was like living in the frontier wilderness, but I will always remember that Good Friday in 1964.

Tom Burt

I was 13 years old on March 27 1964 and lived in South Mountain View near the Park Place Bowling Lanes. That was my first earthquake and as the quake began, I expected it to last a few seconds. When the shaking reached a violent level I ran from the house and fell between our two family cars. The cars repeatedly crashed into each other as I lay between them. I was able to get back into the house without injury. It seemed that the shaking would never stop. We feared a gas leak in our home so we slept in a car the night of the 27th. My Father who was stationed on Fort Richardson was placed on duty in downtown Anchorage so my Mother took charge. To this day I still become a little nervous when I feel a structure sway or shake.

Kenny Renew
Huntsville, Alabama

When the earthquake of 1964 hit, I was 9 years old and lived on Fort Richardson Alaska. I was in my front yard making a snow fort. All the other kids went inside to eat dinner. When the earthquake started....I saw my snow fort crumble in front of me. I was about 40 yards from my front door and started to run home...I fell down at least 3 times because the ground was vibrating. When I got to my house, my mother and two older brothers were coming out. My mother grabbed me and lay on top of me while my brothers were bouncing around. When the earthquake stopped, we went into our house and saw all the furniture had shifted to one side of the house. Our gold fish were struggling on the floor.

Forty years later....I can clearly remember every detail of that day.

Paul Heilman

I was 4 years old living on Ft. Richardson at the time of the earthquake. Most people don't think that a 4 year old child can remember particular events but I remember this one. My sisters and I along with two friends were watching Davey and Goliath on the TV when just as Davey and Goliath were entering a spooky building the TV lifted up off of the stand that it was on and crashed to the floor. As we just sat there on the couches and chairs, we watched the pictures on the walls dance back and forth. During all of this time all of the dishes in the cupboards flew out and fell to the floor. Upstairs, the toilet was sloshing around so much that all of the water spilled and continued to spill as the toilet kept filling itself up. I remember going down to the basement afterward and seeing the large crack in the concrete flooring. My older sister said that "That was the Easter Bunny stamping his foot telling us that he was coming."

Timothy S. Osborn

I was 12 years old and my sister was 7 on Good Friday in 1964. My dad was stationed at Fort Richardson. We lived right across from the little league fields on base. I remember that we were watching TV and all of a sudden everything in the house started to rattle and then the whole place started moving up and down. My mom freaked out but got us all outside and down on the ground. I could see the telephone poles rocking back and forth for what seemed forever then it stopped. After it was over we got up and went back into the house. There wasn’t a picture left on the walls nor a nik-nak left on anything, except for a lone ornamental egg that was on top of the TV. Figure that one out. Until that day I thought that the earth was solid ground and was unshakable. While the quake was happening, I thought the world was coming to an end. I hope never to have that feeling again.

Fred Price

I was 7 years old and living at the Fort Richardson Army base when the earthquake occurred.  My father was an Air Force pilot and went skiing with some friends for the day at Mt. Aleska.  My mother was in Colorado visiting her mother who had a stroke.  My two younger sisters and I were at home with a baby sitter when the earthquake hit.  Everything started shaking; dishes flew out of the kitchen cabinets and furniture was moving around the room.  We had a large glass ball used to hold up fishing nets, displayed on our dinning room table.  It was shaking and moving towards the edge of the table.  I went over and held it on the table to keep it from falling off.  Our baby sitter held our china cabinet and kept it from falling over.  It was the only china cabinet in the housing complex where we lived that did not fall over.  By the time the earthquake ended all the furniture in our home was moved around the room or tipped over.

 My dad said he was driving back from skiing and the road in front of him was waving like a flag and the telephone poles along the side of the road were whipping back and forth.  He stopped the car until the earthquake stopped.  When it was over he continued driving home and stopped at a liquor store along the way.  He and his friends were the first ones in the store after the quake.  The female clerk was in a mild state of shock and all the bottles of booze were broken on the floor.  My dad said he had to wade through two inches of liquor to get to the beer coolers; he grabbed a six pack of canned beer and the clerk said he could have it.

 We did not have telephone, water, and electric service for weeks.  My mother had no way of knowing we were OK.  The fire department came up the street with a water truck to deliver water.  My dad cooked on the BBQ.  I was not scared during the big earthquake but was frighten during the larger aftershocks.  My mom made it home about a week after Easter; I had saved a big chocolate bunny that I got from the Easter Bunny, for her to see.

Michael W. Houck

It seems incredible to find this information.  I was just a baby, six months old when this happened, so of course I don't remember anything.  My dad was stationed at Ft. Richardson at the time of this earth quake, and he and my mom have recounted the events of that earthquake and the next few days and weeks so many times that I feel like I do remember.  We lived on Hoyt Street -#610.  My father had been stationed at Ft. Richardson, but his tour ended and he stayed on as a civil service employee.  He and my mom talk about living in a log house on Hoyt Street and that being the only house that didn't take any extensive damage.  I guess the log structure could 'give' a little more than other building types.  They talk about having to get typhoid shots, about the water lines being messed up so that the water coming into the house was the water that should have been going out.  About a new apartment building down the street from them that collapsed completely. 

During the 1964 earthquake I was only (1) years old in the village of Venetie. My grandfathers told me they felt the quake even there. My late father; Noah Peter a SFC in the Alaska Army National Guard (30 years) with alaskan native units were training in Anchorage-Ft. Richardson at the time and said it was horrible. They had to guard all the cash vaults in the banks which were torn open. He was eating in the cafetia when his table just took off to the other side of the room. I too retired 23 years in the same battalion. He also said a nice old spiritual woman who helped with food later had her whole house intact while others around her tore apart.

Pete J. Peter

Elmendorf AFB & Cherry Hill Accounts

Elmendorf Air Force Base, adjacent to Anchorage, is the largest Air Force installation in Alaska and home of the Headquarters, Alaskan Command.

I was 4 years old and living in the Cherry Hill area of Elmendorf Air Force Base.  My father was away on a mission leaving my mother and their 5 children "home alone."  I was coming up the basement stairs when the quake hit and I remember falling down the stairs.  The shaking was unbelievably violent but I also remember the sound of the quake.  The noise the earthquake made is rarely mentioned, but I can vividly remember the loud rumble which sounded like a freight train at high speed.  In fact I thought the cause of it all was a freight train coming out of the ground from below the apartment.

I was 9 when the quake hit. But I clearly remember where I was & what I was doing. It seemed the earth would never stop shaking. I was in a basement & had a hard time getting up the stairs. I lived on Cherry Hill - with a bunch of other military families. I remember the "100" tremors a day afterwards.

Peg

I was stationed at Elmendorf AFB in 1964 when the earthquake occurred. I was in the base BX store when the shelves and light fixtures began to shake violently. Some said it was an earthquake and to get outside. I made it to the parking lot. I saw the parking lot moving in waves that looked like waves on an ocean. The walls of the base gym which was next door were moving back and forth as if they were made of rubber. The corner of the walls stated to come loose and some bricks fell. Someone shouted that it was an act of God because it was Good Friday. One man in the parking lot was trying to grab the door handle of his car but was having difficulty because it was bouncing up and down so much. When it finally stopped I went back to the barracks. The next day I went to work in the hanger where I worked on aircraft. Some of the metal cross beams which supported the roof of the hanger had come loose because the rivets had snapped.

Robert Bucari

Additional Anchorage Accounts

I was 10 years old and my family lived on 8th Street in Anchorage. I remember when the quake hit I ran out the back door, circled the block, and all of the parked cars were slamming back and forth into each other. My dad was in the doorway of our house and yelling for me to come to him, I was just panicked and running down the street. I guess I thought that there was somewhere that was not shaking. The Four Seasons Apartments were just down the street, I remember that when it fell there was a huge mushroom cloud like we had seen in school films about atomic bombs. To this very day, the smallest earthquake scares me spitless. My older sister was just entering the doors at Penneys when some high school friends drove down the road and called to her and her friend. The front of Pennys came down right where they had been standing. They barely escaped being victims. I have a bunch of old newspapers from those days that my Dad left me. I have no idea what to do with them.

Bill Woosley

ANCHORAGE, JUST VISITING!

I was a Flight Attendant with The Flying Tiger Line, and we had just ‘dead headed’ (no passengers) into Anchorage to position for a flight the following day. Having arrived at the hotel shortly before, I had decided on a nap before going into the Red Ram restaurant for dinner. My roommate had asked to use my hair dryer, and I’d told her to help herself. As I was dozing off the shaking started. I thought it was my roommate, and that she was being very inconsiderate in shaking my bed like that. The hair dryer was on a partition that separated our beds, which were what I believe are called ‘day beds’. When the shaking didn’t stop, I sat up and looked around at my roommate, and saw the largest brown eyes I’ve ever seen…even since.

Being a California girl I recognized it was an earthquake, however being close to a SAC base another event did enter our minds! I made about 3 attempts to stand up, and was thrown back onto the bed, I finally gave up and I just shuffled the bed back against the wall each time it rolled into the room. I also moved as far away from the large plate glass window as I could get.

From this position I watched in amazement. The building was a U shape, and the section across from us was rolling in 2 – 3 foot waves. The window glass was also rolling in waves, but in an opposite direction, the street light in the intersection visible from our room was the type that is suspended in the middle of the intersection (not recognizable in this day), and it was spinning wildly. The amazement was in nothing was breaking! I heard the TV in the room above crash, but ours just teetered back and forth, not falling.

When the shaking stopped I immediately went to the door, as I had heard the screams of 2 other members of my crew, and saw them safely huddled against the building. Before leaving the room, I drained all the water in the lines in the bathroom into containers, as I knew there would not be any water for awhile.

The restaurant had been vacated, the bartender handed me a bag of money as he was running out. I insisted he open the safe for me to put it away, and he then ran off to check his home and family. We were the only ones left in the hotel, so we gathered in the restaurant, and decided we might as well see what there was to eat, we did well as food it was in abundance at this point. We also found the beer still cold!

We then walked downtown a short distance, and it was only then the full realization of the extent of the damage hit us. The hotel had appeared undamaged (a crack in the lobby fireplace was the only damage). Native hospital was near by, and we went there to see if they needed any volunteers. They asked us to stand by for a time, as they were trying to obtain permission to admit non natives. We waited a while, and were finally told the other hospital was able to handle all the injuries, so we went back to our empty hotel.

The after shocks were the unnerving part. Even when I returned to San Francisco it was several days before I trusted myself driving, as the ground was still moving under me, and I had to continually be reassured it wasn’t another earthquake.

Dorothy Armstrong

 In 1964 I was 7. I lived on Ash Place in Government Hill about two blocks from the elementary school, which I attended. I was sledding on our favorite hill on the other side of E. Loop Rd. and was walking up the hill when the first tremor hit.

The first thing I remember was the water tower at the top of the hill making a lot of noise. My worst fear during the whole thing was that the tower would fall on me! After losing my footing and sliding to the bottom of the hill, I tried to stand up but the earth was moving in waves. It was like being on the surface of the ocean, with waves of earth passing underneath me. The next thing I noticed was spruce trees hitting the ground on either side as these waves passed underneath them. Next were the cracks in the earth propagating around me. I remember seeing 2-3" cracks opening up and running for tens of feet. It is amazing how, after 40 years, the memories of that thirty minutes are still so vivid.

My oldest brother has even better stories. He was 17 and was moving furniture on the third (top) floor of the JC Penney building when the outside walls fell away. He remembers looking out of the building and seeing the destruction in the Fourth St. area as it was happening.

Dave Rice

I was a senior at West Anchorage high school when this happened. We were out of school due to Good Friday and that saved a lot of lives. When it hit, we were at Gamble and North lights having just left the downtown area. The car felt like a rolling and rocking sensation. We watched power lines hitting each other and also a gas station on the corner lost its large glass window causing oil cans running all over the street. We had problems getting home as we lived in the Sand lake area and bridges were all damaged. What a mess inside our house. What a terrible night it was after shocks no electricity, we rescued a lady next door with small children, her husband out in the bush. The next day we assessed the house and found minor damage. Our school was destroyed. We ended up going to our rival school East Anchorage and had to go split days. We graduated that year due to both gyms being damaged out of a Air Force Hanger. What a terrible ordeal, and I know every once in a while I will think about it and realize just what a piece of history that we all lived through.

William J. Ellis

My family lived on the 13th floor of the L Street Apt's. I was only 8 years old but I remember that day vividly. My stepfather was talking to his brother on the phone when the quake began. He yelled, Oh my God, we're having an earthquake! The phone went dead. That's how Seattle found out about it. I have a magazine with many photos of that horrible day, including the apt building we lived in. Thank you for an informative site and the stories are healing for me. I, like many others, am still terrified of loud rumbling noises and I run when there's an earthquake. (I live in the northwest). You won't find me under a table or in a doorway...... Penny

Chugiak Account

Chugiak is a community approximately 20 miles (12 km) northeast of Anchorage.

I was 12 years old, living in Chugiak, at the time of the Good Friday earthquake. We lived in a 3-room log cabin about a quarter of a mile off Birchwood Loop North. My older brother was on his 2-week encampment with the National Guard. My mother and father were both home, as was I at the time of the earthquake. It was a very frightening experience and the longest 4 minutes I've ever experienced. I remember my mother grabbing me and we stood in the doorway of the cabin. I think my dad was ready to catch the TV. His one-ton truck bounced all over the yard, but interestingly enough, our wood pile stayed pretty much intact. The entire pile appeared to be rocking together, as if it were placed in a giant rocking chair. Damage to our house wasn't great, however, we did lose our well shortly afterwards and a support beam under the cabin cracked.

The medicine cabinet emptied itself, and furniture shifted. Mother's plants on the window sill all fell and water sloshed out of the pan we kept on the wood stove, so we had a lot of mud on the floor. The earthquake was even completely over yet, when our neighbors across the street and their children came over to our house. They, like us, were frightened. We apparently had only electric radios which did us no good without electricity, so my father ran his truck and wired a speaker from the truck radio into the house. We went to bed that night with our clothes and boots on, so we could leave quickly in case we had to evacuate. As instructed on the radio, we also packed a bag with groceries for evacuation, mostly canned items, and discovered to our amusement much later, that we had not included a can opener. We eventually heard that the National Guardsmen were okay - that was great relief, although they were put on extended duty. My brother had to tromp through damaged homes in Turnagain By The Sea looking for bodies.

Nearly 40 years later (and in another state) I had an "earthquake flashback". I was in a pharmacy which had antique pharmaceutical bottles on display. There was a demolition and construction project underway across the street. Some heavy equipment was rumbling and all those display bottles were vibrating and clinking. It felt and sounded like an earthquake. I had to leave.

Sandy Gunvalson Anderson

Eielson Air Force Base Account

Eielson AFB, Alaska, is located about 25 miles southeast of Fairbanks in the interior of Alaska.

I was 9 years old living on Eielson Air Force Base, my dad was at his second job at the N.C.O. club, My two brothers, mom & I were just sitting down to supper when the quad plex we lived in started shaking violently. The house tilted and the cabinet doors flew open when glasses and dishes were crashing on the floor. I hopped on the counter and was closing the cabinets . The ground in the front yard looked like water, waves. It happened so instantly that we really didn't get scared, more of an adrenaline euphoria and excitement came over us. When it was over we went outside and every thing was OK except the yard looked as if it had been roughed up. Then for a while the tremors would pass through. I can remember many quakes at night in Alaska, some times the after shock was worse than the first quake. But not on Good Friday in 1964.

Robert Williams

Valdez Account

I was 18 months old when the earthquake happened so I have no memories of that day. We lived in Valdez at that time. My dad was working down at the dock. Mom at the hospital. My sister and brother and I were at home with the babysitter. I was in a highchair next to the refrigerator, Lynne and Richard were playing hide-n-seek hiding behind the couch in the living room when everything began to rumble. I'm told I took a beating from the refrigerator and the wall. Lynne and Richard took the same kind of beating from the couch. The babysitter, knew she had to get us all outside as the house was coming apart. She said it was shaking so violently that she had trouble getting to each of us and then getting us all to the front door of the house. The front door stairs and small patio were pulling away from the house as a fissure had formed between the two. The babysitter had to toss each of us across then she jumped, but in doing so fell and broke a few ribs because of the violent shaking.

Down at the docks my dad, Richard Robinson, was operating a forklift. He and several men from town were helping unload the ships that were docked there. That area was destroyed by the earthquake and tsunamis that hit the area. He was one of the 32 people killed in Valdez. His body was never found. We believe he went down with the underwater landslide. Watch "Alaska: Thought the Earth Be Moved. The Alaskan Earthquake" to see actual earthquake footage as it append in Valdez.

Mom was working at the hospital, the floors dropped and water and sewage started flooding the floors. She says in the confusion her first thought were to keep the bed sheets from getting dirty. Once she got her wits about her she knew she had to find us kids. Once we were located she headed for the docks but was met by grandpa saying not to go down there as Richard was gone.

Word soon got around that we needed to get out of town and to higher ground, which we did.

Later we were evacuated to Fairbanks. From there we went to Salt Lake City, Utah to be with family. (15 years later Lynne was also killed on Good Friday)

Gregory Robinson

Kodiak Naval Base Account

The following is my recollection of Friday, March 27, 1964.

Kenai Accounts

March 27th, 1964…, what a day. I was 18 years old, a senior at Kenai High School. My sister Kathy was 16. We got off the school bus and walked the mile and a half of our homestead road to our cabin on Longmere lake. I fixed our dinner and was doing the dishes when the quake hit. I remember the water in the sink stood up sideways, and then fell back down. We didn't have doors on the kitchen cupboards and things started falling out all around me. My sister started to become hysterical so I chased her around the cabin, held on to her, and told her we were going outside. I opened the door. The trees were laying on the ground one minute and upright the next, then back down again Then, the lake started to crack open and the mud from the bottom shot many feet up into the air. It looked like the cracks were headed straight for us, so we huddled there in the doorway until the shaking finally quit. I didn't think it would ever stop, it felt like forever.

The main phone lines were out, but we were on a party line, so the neighbors were all picking up their receivers and checking on each other. My boyfriend and his family lived about 2 miles away, and thankfully his dad decided to drive down and check on us. He knew our parents and other siblings were in Anchorage for the day. I must have been in shock because I told him we were fine. He started driving up the hill, then stopped and backed down. He told me my face was white as a ghost, and that we were going home with him. I was so very grateful. They had six children at the time, and lived in a 10x55 mobile home, but made room for us. It was cozy and comforting. We all sat around listening to the battery radio, and waiting for news.

It was at least a day before we heard that the rest of our family was OK, and then it took my mom 3 days to get home since the Kenai River bridge, and most of the Portage bridges were out. She told us that right before the earthquake started, she and my sister were on their way to J.C.Penney's to go shopping, but that she changed her mind and they drove by the store, and on down to 19th Ave. where they were staying with friends. She was sure happy she made that decision.

While we were cleaning up all the mess in the cabin, Mom pounded a nail in one of the log beams and hung a wrench up on it so we could watch for the aftershocks.

To this day, any earth shake brings back all the vivid details, and the fear.

Susan (Erlwein) Davis