50 years ago in Vancouver WATCH: Remembering the 1964 Port Alberni tsunami

[malaise]

http://globalnews.ca/news/1227757/watch-remembering-the-1964-port-alberni-tsunami/
<snip>
On March 28 it will have been 50 years since a tsunami hit the Port Alberni area of Vancouver Island.

The waves were triggered by a 9.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Alaska.

Some residents of Port Alberni will still remember the day the tsunami hit. It caused major damage to the community, but luckily everyone survived.

The first wave hit the community just after midnight, when most people were asleep. According to the Port Alberni museum, it was the quick thinking of many of the city’s citizens who alerted and evacuated most of the residents before the much larger second wave.

The second wave carried off homes, cars and knocked out power to the community. It was not until the waters finally receded days later that the residents could understand the full extent of the damage.
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I only heard about this last month

[Warpy]

1. It was so much worse in Alaska that it tended to dominate the news

I was a kid at the time and had a friend in Alaska who sent me some snapshots of the damage there. One I remember clearly was a street where half of the shops were above ground and the other side of the street was level with shop roofs on that side.

An adult friend said the tsunami warning came in time for people near the water to get to higher ground and that the pre FEMA government agencies came through for them.

Our big government worked. Unfortunately, a coordinated system wasn't in place anywhere else and only observant citizens who woke their neighbors up to flee before the second wave hit lowered the death toll in Port Alberni.

[malaise]

3. That was a major quake in Alarka - that I remember

but I knew nothing about the Port Alberni tsunami.

They can't fool me about big government - they just want to loot it.

[MineralMan]

2. I do, but wasn't there.

[Warpy]

4. The Dogpatch Dispatch barely knew Alaska existed

so there was little way to get offshore news unless something blew up and thousands were killed.

[MineralMan]

5. I was off at college. Saw coverage on the TV

in my dorm lounge.