4 ms·
My grandmother told me about this earthquake/tsunami when I was trying to learn everything I could about my grandfather before he died. At that time he was a na
by jl2718 6y ago
My grandmother told me about this earthquake/tsunami when I was trying to learn everything I could about my grandfather before he died. At that time he was a navy pilot flying missions in the bearing strait, and she was living on a small airstrip somewhere on the Alaskan coast with their three babies. The earthquake hit in the evening and the buildings had no foundation, so they slid around a bit, but mostly everybody just went to sleep. A couple of the CPOs were frantic and spent the night chaining the barracks to ground anchors. The water came in silently and floated the barracks, then left with most of the sailors sleeping through it. In the morning, many of the buildings that weren’t anchored had been swept out to sea.
- ximeng 6y agohttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chief_petty_officer#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chief_petty_officer#English CPO=chief petty officer
- herrkuggelblitz 6y agoI think that you may be thinking of The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake). As far as I know the 1958 earthquake barely gets a historical mention unless it is to talk about the Lituya Bay incident. The 1964 quake was extremely destructive and caused tidal waves that destroyed towns like Cordova and Valdez. These were "normal" sized tidal waves, not 1700 ft monsters like Lituya Bay. As a relevant anecdote, my Dad (who as only 3 years old at the time) and his immediate family lived in Valdez. Thankfully their house was away from the water and they escaped the worst effects. But many friends and townspeople were not so lucky. They all moved to Anchorage afterwards to start over.
- jl2718 6y agoThis is very possible.