another from David Berry share----Transcription of another letter from my mom to her family about the tsunami and its aftermath written about 6 weeks later on May 14/15, 1964: P.O. Box 388 Crescent City, Calif. 95531 May 14, 1964 Dear Family, Most of you have heard from me since the tidal wave, and I thought you might be interested in the latest progress from Comeback Town, U.S.A. That is the name thought up by local people and quickly snapped up by the Chamber of Commerce, who, of course, never want to miss a trick. There are even big signboards north and south of town: Welcome to Comeback Town, U.S.A. Good old C. of C.! I heard from Dorothy* recently, and she said she supposed C. City is busy rebuilding. That, Im afraid, is an overly-optimistic view which I wish were true. The down-town area is still a wasteland, but at least a neat one now. It still hurts to be down there and see empty blocks, and some buildings still being torn down. Some blocks are completely and totally bare; whole square blocks with not a stick, not a sign of ever having been occupied except for foundations here and there. Three huge fires burned on the beach for over three weeks, burning debris. More is to be done yet, as a few more buildings are about to come down. Approximately 150 businesses were either damaged or totally destroyed, with the great majority destroyed. This, plus many private homes, was virtually the whole downtown area. Several of our friends and acquaintances lost their homes and businesses; some escaped only with the nightclothes they had on -- it hit that fast. Many were able to get in the next day and salvage a few things, but many lost everything. Things simply vanished. On one corner, the night before, there was a service station; the next day not a trace of it remained except for the safe, sitting on the lot where the station had been. Several hundred cars were lost; the ones that could be towed away were towed to the football field across from our house; when that was full they were towed to a car lot outside of town. Hardly any could be salvaged; most were declared a total loss due to salt water and the beating they took. The main reconstruction job that has begun is to build a new dock. Our dock, built 12 years ago with volunteer labor and equipment, and of which we were very proud (that job was written up in the Readers Digest several years ago), was lost, and of course a new one is urgently needed. Many damaged stores are not open yet; Safeway opened 10 days later later, the only other big market in town opens tomorrow, and the brand-new Ben Franklin Variety store which opened in a new shopping center in Feb., is still out of business. The store where I bought my new stove 2 weeks earlier has to remodel yet; it and the Ben F. store will not be open for a month or two yet. The two department stores are operating in temporary locations, as one (Dalys) has to remodel completely, and the other had to demolish the store and rebuild. Bank of America was only slightly damaged and was opened ina couple of days, and the other two banks, heavily damaged, just opened this week, after operating from other places. For a while it was hard to do business of course, even after places began to open, as businesses were scattered all over. Of course we couldnt buy anything, and cant buy much yet; poor David had outgrown his jeans, and I was going to get him some on the Saturday before school opened after Easter vacation -- that was the day the wave hit. I never did find any, and ended up going up to Oregon for them. The hair-raising tales that came out later make us marvel that more people werent lost. Five, including 3 children, are still missing. One was recovered a week ago; - an air force man from the radar station near Klamath; he and his buddy were washed into the Klamath River, and he lost his life in trying to help his friend. I believe he is to be awarded the Airmans Medal post-humously. Many people were caught down town in this way: The 1st wave came in and just wet the streets farther down. The 2nd and 3rd, about 20 minutes apart, came higher, by a couple of feet. That seemed to be it, so many business people went down town to their stores to check their businesses. Then the killer wave came in about 40 minutes later, about 1:40 A.M., and that trapped almost everyone. Of course many people who live in that area or were in motels asleep were not aware of the first three waves, then the 4th one got them. Some acquaintances of ours , owners of the Texaco tanks that blew up and burned, climbed in a car that was on a grease rack, and a man with them raised it up, then climbed to safety himself. They saw the big wave go under them, carrying everything with it. They didnt even get their feet wet, but they did see a car with some people in it swept by in the big wave. The car and the people were not seen again. A friend of ours**lives alone in an upstairs apartment down town over a paint store. He is in his eighties, so we worried about him; however he was rescued; he told how the noise woke him up, and he watched out his window as his car went by, then the front part of the paint store, then the house next door took off and floated away. His apartment stayed in one piece, high and dry. One poor old lady floated six blocks on her bed, which was wedged under the roof of her house, which then came off and floated off, with her under it. The whole thing settled down when the water went down, and at 10:00 that morning she was found, still on her bed under the roof, which of course was down on the ground. She was scared, but barely hurt. Another woman was knocked out and carried two blocks in the water before she was deposited up the street by the water. These are only two sample stories; 5 were drowned when they tried to get away in a boat; a baby was washed right out his mothers arms and lost. However, I wont go on with the sad part of it. Many people still argue as to whether there was ample warning; but who is to say? After the Chilean earthquake we had a slight tidal wave, just to 2nd street, and there havent been other alerts, and of course many people just dont scare easily. Some were warned and left, some were warned and didnt leave, and some were not warned at all. It is past my quitting time, and I am dead tired, so will wait until tomorrow night to tell you some of the lighter side of it; including some of the things that were actually funny or peculiar. May 15 Some of you were wondering whether we are located in a high and dry place - we are. Those of you who have been here may remember that H street (we are at 982 H) makes a gradual climb from the bay on up, and our elevation is approximately 25 feet. The official recorded figure for the highest point of the tidal wave 20.7 feet, so it wouldnt have taken too much more to come up our way. The enclosed map will show our location. The map was traced from one in the Oregonian, our daily paper. It was made by a man who used to be on a paper here before he went to work for the Oregonian, so it is very accurate. Some funny things happened, and odd things too. One of our friends went down to his accounting office to clean up; he opened his desk drawer and found a very ripe dead fish. Some claim that he also found an eel coiled up in his cuckoo clock, but he says strictly rumor! One woman left her house when it floated away, and the next day she got into it to rescue her dog and cat (they were safe) and she found her goldfish, still swimming around in their bowl on the buffet -- and the house had been carried 2 blocks! Another house was carried away with a bedside glass of water still on the table, not disturbed. Some places were carried away that gently, but others were smashed by cars, logs and debris. As you know, George slipped in the muck and mud and fell down while cleaning the sand and debris out of the art center; he didnt break his wrist after all - it was just a severe sprain. Any how, when we were up at the hospital the night after the wave to get his arm checked, the lab technician, whom we know, told us a good one. She had expected a shipment of blood plasma to come in on a Greyhound bus during the night, and she was allowed in the devastated area to get to the battered bus station to try to rescue the plasma. A power company man went with her in case she needed him. As they passed one waterfront home they found it in the middle of the street. Jean thought she heard noises in it, but they decided it was just the last lapping of the water as it went down. On the way back she heard noises again, so the man with her took her back to the hospital, then went to check. By then it was dawn, and he could see smoke coming out of the chimney of this house. All around was sand, debris and devastation. He was afraid someone might still be in the house and need help, so he went up to the door and walked in. There, believe it or not, were two men having their breakfast. They jumped up and one said. What do you mean, coming into our house without knocking? The power man said, Dont you know where your house is? The men went to the window , looked out, and almost dropped right there in disbelief. They didnt know anything about it; they had slept through the wave, and didnt know that their house had floated away! We figured they must be terribly sound sleepers, or they went to bed loaded. There is so much to tell, but of course I couldnt come close to telling it all. Plans are being hashed over now for all kinds of things; building permits were frozen in the downtown area for 60 days to allow for complete cleaning up, and for planning the new Crescent City. Some people have grandiose ideas and others just want a nice, well-planned town. One super planner who sort of heads the planning commission wants to rebuild the whole downtown area, even tearing down the existing buildings to fall in with the master plan of a mall, covered walks, etc., etc. The covered walks in our wet country would be fine, but we dont believe in condemning and tearing down buildings unnecessarily when the town is having such a rough enough time already. One couple just got their service station going again after the wave, and the planners want to tear it down because it is not the place for a service station, and would spoil the effect. They also want to tear down the only remaining theater (the other was burned out inside last fall) because that is where a parking lot should be located. You can see that a big battle is shaping up. Oh yes, the wave stopped right at the gates of the Oil Terminal where George works; logs dented the fence, and a lot of debris was deposited inside the gate, but no real damage. A motel south of the plant was completely destroyed. I must close and trace my map. We are all fine; and school is out in 3 weeks! Love to all -- Isabel, George and boys
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 08:23:53 +0000
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