March 28, 1964 Gulf of Alaska Tsunami - Chenega Narrative
Passage from Lander (1996):
"Chenega is located at the south end of Chenega Island. This community of 75 people
experienced, proportionally, the greatest disaster. Only one house and the school
survived of the 8 to 10 homes, the store, and the church that comprised the
community. Twenty-three of its inhabitants were lost including many of the
church elders who had taken refuge in the church, and three others who were on a
nearby island (Anchorage Daily News, March 28, 1989). Only one body was
recovered. Two people were reported injured (Lantis, 1972). One was a woman
rescued from part of a floating house by the fishing boat Marpet. She
was badly bruised and feared she had broken her leg. This is the only account
of someone being saved from the water although a number of people were washed
into bays and managed to save themselves.
One man, Nicholas Kompkoff Sr, was carrying two young daughters and accompanied by his
9-year old daughter when the wave overtook them. He was thrown across a creek
and into a snow bank. The youngest, Norma Jean, age 3, and Julia, the oldest,
were swept away and lost.
The houses were either washed into sea or carried into the forest and broken.
The reinforced concrete school was built on higher ground at 70 feet above
post-earthquake mean sea level. All of the boats were lost except for three -
one in port at the time and two that were out on the water with hunting
parties.
About 60 to 90 seconds after the beginning of the earthquake a small wave rose
half way up the rocky beach, but rapidly receded exposing the whole cove bottom
for a distance of 300 yards from shore and to an estimated depth of 120 feet.
The returning wave arrived in about 4 minutes, and before the shaking had
ceased. It was about 35 feet high and breaking. It surged up to the school's
foundation at an elevation of 70 feet. The survivors spent the night in the
snowy woods above the school, fearing another and larger wave."
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