In a Time of Crisis: A Look at the 1964 Alaska Earthquake

4th Avenue in Anchorage after the 1964 earthquake.

As the father of three small children, I got one of the rarest gifts in the form of some quiet time alone (while walking to the train station to go to work). During this respite, I was able to catch a rebroadcast of one of my favorite podcasts, 99% Invisible, covering the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. Specifically, the podcast covered the story of Genie Chance, a reporter for a local radio station at the time. It's a great episode and you should really take the time to listen (and give the show a chance if you haven't already). Just as a refresher, the earthquake was a doozy, to say the least. Measuring an astounding 9.2 on the Richter scale, the earthquake hit the Anchorage area at 5:36 pm on March 27th, 1964.  The earthquake itself killed 9 people and the tsunamis it caused all over the world killed another 122. Perhaps most unbelievably was the length of the quake at 4 to 5 minutes.

With a family with deep roots in Alaska, I have always been aware of this great disaster with some stories about the event pasted on through my mother (who later moved to Alaska) regarding friends who came home only to find their home "slid into the sea." By 1964, my grandmother and grandfather had moved from Skagway to Anchorage, thankfully surviving the quake unscathed (as far as I know). One time during elementary school, when my grandmother was making one of her visits to our California home (after retiring from the railroad, grandpa and grandma moved down to the lower 48 and periodically stayed with their children in California and Texas) I asked her about this catastrophe. Our exchange went something like this:

"Grandma, what did you do during the Great Earthquake of 1964?"

"Well, I sat on the sofa and waited for it to be over!"

Grandma didn't quite have the gift of storytelling that her mother did. As long as I knew her, she was very matter-of-fact and blunt. Well anyway, the episode of the podcast is great (link) and the book about Genie Chance and the Great Earthquake looks equally interesting. Maybe in these troubling and uncertain times, a recount about how people came together in the face of a disaster might be just what the doctor ordered.