March 28, 1964 Gulf of Alaska Tsunami - Cape St. Elias Narrative

Passage from Lander (1996):

"The earthquake was felt for five minutes but did little damage to the U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse and station at Cape Saint Elias on the southwestern tip of Kayak Island. It did cause an uplift estimated at 6 to 8 feet and a rock fall on Pinnacle Rock, an offshore promontory connected to Cape Saint Elias by a gravel bar at low tide. One Coast Guardsmen, Frank O. Reid, had gone to Pinnacle Rock to photograph sea lions and suffered a broken leg from the rock fall. His three comrades were worried that he had not returned and went to look for him at 6:00 P.M. The first tectonically-generated tsunami reached the point at 6:16 P.M., almost an hour after the earthquake. It covered the gravel bar by 4 feet of water, catching the three Coast Guardsmen with chest deep water as they carried their injured comrade on a stretcher. A surge 10 feet high came 10 seconds later and swept all four into the sea. Frank Reid was lost, but the other men survived."

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