January 17, 2005

The waves broke on Crescent City

It is all but impossible to fully comprehend that nature can summon the sheer, arbitrary power to create the widespread devastation that has occurred as a result of the Indian Ocean earthquake. Though more than half a world away, we know that in minutes thousands of communities from multiple nations bordering the Indian Ocean - India, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Myanmar, and the Maldives - were altered forever, the loss of life and widespread destruction beyond understanding.

Photos from the Walt Harris Collection at the Del Norte County Historical Society document the devastation left in the wake of the 1964 tsunami that hit Crescent City. Photo Del Norte County Historical Society

What we are finding out is that tsunamis (tsunami, Japanese for harbor wave, is the internationally accepted word for a seismic or tidal wave), have occurred in the past and, as scientists are quick to point out, certainly will take place again. It is only a question of when and where.

Consider the following: In the evening of March 27, 1964, at 7:36 p.m., an 8.4 Richter Magnitude earthquake took place off the Gulf of Alaska, 75 miles east of Anchorage and 55 miles west of the coastal port of Valdez. It was one of the largest shocks ever recorded on the North American Continent and the most destructive in Alaskan history.

In a matter of minutes the earthquake destroyed downtown Anchorage, caused local landslides, and created ocean waves that crashed into nearby coastal towns from Valdez to Seward and from Homer to Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska.

What occurred beneath the ocean's surface was a massive shifting of tectonic plates, a powerful vertical displacement, which forced billions of tons of sea water to quickly surge away, forming a transpacific tidal wave that began traveling west across the Pacific Ocean basin, then turned and headed south. It raced past the Alaska Peninsula, effecting some towns and sparing others, then hit deep water and steamed away at speeds close to 600 miles per hour, surging past the coastlines of British Colombia and the states of Washington and Oregon (four people were drowned in Oregon and coastal areas suffered extensive damage).

At midnight on March 27, having traveled some two thousand miles in merely 4 1/2 hours, it slammed into Crescent City, Calif.

The above facts come from the opening chapters of a soon-to-be-released book, "The Raging Sea, The Heroic Story of America's Worst Tidal Wave," by local author and Southern Oregon University professor, Dennis Powers. After almost a decade of research and countless interviews, he has just completed the story of what happened to the 3,000 citizens and the town of Crescent City. And while the damage and loss of life, when compared to recent events, seem minimal, the impact of the Alaska tsunami on this small northern California town and its unsuspecting residents, as Powers points out, was devastating. A graphic demonstration of the power of such a cataclysmic event.

In his book, Powers reiterates that there was no warning of what was coming, hence most Crescent City folks were in their homes asleep, while others camped on beaches, and some passed the late hours in bars. "How close you were to the sea and what you were doing at the time made a difference between life and death," Powers writes, chronicling how the terrifying events unfolded. He includes dramatic, moment-by-moment accounts of the survivors, many of whom displayed remarkable courage in their attempts to save friends and strangers alike, often at great risk to themselves.

The aftermath left the community in ruins and its citizens in a state of shock and disbelief.

When the sun rose above the horizon on the morning of March 28, what was revealed was a scene of unimaginable ruin and wreckage. Some 30 city blocks of Crescent City were ravaged, 289 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, and 11 people lost their lives. Fires burned everywhere, potable water, medical facilities and housing were in short supply.

The reconstruction of the community took years and for those who survived, it changed their lives forever.

In summing up his experience writing this, the first book about the Crescent City tsunami Powers states, "'The Raging Sea" was for me very meaningful because it allowed me to tell the story of the older, hardworking people of Crescent City, a story of courage, survival as well as the rebuilding of their town that a tsunami had so unexpectedly torn apart forty years ago. The book was written and published before the horrors of the Indian Ocean calamity took place. Out of that disaster, however, an Indian Ocean Warning Center will finally be created. The stark and frightful Indian Ocean pictures are ones that none of us will ever forget ... and yet the question still looms: when will another cataclysmic event occur, in what intensity and where. We need to be more 'tsunami aware' and remember the past as we focus on the future..."

Powers will be at Bloomsbury Book Store Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. for a reading, discussion and signing of "Raging Sea."

The Raging Sea, The Heroic Story of America's Worst Tidal Wave by Dennis Powers. Citadel Press, New York, NY; 277 pages (trade paperback) Due to be released on Jan. 27, 2005

Dennis Powers was a full-time attorney specializing in business law and has written five nonfiction books. He has been researching the Crescent City tidal wave for more than a decade. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School, and is currently a full professor in the School of Business at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, where he resides with his wife Judy.