Mike's Earthquake Story

On March 27, 1964 while Mike and his first wife and his two older boys had just moved up to Alaska. They were renting a house on Turnigin Parkway in Anchorage. Mike was working for RCA Service Company, he had taken off early that day as they were moving from the rental into another home in Eagle River.

The family was away from the house when the earthquake hit initially. They were 2 blocks away from the house when according to him "it felt like all but one lug nut on all the tires of the station wagon let loose and although he had his foot on the brake, they were still moving!" They got out of the station wagon, and sat on the lawn watching trees break, telephone lines snap, garage doors falling off of hinges, and then it was still.

Shaken, they got back in the car and continued down the road, they were about a block from their rental place when some neighbors came flying out of their homes shouting "Don't go down there, it's all gone, it's all gone!" But, Mike kept going slowly, thinking his neighbors were sure panicking. He turned on what would of been his street, and it went about 30 feet and dropped off about 30 feet straight down. He could see the house, but it was 100 -150 feet further out to the inlet then it should of been, sitting at an angle all tilted over. There was nothing between him and the house but what looked like churned up glacier silt. There were smashed houses, houses that looked like they had been made of match sticks not lumber, houses sitting on cars. It was a mess.

In the following days, Mike was one of the many people who using their HAM radios, got messages out to concerned relatives and loved ones, and forwarded incoming messages as well. Mike is still a ham operator today. He watched the town slowly rebuild and marveled at the devastation thanking God that he and his family had been spared any injury.

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