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

I was twelve years old when I was in the Alaskan earthquake.  I was with other Girl Scouts selling Girl Scout Cookies at a grocery store when the quake happened.  I remembered the Easter Lilies on the top of the counters above us falling down on us, not a good sign.  We clung to a floor to ceiling pole at the area we had been allocated to sell cookies.  The sharp movement of the quake yanking us back and forth kept us from standing for very long. 

I remember looking out into the parking lot of the store and seeing power poles swaying in the distance as I clung to that pole.  The experience of the strong yanking is one that never leaves my memory after all theses years.  The smells of mustard and vinegar were pervasive through out the store, and I will never forget that smell.  All isles were too packed with goods to walk on. I remember people stumbling over the can goodsfrantic to get to the front of the store. 

I was in the front of the store so I was able to get out easily with my friends.  I remember my mother came for me. She was a nurse at the time and she knew she had to get back to work to help with the patients.  My older brother was with his friends and we were to soon know the devastation he had witnessed.  He had been jumping over crevasses as they opened and closed, turning the area he was visiting with his friends, into the worst damaged area of Turnigan.  It felt like time had stopped, unable to process anything as my mind just could not take it all in. 

My mother was able to get my brother and I home, we lived off a long road that ended on the Turnigan Arm, the side that was not near the water and thus not as damaged.  Our home had not suffered any major damage, mostly food and the refrigerator contents on the floor, once again mustard smell, and a fine layer of toothpicks scattered all over the top of everything.  My mother being a nurse and very organized got the place cleaned up, we checked the fireplace for damage and my bother built a fire.  There were not lights or running water for the time being. 

There was no shortage of after shocks.  As I was only twelve at the time and had not experience of earthquakes and the grownups around me were so preoccupied with basic survival they did not inform me that it was very common the experience after shocks that would deminish over time.  So as far as I could tell, I was sure the after shock was going to last forever.  I could also be that we were all in shock ourselves.My father was a radio and TV announcer at the time Nathan Brook, he worked at KENAI radio and TV.  He worked in the downtown area of Anchorage, that area was quarantined due to so much damage. 

He was stuck at work for a number of days but somehow he and my mother were able to communicate.  He may have given her a message over the air as that was what the radio did at that time, was provide messaging and information to the area.  My mother went into work that evening and my brother and I were left home alone in the dark.  Sometime in the evening around nine o'clock there was a knock on out doors telling us to evacuate as there was a Tsunami warning issued for out area and we were to head for high ground. 

Our neighbors next to us had a large van and took my brother and I with them.  Before we left we wrote a note for my parents telling where we had gone and that we had let our large Huskie off his lead as we could not take him with us.  I was frightened again for my dog, and my whole family.   I supposed I was in shock the whole day and months after before I felt that that experience dimished in my mind.  The Tsunami did not hit Anchorage as it was predicted and we were allowed to go home.  My mother was home when we came back and was glad that no further harm had come to anyone. 

My dog had left and not come back, we found much later on that someone had taken him.  He was a beautiful and friendly dog, he would howl at night like wolf longing for it's pack mates as they were only a few blocks away.  So my parents didn't miss him as much as I did, and life moved on.  I knew really horrible things had happened, I had school mates that had died when they fell in a cravas that opened up and then closed on them,  I was unable to process everything, I wanted it all to go away and get back to my normal life. 

I remember the weeks that followed, we used coffee cans for out toilet, my mother collected those cans and now we knew why.  The National guard were called in to protect property from looting and also had set up an over the ground water supply.  The aluminum pipes would would freeze, then my father would put his coat over his bathrobe put his boots on to go and hack at the frozen water with and axe.  He was not a frontier kind of guy.  There were the honey bucket guys that came around to collect sewage. 

We got our drinking water from a neighbors well, my brother and I would pull a snow sled to the well and fill up large Gerry cans and then take them home where mom would put Clorox in them.  We were in the middle of spring break up before the water was turned back on and it made it harder to get the water with a sled.  With no school for weeks my girlfriend and I would play endless games of cribbage.  I remember those times fondly. 

Finally school started, my school had some damage but was repaired in time.  My brother went to West Anchorage High and they lost a whole top floor of their school so they went half days with East Anchorage High, their rival school for the rest of the year.  My father came home after a few days, life eventually got back to normal.  Later that summer we took a car trip "outside" traveling the yet unpaved Alkan Highway to Seattle for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. 

The rest of the world thought we were all living it huts and scrounging for food and water, so my mom would take letters she had written to my grandparents and drag them through the mud, she had an occasional bout of whimsy in her otherwise business like demeanor. I remember that in some restaurant along the Alkan route that had a floor fan that was shaking the floor, we all got nervous, then looked at each other, and in that moment we knew that we were still in shock and would be for a very long time to come. 

It would take years for me to stop reacting when someone would shake a chair I was sitting in or to not have flash backs of memory of the "big one" whenever there were any other earthquakes.  I know live in Washington, in 2001 my mother passed away and brother was at my home north of Seattle, the area had a earthquake on they day he came in for the memorial service, we were north of the area and we still felt it, in that moment that we were feeling the waves of that earthquake we became those kids in Alaska on that Good Friday in 1964.

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 downtown even with streets. I don't know which was worse, the quake, or tremors after, for so long.

Well I remember it like it was yesterday. My dad was stationed at Fort Richardson. My dad, mom and two sisters were all sitting down to a Good Friday dinner a little after 5:00 p.m. Back then my mom would set the table with plates, cups and saucers and I remember hearing the cups start to make a tinkling sound and saw a really curious look on my mom's face when all of a sudden it hit.

It was such a furious force not shaking but more of a rolling movement. I looked up to see the kitchen cabinet doors swing open and all the dishes falling out breaking on the floor and then saw our huge china hutch fall over. My dad and I started walking around the house,why I really don't know , we were all in shock. My dad face was white as a ghost and his eyes were bulged out. There was a roaring sound I can still hear.

My mother who was 8 1/2 months pregnant with my youngest sister was crying hysterically and curled up in the fetal position in the corner of our living room with my two sister who were also crying. My mom was begging us all to come to her because if we were going to die we would all die together. My mother a devout catholic thought it was the end of the world. That was the most courageous thing I ever witnessed in my entire life. Our priest Father Van Dyke came to our house that night and stayed on his knees until the morning praying the rosary. We were out of power and all I could see was his lips moving by candlelight.

In the days that followed the tremors were scarier than the quake. They seemed more violent. We went downtown Anchorage and saw all the wreckage,it was unbelievable. Our babysitters boyfriend was killed when a huge cement block from the J.C. Penny's building crushed him.

I loved Alaska and still do. Living in Fort Richardson was so much fun,the military made it a great place for kids. It was by far the best time of my life. I can remember ice skating in the middle of Ft Rich and sledding and snowman and the forests. I still can recall a day when me and my friends built a huge three ball snowman and watched it disappear during a snowstorm. I also remember getting into trouble when my friends and I all stayed out late playing not knowing what time it was until the M.P.'s came to find us. It was after midnight but still light outside.

We stayed another two years and then eventually settled in California! I really laugh when my friends get freaked out with the 3.5's here.

I never get scared during an earthquake not after that Alaskan whopper.

Patrick M. Keulen

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

In March, 1964, we were an Army family of four, and a longhaired dachshund, living at Fort Richardson. Dad was the DEW Line Communications Director and worked over at Elmendorf Air Force Base. I was thirteen. My little brother was almost three. When “The Earthquake” hit, my mother was downstairs. Dad was in the kitchen, fixing his Friday night special – spaghetti. My brother and I were upstairs, on the bed in our parent’s room, watching TV. It sounds kind of corny now, but it was a favorite show, “Fireball XL-5”. The Fireball had just begun it’s roll-out and was zooming down the track, about to reach the end and launch off on another adventure. When the booster rockets ignited, the picture flickered, and then (as the station lost power and went off the air) the screen went to black, with just a single white dot … a la "The Twilight Zone".

Of the four of us, only three knew immediately what was happening. Mom and Dad, having lived in California and Japan realized that it was an earthquake, and a big one at that. My brother figured out that the, "Bad Fireball broke TV”. I was your standard, oblivious pre-teen. I didn’t have a clue. I just lay on the bed and went along for the ride as it flew around the room, slamming from one wall to another. I do remember looking out the window and seeing the ground rising and falling, like ocean waves, and thinking, “That doesn’t look right.”

When the shaking was over, Dad came flying up the stairs grabbed my brother and yelled at me to get out of the house. Just before we went out, we all stopped in the pantry to grab hats, coats, mittens and boots. A lot of food had fallen to the floor and broken open. A package of Lorna Doones was open, laying their golden goodness at our feet. Between my brother and the dog they were disappearing rapidly. When Dad reached down to pick them both up, someone sank teeth into his arm. To the day he died, he would always remark that, “That was the sweetest, most even-tempered dog in the world. She never bit anyone in her life!”

We lived at 524-C Beluga Avenue. Our building was a row unit, with eight apartments. The last two (apartments G and H) had been turned into a double apartment and were the residence of the Post Commanding General. I don’t recall his name, but his wife was really nice and would often invite us kids in for cookies. I remember their living room had a couple of big curio cabinets filled with china, crystal, ivory knick-knacks and other fru-fru stuff. The building acted like a whip during the earthquake, with Unit A serving as the handle. Damage to our apartments (A, B and C) was light, but the General and his wife lost everything.

Calgon & SunFlower Star

(John & Pat Steinke )

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 too lived in Alaska on March 27th, 1964. My father was stationed at Elemendorf and we lived on Beech Street across from the Aurora Elementary school. My mother and my two brothers and my sister and I were all home and my father was on the way home in a car. When the quake started the dog had been uncomfortable for a few minutes. We tried to leave through the front door and it got stuck in the door jam so we laid down on the floor and said probably three decats of the rosary while the floor rose and dropped and the noise was deafening.

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 21 years old and stationed at Elmendorf AFB and  I had just completed the first year of a two-year tour.  The shock over the loss of President John F. Kennedy was just beginning to subside and things were headed back towards normal.  The Beatles descended on the music scene with a rush and long mop-head haircuts were becoming the rage with all the teenagers.  I had just returned from a shopping trip to JC Penney where I'd  picked up some new clothes.  I had a date scheduled and I had hurried to the SAC/RAF mess hall to wolf down some dinner before returning to my barracks to put on those new clothes and make an evening of it.  I had just sat down to eat when I felt a rumble in the floor.  I knew immediately what it was, having been through a series of earthquakes in Kern County in 1952.  I told everybody not to worry because the disturbance would pass quickly.  It didn't pass quickly.  The floor began to shake and pitch back and forth and after one violent upheaval, all the tables and chairs slid to one end of the mess hall and smashed against the wall.  Time to get out.

Thought I would share my own memories of that event.

Don't recall what I did that day, but I was almost 8 years old (two weeks later was my birthday) and had the day off from school. My mom had made spaghetti for dinner (uh huh - what a dish to serve then, eh?) and we were eating, since my dad got home form work (Elmendorf AFB - personnel office) just after five. I guess I must have been a fast eater in those days. I was the first one done with dinner and had just gone upstairs (base housing) to brush my teeth, which we did right after eating. With the toothbrush up to my teeth, the building started shaking. My dad got my brother and two sisters out of the house while my mom came upstairs to get me. By the time we got down the stairs (hitting both sides of the stairway the whole way down) and outside, it was over.

What's weird is that of the three years we spent at Elmendorf, the first year and a half was across the street from the base in an apartment, attending Government Hill School. Just before Christmas of 1963 we were assigned base housing and started attending the government school on base. Had we still been off base we would have had to attend school throughout the summer like all the rest of the kids who could no longer attend GHS, due to the severe damage.

I recall my dad bar-b-qing on the tailgate of our station wagon in the parking lot of base housing. Don't know why, unless it was the next day and we still couldn't use the stove/oven inside. He was drinking beer and it was a Saturday, so who knows. He always took any opportunity to be a "good ol' boy" with the rest of his AF cronies.

Our dog made it out with us. Our cat remained in the basement, but didn't get even a scratch on him.

Jacob Drake, Olympia, WA

I was 8 &1/2 when the Good Friday earthquake hit, and my family was living in Anchorage, on Columbine Street, walking distance to Airport Heights Elementary School. My mom, my two older brothers & I were at home. My Dad was on his way home from his office at Elmendorf AFB. When the quake hit, my brother & I were playing cards, Mom was cooking a pot of chili, and my oldest brother was sitting on the couch, watching TV. We were used to feeling tremors, but when this hit, we knew it was different right away. The cards went flying, the pot of chili flew across the kitchen, and Mom, one brother & I went to stand in the front doorway. Oldest brother sat on the couch, professing he was not afraid, though completely ashen. Looking out the front door I remember seeing our little dog, Gyp, running up & down the hills & valleys of our normally flat street. It seemed to go on forever.

Dad, on his way home in the car when the quake hit, initially thought there was something wrong with his car, so he stopped to check it out. When he got out he saw all the power poles whipping back & forth and realized what was happening. Across the road, a troop truck had pulled over to the side of the road and the soldiers were bailing out of the back. As they hit the shaking frozen ground they started falling every which way, laughing uncontrollably at their apparent clumsiness. As it turned out, the timing of the quake probably spared many lives, my dad being one of them. Upon returning to his office a few days later, he discovered that the giant, heavy bookcases behind his desk had fallen in the quake. Had he still been at work, sitting at his desk, they would have crushed him.

Once it was over, we sat in the car listening to the radio to hear about all of the devastation. We heard about Seward, where we would go on summer fishing vacations and fish from the old pier, had been hit hard and the pier was no more. We heard that Turnagin, a beautiful neighborhood, had mostly disappeared into the bay.

But it all became terribly real when we heard that my oldest brother’s high school buddy, Lee, had been killed when he was hit by a piece of concrete falling from the J.C. Penney’s building.

Earthquakes can be terrifying, and I think anyone who has experienced a big quake likely has intense empathetic feelings for others who experience big quakes. The recent China quake brought back a lot of memories though I can’t imagine dealing with the massive loss of life the Chinese are dealing with now.

Patrick Sanford

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

I was born June 1st, 1963, at Travis AFB. My father was transfered to Elmendorf AFB, where we lived for a time on base housing. Then my father rented a home nearby, where I and my parents lived. My father was a fighter pilot, relaxing in a break room at a hanger, when the shaking started. He and a buddy went to the doorway, in the nick of time. A huge floor to ceiling fridge fell over, just missing them both. Getting out of the hanger was hard to do, as they had to crawl out of it, to the outside. After the quake happened. One fighter plane that had come in that day, and was new, was nose into the ground. The shaking snapped the nose landing gear off. The huge hanger door were stuck where they were. For the whole buildings were warped. All the pilots were scrambled, and made ready to take off. At the time, pilots in those planes had the capability to engage Russia with a nuclear weapon, that was launched from the plane. 45 minutes later, the men were told to stand down, that it was just an earthquake. My mother did not see my father for nine days, as those pilots were on alert at the base; in case there was an attack from Russia.

They say kids can't remember anything when they are real young. I remember a bell on my toy train ringing out of the blue. I was sitting on the living room rug, with various toys, near a picture windw. This train was meant for a child to sit on, and that bell rang and rang. I heard my mother screaming, and crying. She was in the kitchen, and she had one of those portable dishwashing machines that roll. Well, it went banging around, and ran over her foot to begin with. She hopped up on the counter, and that crazy machine was wipping around. I remember the blood from her cut big toe, and her crying, and later, the cold. We had lost our power. Lucky for us, neighbors took us in. Their apartment complex had lost it's internal stairways, which had collapsed. People went up into their second floor apartments with ladders. This building built of concrete had to later torn down. But, being there that night, we had heat, but no water. I just remember the bell ringing, and the beautiful sun shining through that window, before the glass cracked, and my mother screaming.

Edward W. Jackson, of Missouri

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

Galena Air Force Base Account

I was in the Air Force at Galena in 1964, which as I recall is about 200 miles north of Anchorage, and I remembered being told to get out of the buildings because we felt the shaking.

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 Accounts

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

I was nine years old and my dad was a Chief Petty Officer stationed at the Naval Base on Kodiak Island. It was Good Friday, and we had just finished eating dinner. I remember my dad sitting in his easy chair reading the newspaper while my mom finished putting away the dishes, when the first tremor started. I had just walked into the living room and stopped dead in my tracks. My dad looked up at me and I looked at him when the big tremor came. I just stood there watching him as he grabbed onto the floor lamp next to him and my mom was yelling from the kitchen, trying to hold the cabinets shut so that the dishes wouldn’t fall out. I don’t remember how long the quake lasted, probably a minute, but it seemed like forever. Once it stopped, dad jumped up and turned on the television to see what was being reported.

My next recollection was that we were soon packing belongings and moving to stay with the families who lived on higher ground because there was the threat of tidal waves. We stayed the night with a family we didn’t know (as did many other families that night), the children sleeping while the parents stayed up all night gleaning news and waiting to see if we would have subsequent quakes or tidal waves.

Luckily, our housing area did not suffer any damage from the quake or from the tidal wave, but parts of the Base did get hit with the tidal wave and downtown Kodiak was severely damaged by the tidal wave, washing boats ashore into the township.

As I was still a child, the experience was one of adventure for me. The day after the major quake (several smaller quakes would follow in the weeks to come), those whose homes we shared the night before had to come down to stay with us as their power went out and we had big gas furnaces which we used to cook small meals on, as well as grills and hibachi pots. As it was Easter, my mom had fortunately already boiled the Easter eggs, so the children decorated the eggs with crayons. Some of the people on the Base put together an Easter party for all the kids with baskets and stuffed animals for each of us. Yet even with these special treats, the gravity of the situation was all around us as we saw the huge cracks left in the roads and Base runway, and the high water lines on the buildings where the tidal wave came ashore. The memory of those days will always be with me.

Monica Maack Tiller
Wichita, Kansas

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

California Tsunami Account

 I was 8 years old when the earthquake happened. I was fishing with my dad, a friend and his dad in Laguna Beach in Southern California. We were fishing from a rocky promentarie about 8 feet above sea level. This huge wave came out of nowhere. It seemed 20 feet tall. My dad rushed me against a cliff edge, which saved us from being dragged into the water. Many others were not so lucky, including my friend.

I remember we got him out of the swells that kept coming ashore. My friends dad and my dad were able to secure and rescue my friend as the waves kept pushing him against the rocks. He was battered and bruised but did not require more attention than the nearby lifeguards could give him. Others were not so lucky. Some people who were not pulled out within the first few incoming swells had to be hospitalized for their injuries.

It was a few years before I matured enough to find out I was in a tsunami. Another few years to realize where the tsunami came from. As I lived along the San Andreas fault line, I have been at the epicenter of two earthquakes, 6.7 in 1971 in S. California and a 7.0 quake in Santa Cruz iin N. California. Neither were as dramatic or as personally damaging as an earthquake from over 2,000 miles away. As an aside to this, I was skin diving many years later and found the fishing pole that belonged to my friends father. It had not been in that spot the previous year and came to see it to verify it was his missing pole.

Tom Mealer  -  Laguna Beach, California