These are the stories of the men, women and children who lost their lives
as the result of the 1964 Alaska earthquake.
The stories have been written by surviving friends and family members.
If you would like to include your loved one, please contact me.
My father Jesse Lee Hatch was born in Seward, Alaska. He was the son of Peter and Annie Hatch who met at the Jesse Lee Home in Seward. My father was fishing out of Seward the day the earthquake hit on a 56 foot boat called the Chris.
Submitted by Lisa Graham
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Clarence Paul Bledsoe was born November 8, 1920 in Ellensburg, Washington to Howard and Vera (De Weese) Bledsoe. Clarence was never married and had no children.
Submitted by Elaine Bledsoe Wischnowsky
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On March 27, 1964, I was a girl of 9 living with my immediate family in Ketchikan. Both sets of grandparents, as well as some aunts and uncles and cousins, were living in Valdez. My mother's brother, Gerald Zook, was among those who were lost. Gerald Lee (Hibner) Zook was a longshoreman and was working on the dock at Valdez, as were many others, when the earthquake hit. His body was never found. Jerry, as he was called, was 27 and was to have been married the following week. He was born in Wrangell, Alaska and was the son of Nettie Prescott and Lyle Hibner. He served in the U.S. Navy in the late 1950's and early 60's. Upon his discharge he went to live in Valdez near his mother and stepfather (Bill Zook).
Submitted by Teresa Hayden Campbell
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Howard Krieger and Paul Gregorieff were Valdez longshoreman working on the freighter Chena when the earthquake hit. Less than a minute after the earthquake started, the ground supporting the Valdez dock collapsed and several hundred feet of the dock slid into the bay. When that happened, the Chena was severely pitched and the shifting cargo crushed the two men.
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My half sister was Joan Vey Fields Died in the 1964 Crescent City Tsunami. I remember Joan as being very sweet and could draw beautiful pictures... She made me feel special... I was 13 years old when she died in the 1964 Crescent City Tsunami... I didn't know her well but I loved her very much... After our father died I never heard from the family at all... I don't know if she was found or if she has been buried. We had another sister Joan's Sister Bev I don't know where she is either. Our father's name was Irvin Crawford everyone called him Jack all his family are from Lassen County. I don't know to much about Joan's Mom except that my Mom and her were friends at one time... Thank You for doing this,
Submitted by Joans half sister Patty.
(Note:
Joan Vey Fields was one of 11 people killed at Crescent City, California
by a tsunami created by the 1964 Alaska earthquake. She was at the
Long Branch Tavern at Crescent City, celebrating the 54th birthday of her
future father in law. Five people from the saloon died including
Joan and her future in-laws. The only survivor was Joan's fiancé,
Gary Clauson.)
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I was eleven years
old and in Port Williams, Shuyak Island (north of Kodiak) when the earthquake
hit. A local Native Alaskan man named Sammy Pettikof disappeared in Shuyak
Strait on his boat immediately after the earthquake, presumed drowned in
the tidal wave.
Submitted
by Tom Peterson
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My grandfather was
Paul Gregorieff. He died in the Good Friday earthquake. My
grandmother was Mary (Vlasoff) Gregorieff, she died in 2003. Thank
you for putting their names on your web site.
Submitted
by Susan Reynaga
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I lost a very dear
friend, Rev. Duanne Carriker, that day in Valdez. He was the minister
of the Assembly of God Church and worked as a longshoreman. He was working
on the dock at the time the quake hit. His body was never recovered.
He was 33 years old, had been in the military and attended Bible College.
His wife, small son and daughter were flown out for safety later that night.
Bonnie Carriker is still at the radio station at North Pole, Alaska.
Submitted
by Karen Welborn
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Our father, Donald
Mueller, was born in Davenport Iowa on October 3, 1925. Dad attended
school in Hermann and was a senior in high school when he was called to
army service in W.W.II. He was inducted in January 1944 and served 8 ½
months in the 35th Infantry Division and was awarded the Combat Infantryman's
Badge. After discharge, he had several jobs but re-enlisted in the army
in October 1960 and was assigned to US Army Alaska Yukon Command. He was
discharged in October 1963. He remained in Alaska, working for a construction
company and as a part time employee of the Alaska Steamship Company. He
apparently was on the dock waiting to unload the ship Chena when earthquake
hit. The subsequent tsunami washed him and many others out to sea. Dads
body was never found. My brother and I have letters that dad wrote to us
shortly before the earthquake. My brothers is dated March 23, 1964.
Our father and mother (Norma Hurst Mueller) were married 10/14/1949 and
divorced 6 years later. My brother and I were raised by our grandparents,
Victor and Blanche Mueller.
Submitted
by the surviving children of Donald Mueller
Submitted by a Mead family friend, John Dillman, a member of a rescue group that searched for 1964 Alaska earthquake survivors.
Submitted by Honora (Roselyn) Windeler Drew
Submitted by Lester Finke
Submitted by Kim Growden Hammers
Submitted by daughter, Nancy Boddy
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Bob Simmons was my uncle. My mother, Barbara Simmons was his sister. The earthquake was shortly before I was born . According to my mother uncle Bob was out fishing, & the nameplate of his boat was found several miles inland. Nothing else was ever found. Their mother was named Noni. According to my mother Bob was an accomplished outdoorsman who used to go out into the Alaskan Wilderness for months at a time & come back "several pounds heavier". I will inquire further the next time I see her.
Bobs nationality- Scots- Irish Mutt mix. He and his brothers and sisters grew up in Peace River County, Alberta.
Submitted by Bob Blakely
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My father, Albert Reft, Sr. was born in Karluk. He had 2 brothers, one named Gus Reft and other Charlie Reft. He also had 2 sisters, Mary (Reft) Gallager and Annie (Reft) Anderson White.
In 1964 I was 17 y/o myself. I was raised by my aunt Mary Gallagher and she was married to Thomas Gallagher. They owned and operated the Polar Bear Cafe for years, until the tidal wave arrived. My understanding of the circumstances behind my father's fate comes to me 2nd hand, through friends who reported this to my aunt Mary.
Thomas Gallagher was very fond of animals and he had a large herd of cattle on Long Island and Near Island as well. At Near Island he also had pigs and horses. On March 27th my father was with my uncle Thomas at Near Island to feed the cattle and the pigs. It was unusual for my father to assist my uncle in this regard as myself, and my younger brother Thomas, would always assist our uncle in feeding his animals. However, that day they were at Near Island and they used a skiff about 16 foot long with a 25 hp outboard motor. I was told that when the first shock arrived (and it was large) that their outboard motor was flung from their skiff by this jolt. Both my father and uncle had noticed that the water level was rising and they decided to head back to the boat harbor, which was a short distance from their skiff on the beach. They used oars to get themselves back to the boat harbor, and once there, my uncle scurried up to the dock. However, my father, noticing a friend's boat being tied at its mooring and the boat's mooring lines being very taunt from the rising waters, decided to undo the lines of his friend's boat and he attempted to bring this boat to safe waters. My uncle Gallagher told us that he did get the lines undone and attempted to bring the boat to safer waters. He said he pleaded with my father to jump the boat, to let it go, and get to safe ground. He did not listen to my uncle and so he remained on his friend's boat. We only know that he was on this boat and after all had settled down no traces of the boat or my father could be found. Obviously, like many of us at this moment in time, he was not aware of the power a tsunami has, especially the size of the one that hit Kodiak.
It was several days
after the tidal wave action had ceased that the word about my father's
fate had actually reached us. My aunt Mary Gallagher and my father
were very close to each other and I do remember her giving me the news
about my dad. She was standing in our sun room, it was a cold, windy
and rainy day and she was full of tears. She stated that all attempts
to find traces of our father and the boat he was on was in vane.
I don't even remember the name of the boat or the name of the friend my
father new that owned it.
Submitted
by Albert A. Reft Jr.
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I was there in Chenega,
I ran from three 96 ft tidal waves, don't know how I made it. We ran up
the mountain and stayed up their all night cause we heard there was going
to be another quake. We had a fire going. I ran up the
mountain without shoes, so they had a time keeping my feet warm. After
the waves, we were going down to the school and in my heart I knew Mom
and Dad and Joann were gone. My oldest girl Joann, 3½, was with
the mom that raised me, so she died with her and dad. Mom and dad
were Willy and Sally Evanoff. The next morning the mail plane came and
picked 15 of us up at once and later went back and got the others.
Twenty seven out of 87 or so people died that day. There were a lot
of good people in Old Chenega. They found my daughters body on Knight Island
two weeks after the earthquake.
Submitted
by Avis Kompkoff
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Technical Sergeant
Donald McClure, 34 years old, was eel fishing with a friend at the mouth
of the Klamath River, just south of Crescent City, California, when the
tsunami carried both men and the tons of logs and driftwood debris on the
beach about half a mile up the River. My father received "The Airman's
Medal" (posthumously) for his bravery in saving his friend life that night.
He was missing for about a month and his body was finally discovered on
April 26th about 5-1/2 miles north of Patricks Point buoy by fishermen
aboard the boat Sally out of Trinidad Harbor. He was buried May 4th at
the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. He left
behind a wife and 3 children, the youngest being 3 weeks old.
His father was Thomas Henry McClure of Pikens County, Georgia, and Ethel
Plott of Union County, Georgia.
Submitted
by Doris McClure Andersen
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Airman Gordon Wallace,
his wife Arlene 26 (nee Boyer) and (her) son Jack Leroy Bushor of Greenville,
Pennsylvania, were returning to the Naval base from an outing at Chiniak
when the earthquake struck. The Wallace family was standing outside
of their car when the tsunami hit, knocking Gordon Wallace unconscious.
When he regained consciousness, he frantically searched for his wife and
step-son along the shore. He followed a fence to the Stratman house
where he collapsed. Gordon Wallace was saved but his wife's body
was found in the car and his step-sons body nearby. Arlene and her
son are buried in the Shenango Valley Cemetery in Mercer Co., Penn.
Jack Leroy Bushor, age 7, was the son of Jack Bushor Sr. Upon hearing
of this tragedy, Airman Wallace's father died of a heart attack.
Info
compiled from articles in the Kodiak Mirror, the Greenville Argus (PA)
and Mona Anderson, researcher.
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Whittier
"On the afternoon
train were Mrs. Francis Damon, her 16 year old son Larry from Soldotna,
and David Barnes, an employee of the Two Brothers Lumber Company who was
returning from a week's absence. Larry was planning on helping Lewis Michelson,
another employee of the lumber company, to get his boat ready for the fishing
season. The Barnes and Michelsons were friends in nearly identical situations,
both raising three small children, two boys and a daughter, each being
6 years old and younger, without the mothers. Both lived in company housing
near the waterfront. As the 27th was Lewis Michelson's birthday, all ten
had gathered at his house for a birthday dinner by 5:30 P.M. Another couple,
Leonard Day, a caretaker at the lumber company, and his wife, Alberta,
also lived in company housing. He was retiring and they expected to leave
in a week for the "Lower 48." (Norton and Haas, 1970, P.132). Within 45
seconds of the onset of the earthquake shaking that had started slowly
and quickly became violent, the first oil storage tank failed as its bottom
moved away. About 1 minute after the shaking started the first wave rose
glassy smooth over the bank. A returning breaking wave flooded the lower
part of town to a height of 25 to 26 feet above lower low water, the water
level at that time. Low tide was predicted for 6:16 P.M. at -0.16 feet.
About one minute later a second breaking wave hit at a height of about
40 feet causing great destruction to the railroad yards. The maximum height
reported in Whittier was 43 feet near the small boat harbor location at
that time. A witness reported seeing a wall of water coming ashore. Offshore
the water had the appearance of something having exploded underneath the
canal about 50 yards off shore. A third breaking wave hit about a minute
later with a height of 30 feet (Chance, 1970, P. 122). The ten people at
the Michelson's home and the Day's were washed away and never found. These
were all due to local landslide tsunamis. At the time of the initial shock
and first small wave, Jerry Ware, a railroad maintenance man, was standing
at the car barge dock. He drove to his house near the depot for his wife
and six month old daughter. A wave came in the window and smashed the trailer,
throwing Mrs. Ware clear but washed away Geriann, the infant. Ware was
swept through the porch wall and rode and swam with the porch door. He
found his wife in the mud and water clear of the trailer. She had serious
injuries, with pieces of wood embedded in her body, a fractured ankle and
an injured shoulder. She was airlifted out of Whittier the next afternoon
on the first flight out and eventually evacuated to Seattle where she recovered.
Her baby was found alive in a snow bank but died shortly afterwards. Mrs
Ware was the only serious injury from the tsunami or earthquake at Whittier".
Norton
and Haas, 1970, p. 312).
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My brother Lewis Michelson
and his partner David Barns were living together with their six children
and had for at least a year. The summer before they had built a cabin and
they lived there all summer with the six kids and fished for salmon. That
winter they moved into an empty house in Whittier (I think it was in a
lumberyard).There was a couple living in one of the other houses in this
"camp" as the caretakers of the buildings. The day of the quake, my brother
had returned from being out on the water a short time before the quake.
It was my brother's birthday. Lewis, Dave, 6 kids, and a friend with her
son had gone to the caretaker couple's house for a birthday celebration
when the earthquake came. Someone who was at the base in Whittier wrote
to my mother and gave her this information, she said all that was left
of the house was kindling! My brother was born March 27 on Good Friday
and died 32 years later on his birthday, March 27 and Good Friday! I think
Dave was from South Dakota. Their bodies were never found.
Submitted
by Margaret Basta Montana
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We left Whittier in
the fall of 1964. I was working for Union 76 at the time and I spent the
summer after the earthquake fueling equipment. There was more than one
tsunami. The one that reached the Head of the Bay (by the tunnel) washed
on shore far enough to destroy the Two Brothers Lumber Co. The main tsunami
was directed more at the town of Whittier. It was around 45 feet high.
My wife and I and three kids ran from it because it was coming right at
us. The other saw mill (Columbia Lumber Co. where most of the people were
lost) was located close to the end (tunnel end) of the existing small boat
harbor. Dave Barnes was my wife’s cousin’s husband. Their children had
been at our home many times. I have pictures of Dave and Lewis Michelson’s
children at a birthday party with my kids at our Union Oil Apt. in Whittier.
I also have pictures of Leonard and Daisy Day who worked at the mill and
were lost in the tidal wave.
Submitted
by Dick Osburn 2006
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| LOCATION IN ALASKA | DAMAGE DONE BY 1964 EARTHQUAKE | ||
| KLAWOCK, ALASKA (wave
15' tall)
|
DOCKS AND BRIDGES DESTROYED | ||
| SITKA, ALASKA (wave 7' tall) | DOCKS DESTROYED | ||
| PELICAN, ALASKA | SOME HOMES DAMAGED | ||
| HOONAH, ALASKA | MINOR DAMAGE | ||
| LYNN CANAL, ALASKA | MARINE CABLE BROKEN | ||
| CORDOVA, ALASKA (wave 13' tall) | BOAT, DOCKS AND HOMES DAMAGED | ||
| POINT WHITSHED, ALASKA | CABINS DESTROYED, ONE DEAD | ||
| WHITTIER, ALASKA (wave 43' tall) | TOWN BURNED FOR 3 DAYS, 13 DEAD | ||
| PORT NELLIE JUAN, ALASKA (wave 49' tall) | DOCK DESTROYED, 3 DEAD | ||
| POINT NOWELL, ALASKA (wave 39' tall) | BUILDINGS DESTROYED, ONE DEAD | ||
| CHENEGA, ALASKA (wave 89' tall) | VILLAGE DESTROYED, 23 DEAD | ||
| PORT OCEANIC, ALASKA (wave 36' tall) | DOCKS DESTROYED | ||
| WHIDBEY BAY, ALASKA (wave 49' tall) | LOGGING CAMP DESTROYED | ||
| SEWARD, ALASKA (wave 30' tall) | FIRES AND PARTS OF TOWN DESTROYED, 12 DEAD MANY HURT | ||
| PERL ISLAND, ALASKA (wave 29' tall) | CATTLE DROWNED | ||
| SELDOVIA, ALASKA | BOAT HARBOR DAMAGED | ||
| AFOGNAK, ALASKA (wave 11' feet tall) | TWO BRIDGES DESTROYED, MOST OF VILLAGE DESTROYED - LATER RELOCATED | ||
| KODIAK, ALASKA (wave 25' tall) | 200+ BUILDINGS DESTROYED, 9 DEAD | ||
| WOMENS BAY, ALASKA (wave 25' tall) | NAVAL STATION BADLY DAMAGED | ||
| KALSIN BAY, ALASKA | SIX DEAD, CATTLE DROWNED | ||
| SALTERY COVER, ALASKA | RANCH DESTROYED CATTLE DROWNED | ||
| SHEARWATER BAY, ALASKA | CANNERY DESTROYED | ||
| OLD HARBOR, ALASKA (wave 30' tall) | VILLAGE NEARLY DESTROYED ONE DEAD | ||
| LARSEN BAY, ALASKA | CATTLE DROWNED | ||
| KAGUYAK, ALASKA (wave 30' tall) | VILLAGE DESTROYED - 3 DEAD - VILLAGE ABANDONED AFTER EARTHQUAKE | ||
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