By Luke Smithwick
Turnagain Times Correspondent
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| A Whittier resident shows a 2x6 embedded in a heavy-duty fork lift tire by the force of the tsunami generated by the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.
Photo courtesy Luke Smithwick, |
In mid-January, a tsunami alert sounded across Alaska, bringing alarm to residents of the Aleutian Islands and question to some residents of Turnagain Arm and Whittier. Why were Turnagain Arm and Whittier under watch? The tsunami’s cause was a cage-rattling 8.2 magnitude earthquake in the Kuril Islands east of Russia. After a great scare, with some residents evacuating villages in the Aleutian Islands and Japan, the tsunami waves, which measured less than a foot in height, patted the shores of the western-most Aleutian Islands and northern Japan. Although the event caused minimal, if any damage, it was still treated with the same seriousness that any tsunami receives.
According to Cindi Preller, a scientist at the West Coast Alaska Tsunami Early Warning Center (W.C.A.T. W.C.), Turnagain Arm and Whittier were included in the watch because they were within three and six hours of wave arrival time. The next stage of alert, a warning, indicates that a tsunami is imminent and that coastal locations within three hours of the tsunami’s point of origin should be prepared for flooding. The size of the watch and warning areas are, according to the W.C.A.T.W.C website, determined by the size of the earthquake and the speed of the tsunami. As ocean buoys record a tsunami’s progress, watches and warnings are cancelled, expanded, or restricted.
What threat does a tsunami watch hold for residents of Turnagain Arm and Whittier? Does that mean, upon hearing that one should strap the lifejackets on the kids, shovel the snow out of the boat and be ready to get in? Well, not exactly. According to Preller, “It’s extremely unlikely that Turnagain Arm will ever see the effects of a tsunami because it’s too shallow to sustain a tsunami‘s energy.”
On the other hand, Whittier residents do have reason to be concerned with a deep fjord at their doorstep. According to Preller, The Kuril Island event, which occurred off the coast of Russia, would, in all likelihood, not have created a tsunami wave within Prince William Sound due to its protection by outlying islands. Preller stressed, however, that residents of Whittier need to be aware that “their greatest danger is a local event within Prince William Sound. In which case, the earthquake itself is the warning.”
Last century alone, Alaska experienced four large tsunamis. They included the 1946 and 1957 Aleutian Island events, the 1958 Lituya Bay event in southeastern Alaska, and finally, the 1964 Good Friday earthquake and resulting tsunami that flooded and destroyed coastal towns along Prince William Sound.
Three separate waves struck Whittier’s harbor during the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, according to the Committee on the Alaska Earthquake of the Division of Earth Sciences National Research Council.
Whittier Boat Harbormas-ter, Mike Davidson, said, “Whittier was approximately 27 nautical miles from the Good Friday Earthquake’s epicenter in Prince William Sound.” And, he said, residents had very little time to save themselves and their belongings before the first wave came plummeting into town.
The second wave to hit Whittier was the largest of the three at 104 feet. One of the three tsunami waves that crashed into Whittier was caused by a local submarine slump, said Preller, which occurred on the floor of Passage Canal.
Long time Whittier resident, Brenda Tollman, who also records the city’s daily weather logs, has heard from older residents that the second wave to hit Whittier came in all the way to the Anchor Inn, but didn’t reach to the Begich Towers, where most of the city’s residents live.
Tollman also recalled a story of the former employees of the Columbia Sawmill, which stood where the present day Inn at Whittier is located.
“When the big wave came in, it was during a shift change, at 5:18 pm or so,” she said. “Some of the workers climbed on the roof to avoid the wave. The wave came and took out the building. All of those (workers) on top, they died.”
Bob Haskell, Whittier Police Chief, is reviewing Whittier’s emergency protocol for future events. “When Whittier receives notification of a tsunami warning, we immediately contact town department heads,” he said. “Residents of the Whittier Manor condos are evacuated to the Begich Towers building. We can use the school too (for evacuation).”
As for the events surrounding the 1964 tsunami that Tollman described, Haskell said he wasn’t present during the 1964 tsunami, so he couldn’t give first hand knowledge, but he heard from others that the large white fuel tanks at the west end of town spilled several million gallons of fuel oil when struck by the tsunami waves. He said the fuel tanks spill was equivalent in size to that of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989, and the railroad lines leaving Whittier through the Anton Anderson Memorial tunnel were twisted by the water.
Girdwood is not the only place experiencing record snowfall. Whittier is also recording record numbers. December was a record snowfall month for the city with 151 inches of snow accumulation. A significant amount of snow fell in January, as well, with 104 inches recorded. Whittier’s total snowfall to date is 282 inches, a great deal more than the 95 inches of snowfall recorded at this time last year.
On another note, Babs Reynolds was named Employee of the month for her 21 years of service in the city of Whittier.
The 2007 Cruise Ship schedule is out for the port of Whittier. This season Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruises will send a total of 51 ships to Whittier. Princess Cruises tops the list of ships stopping over with a total of five cruise ships that will dock 43 times. Carnival Cruises Spirit will also make trips to the port that is the Gateway to Prince William Sound. Seven Seas Mariner of Regent Cruise Lines will make transfer stops at the port as well.
The Spirit will kick off the season when it arrives May 19. Princess Cruises Coral will finish the cruise ship season when it arrives on Sept. 17.
Two ships will be making Whittier a Port of call this year allowing passengers and ship employees time to shop and dine in the city. Transfer ships strictly use the port as a drop-off point for passengers being shuttled to Anchorage and Ted Steven’s International Airport.