topic Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake in Community Chat

The Great Alaska Earthquake

traveler — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:55:20 GMT

51st anniversary today. It was called the Good Friday Earthquake and was 9.2

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

deepwaterdotter — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:59:33 GMT

I faintly remember when this was reported in the news.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Puzzle Piece — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:13:55 GMT

I remember my parents talking about that quake. Believe it or not, my husband has for some reason kept up with Alaskan quakes. That 9.2 lasted for about 7 minutes I believe. I couldn't live through something like that and yet I know here in Los Angeles we are always told to ready ourselves for a large scale quake. I guess I shouldn't say happy anniversary on this one. It will be curtains for many should one like that hit here.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Marp2 — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:17:34 GMT

I had no recall about this. At the time I would have been in school and working so news wasn't a big priority at time of my life. I'll have to read about it.

I found this website with photos showing the aftermath. http://www.greatlandofalaska.com/pictures/geologic/1964/

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

kittymomNC — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:31:22 GMT

I hadn't thought of that in a long time. I have magazines, including a LIFE Magazine and newspapers that I've kept all these years (at least I think it's LIFE) in my cedar chest along with magazines and newspapers of the JFK assassination, etc. The magazines have many pictures of the damage - it was astounding!

Thanks, Marp, for posting the link for the photos. I haven't really looked at my magazines in years, and it still almost brings tears to my eyes to see this kind of catastrophic damage.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

kdgn — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:34:15 GMT

I was in Washington as a teen but I don't remember anything about it.

eta: After looking at the photos, the damage done was devastating-

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

traveler — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 20:38:21 GMT

A few years ago we drove to old Valdez to see the remnants of the town. Here is the story of the tsunami. They were loading a ship and everyone on dock was gone. Someone said his wife was home and he saw the trailer tumbling out to sea.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/alaska/1964/webpages/1964valdez.html

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Puzzle Piece — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 23:01:51 GMT

Devastation is putting it mildly. I do remember a documentary on Jamaica having a town on the coast that went entirely under when a large quake hit and sunk it in minutes. Probalby for the same reasons as the Valdez devastation. Bad stuff.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

scotttie — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 00:48:22 GMT

I remember that very well. I was in elementary school and had a school pen pal in Anchor Point. Her name was Anna.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

spud188 — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 01:46:29 GMT

I remember we lived in a a hotel room when that happened,I was in the 4th grade.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

traveler — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 02:09:08 GMT

On 3/27/2015 spud188 said: I remember we lived in a a hotel room when that happened,I was in the 4th grade.

because of the quake?

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Irshgrl31201 — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 02:56:42 GMT

I remember looking at pictures of the damage. The roads looked crazy, I couldn't figure out how they would fix them.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

raven-blackbird — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 03:52:10 GMT

totally wiped out the town of Valdez............when hubs and I were there, he was on a job there..........we went and saw the old town of Valdez and the memorial with the list of names of the people lost...........whole families.....................................raven

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

NoelSeven — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 04:21:31 GMT

Close relatives of my father lived in Anchorage. I was a little kid and didn't understand the full impact but I saw how upset my mother, father and grandmother were. The phone lines were down, no way to know if our family was ok. Then my father thought of a good friend of his from church whose high school son was an amateur ham radio operator. The son was able to contact someone he knew of there, another student. The young guy there made it through the rubble to the family home, found there had been a lot of damage but they were ok. Then he got word back to us. I never forgot that kindness from those two boys. Does anyone do the ham radio thing anymore?

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Burnsite — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 12:41:02 GMT

This was the first time I ever heard the word "tsunami," though I think the media mainly called it a tidal wave. It was horrifying to see the footage of that disaster.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Marp2 — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 14:44:55 GMT

On 3/27/2015 NoelSeven said: Close relatives of my father lived in Anchorage. I was a little kid and didn't understand the full impact but I saw how upset my mother, father and grandmother were. The phone lines were down, no way to know if our family was ok. Then my father thought of a good friend of his from church whose high school son was an amateur ham radio operator. The son was able to contact someone he knew of there, another student. The young guy there made it through the rubble to the family home, found there had been a lot of damage but they were ok. Then he got word back to us. I never forgot that kindness from those two boys. Does anyone do the ham radio thing anymore?

Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

NoelSeven — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 17:24:48 GMT

On 3/28/2015 Marp2 said:
On 3/27/2015 NoelSeven said: Close relatives of my father lived in Anchorage. I was a little kid and didn't understand the full impact but I saw how upset my mother, father and grandmother were. The phone lines were down, no way to know if our family was ok. Then my father thought of a good friend of his from church whose high school son was an amateur ham radio operator. The son was able to contact someone he knew of there, another student. The young guy there made it through the rubble to the family home, found there had been a lot of damage but they were ok. Then he got word back to us. I never forgot that kindness from those two boys. Does anyone do the ham radio thing anymore?

Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Thank you, Marp, I'm going to check your link right away.

I just never hear of anyone being a ham radio operator anymore and it's always fascinated me. It's such a wonderful resource.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

NoelSeven — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 17:36:08 GMT

On 3/28/2015 Marp2 said:
Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Thanks again. Wow, there's more than a hundred thousand in CA alone! I had no idea, I haven't heard about it in years. I wish I knew someone who was an operator, I'd love to see it in practice.

Radio was big in those days. I remember my father had a really large radio that received stations all over the world. It had a part that folded over it and when open there was a map of the world with some chart on where the best stations were. He loved searching what was on at night.

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

Lucky Charm — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 17:50:23 GMT

On 3/28/2015 NoelSeven said:
On 3/28/2015 Marp2 said:
Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Thanks again. Wow, there's more than a hundred thousand in CA alone! I had no idea, I haven't heard about it in years. I wish I knew someone who was an operator, I'd love to see it in practice.

Radio was big in those days. I remember my father had a really large radio that received stations all over the world. It had a part that folded over it and when open there was a map of the world with some chart on where the best stations were. He loved searching what was on at night.

Sometimes I'll see license plates that have their ham id on them. We actually have a poster (mostly on pet forum) who uses her Ham 'handle' as her nic.

A friend bought a house years ago and the guy was a ham operator big time. He left all kinds of antenas* and wires in the attic. They had the worst time taking everything out.

*(However you spell it...lol)

Re: The Great Alaska Earthquake

graciesmom1 — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:02:16 GMT

As a child in school at that time, it was one thing to hear about the quake on the evening news an even to see the news clips reported, but we received Life and Look magazine in the mail and the spread in Life was astonishing. The photography was so real and so gripping that I still remember feeling as though I had gone through the same devastation as those families and being so very grateful that I lived on the East coast where we didn't know what an earthquake felt like. We all prayed at home and church for those thousands lost.