The most destructive earthquake to strike Alaska occurred at 5:36 p.m. on Good Friday, march 27,1964. Registering between 8.4 and 8.6 on the Richter scale in use at the time, it has been revised upward to 9.2, making it the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America. With its primary epicenter deep beneath Miners Lake in northern Price William Sound, the quake spread shock waves that were felt 700 miles away. The earthquake and seismic waves that killed 131 persons. Of the 131 deaths, 119 were caused by the tsunami that resulted from the earthquake.
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The highest sea waves caused by the 1964 earthquake occurred when an undersea slide near Shoup Glacier in Valdez triggered a wave that toppled trees 100 feet above tidewater and deposited silt and sand 220 feet above salt water.
According to the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska has had seven tsunamis that caused fatalities in recorded history. These were of local origin and occurred between 1788 and 1964. The most damaging tsunamis was in 1964 following the March 27, Good Friday earthquake. That wave completely destroyed three Alaskan villages before reaching Washington, Oregon and California, and continued to cause damage as far away as Hawaii, Chile and Japan. (Tsunami is taken from the Japanese words tsu meaning harbor and nami meaning great wave.)
When the earthquake hit that late Good Friday most Alaskans were either at home or on the way there - not in large business buildings or schools where casualities would have been multiplied. Even so, the number of people dead or missing was approaching well over 100.
But the earthquake dealt a staggering blow to Alaska's economy. In Anchorage, the largest city, many of the downtown buildings were wrecked. Streets dropped as many as 20 feet, houses were swallowed up and the ground would close over them. Hundreds of people fled their homes to get to higher ground. The once very popular and highly expensive area of Turnagain was evacuated. All the property was destroyed. And to this day we have a park called Earthquake Park. The state's vital fishing industry was badly crippled. The total damage from the quake was estimated at $350 million. Massive federal aid- not just loans and relief - would be needed to help Alaska put its broken towns and economy back together again.
It took days before power and cleanup could begin. Every ham radio operator was swamp with requests from relatives in and out of Alaska wondering if their friends and family's were okay . It has taken a long time for things get back on track. But the people of Alaska are strong and determined to keep a hold of their homes. There are still numerous places that when you are driving\boating\flying you can see the scars that the 1964 earthquakes left us. They are a constant reminder that nature rules.
There are many articles regarding the earthquake of 1964. It is very interesting to look at movies, books, and talk to Alaskans that lived through this disaster and hear their first-hand accounts of what it was like to be in one of our most devastating disasters.
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