1964 Good Friday Earthquake Photo Gallery
1964 Good Friday Earthquake
A gallery of images showing the destruction caused by the second largest earthquake in recorded history.
Article by Anne Sanders
Aerial photo of Portage, Alaska townsite after the 1964 Alaska earthquake, taken near railroad siding. The townsite, and in general most land on the seaward side of the Seward Highway, was rendered unusable by 6 feet of subsidence and subsequent flooding at higher tides. Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Good Friday Earthquake of March 27, 1964, was the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history, and the second largest earthquake in recorded history. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake, which resulted in 131 deaths (115 in Alaska and 16 in Oregon and California), was centered in the Prince William Sound region of Southcentral Alaska.
...multiple fishing boats were sunk as far away as Louisiana.
Buildings and roads in many major cities in Alaska experienced significant damage due to landslides, avalanches, and tsunamis. The cities of Seward and Anchorage lost large portions of their waterfronts. Towns like Portage, in Turnagain Arm and Valdez, in Prince William Sound, were completely destroyed. The town of Valdez was able to relocate, while Portage was never rebuilt.
The waterfront at Seward, Alaska, a few months after the earthquake. Photo: USGS
The earthquake sent vibrations across the world. Along with tsunamis, the earthquake caused waves in isolated bodies of water such as a lakes and boat harbors, a phenomenon called a seiche. As a result, multiple fishing boats were sunk as far away as Louisiana.
"Ghost Forest" Palmer Hay Flats caused by the sinking landscape. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The following is a personal account from Don Benson, a member of the Pioneers of Alaska, telling his experience during the earthquake.
“During the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, I was 12 years old and home alone. Our house was next to the old Matanuska Bridge on the Old Glenn Highway.
I had just gotten home from school and was sledding. It was warm that day and I was soaking wet! I had the fireplace going to get dry in my underwear when the house started shaking. Then more shaking … so I went to the door, (we had a concrete house), like they tell you to do. I didn’t like it so I went out in the yard.
The shaking slowed down and I went back into the house. And when the quake came again in about 2 ½ minutes, it got really strong! The bridge was doing a hula dance and moved about three feet in each direction. I had a collie named Prince who was scared to death and never left my side. I was never scared but hoped the shaking would stop. Five minutes was a long time for the house to shake. The earthquake broke some syrup jars so I thought I would be in trouble.
My mom came home from work to check on me and that is when I found out how bad an earthquake it was! I think if the bridge would have been out, she would have cleared it as fast as she was going! My dad was at the Palmer Airport.
He said the ground started shaking and he thought he was having a heart attack! So he pulled over to the side of the road, got out of the pickup and still couldn’t stand up! We had a friend at the Butte with a high frequency short wave radio so we went out to his place and contacted our relatives in the lower 48 and told them our family was fine. I remember there was a lot of construction afterwards but Palmer didn’t get as much damage as did Anchorage, Valdez and Kodiak.
Behind my grandparents’ farm on the Outer Springer, there were cracks in the dirt and gravel on the (Matanuska) river that were three feet wide. The cracks would open up and a lot of people said they saw water spraying up in the air when the cracks closed.”
- Excerpt from Don Benson’s story in “Life and Times of Matanuska Valley Pioneers.”
Coastal uplift in Prince William Sound. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Seldovia flooding after earthquake. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
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Fourth Ave. in Anchorage after the earthquake ripped up the streets and demolished buildings. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Radical changes in sea level near Valdez, Alaska following 1964 Alaska Good Friday Earthquake. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. From the Historic C&GS Collection.
Good Friday Earthquake damage in Girdwood, Alaska - 1964. Photo: U.S. National Archives, via Wikimedia Commons
Damage along the Turnagain Arm. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Damage to the Government Hill School in Anchorage. Photo: W.R. Hansen, U.S. Geological Survey, via Wikimedia Commons.
Landslide damage in the Turnagain Heights neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska. Photo: USGS
Tsunamis caused by the Good Friday Earthquake drove a 2x6 plank through this 10-ply truck tire at Whittier, Alaska. Photo: USGS
Destruction in the harbor in Kodiak. By U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. Navy All Hands magazine July 1964, p. 10.), via Wikimedia Commons
89 comments
I am very sorry Elizabeth. It’s Alaska history that needs to be remembered.
I remember as if it was yesterday! My two older brothers an I were waiting in the car for our mom who was in a trailer picking something up from her friend when the earthquake started. I was seven and my brothers were 2 and 4 years older. Our car was parked facing east on 36th ave just west of the railroad tracks across the street from Woodland Park Elementary school which is now Boy and Girls Club. My oldest brother thought the car was starting to roll down the hill so he jumped in the drivers seat and stepped on the break then the emergency brake lever before he cried out, “earthquake”!
That’s when we bailed out of the car and stood in the middle of the road wondering what to do next. Mom must have totally forgotten about us because she was too busy trying to keep her friend kitchen cabinets closed. As the trailer rocked back and forth, dishes were flying across the room out of the cabinets. About half way through she was able to stick her head out the door to check in us. She yelled for us to go hang on to the telephone pole in the snow bank. To this day I still think she was trying to “off” us! Ha! We watched as someone in a black car must have been racing home on 36th as the ground rose and fell like ocean swells. Looking back we were all blessed that this disaster happened in the spring and not the winter or many more people would have died due to the cold.
Amazing story!
I was 4 1/2 months old and my parents had just moved back to Michigan from Fairbanks. They had a lot of friends who have told me stories for years about traveling around after the quake and seeing the changes in the land and rivers.
Roberta Cantrell Stout here. I was 7 years old when this happened. We lived in a trailer in Anchorage and attended Creekview Elementary. Fortunately we had just got home from school at the time. I remember the earth shaking and items flying off the walls. My mom was working in the Singer building downtown when it struck. It was next to the J C Penny bldg which was 5 stories high and it fell onto the Singer bldg. My father managed to pick her up and they came home. It was scary but it all turned out ok.
Thank you for more information. I was 6.5 years old when this happened. It has had a lifetime of impact on me. I lost my dad, Leonard A. Gilliland of Seward, AK. to this disaster. He was a pilot who was helping out with rescue. The plane he was on crashed, all aboard were killed. Thank you for publishing this for Americans to either remember or learn of our countries history.
I was at U of A in Fairbanks when the earthquake hit. A group of us were in the cafeteria waking to a table when the floor rolled under our feet. Some one laughed and wondered if they felt it Anchorage where my family lived. We soon heard all communications with cities in southcentral Alaska were out. Some of us sat in the KUAC radio that night waiting for news from the south. It was Sunday before I heard through the Red Cross that my family was safe and well.
The girl who lived across the hall from me in the MacIntosh Dorm was from Valdez. Her mother and 2 siblings came to stay in the dorm with her for a time. I learned her father and I think 2 brothers were on the dock waiting for a supply ship to dock and unload when the quake hit. They were lost that day.
Thanks Robin for that information!
I was in the Air Force stationed at Elmendorf.. It was pretty exciting out on the ramp next to transport aircraft..
Cecil, thanks for posting these pictures! I was 8 when the earthquake hit. It had a lasting effect on me as, I’m sure, everyone who was there. You might be interested in getting in touch with Chuck @ 1enrichjudy@comcast.net about the various memorials he is aware of or has personally worked on getting established. Apparently, the State of Alaska recognized the Alaska Air Guard flight crew who went down in Valdez by virtue of HJR 23, 2014 and HB 35 2015. The City of Valdez is also working on a memorial. The Municipality of Anchorage passed permanent legislation by way of a resolution which makes every March 27th a “day of remembrance”. There is also a statewide “Annual Tolling of the Bells.” This was such a major geologic and personal event for so many people, it is nice to know it is not forgotten.
We will have to look for that. Thanks Roger!
Get the interview with Governor Walker, who was 12 years old and living in Valdez, aired on KCAM radio this date 2014!
You are welcome, and thank you for reading the article!
Thank you for posting thse pictures it lets you see what the effect was on the whole State