27 March 2013

It's the 49th Anniversary

... of the horrible earthquake in Alaska on Good Friday, 1964.

Quoting the article on www.adn.com, "The 9.2 magnitude quake and tsunami killed 128 people and caused millions of dollars of damage in Southcentral when it struck on March 27, 1964."

This stretch of 4th Avenue (downtown Anchorage) is where the Iditarod begins, now.


Go here to see video footage & pictures of the largest 'quake recorded in the northern hemisphere.

4 comments:

drjim said...

I remember that. I was in Illinois at the time (13 years old...), and I immediately got my radio fired up to see if anybody I could contact up there needed messages passed to the Chicago area.

Many years later I was working with a guy who'd been up there with NASA when it happened. He was out somewhere riding dirt bikes with a buddy, and his friend stopped, pointed at the horizon, and said "What's THAT!?".

He said they could see a wave moving through the land!

When it got to them they got tossed around like dolls, knew it was a massive earthquake, and headed back to town.

I can't imagine the damage if it happened today....

Rev. Paul said...

I was not quite 10 yrs old then, and remember seeing the pictures on TV at the time. Then from 2004 to 2008, I managed two malls that are built on top of that big hole in the pictures.

One mountain on the edge of town actually split in two, stayed that way for a couple of minutes, and then slammed back together. I have friends who watched their neighbor's dog get swallowed by a hole in the yard which then closed. There are many here who still talk about the streets & sidewalks rolling like waves at sea.

The thing lasted for 4 1/2 minutes, which just scared everybody to death.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

One story that sticks in my mind was Bob Reeves, Reeves Aleutians Airways, who was in the Holiday Inn revolving restaurant when it hit. Later, talking to reporters, one asked him if he was scared. "No, he replied," but I passed three fellers going down the stairs who were real scared."
Two men in my company in Germany were from the Anchorage area. It was nearly a week before they got word their families were ok.

Rev. Paul said...

WSF, I flew Reeve Aleutian Air several times between Anchorage & Adak for a couple; Bob was a real character.