THOUGH THE EARTH BE MOVED

the Alaska Railroad run off to Seward Friday March 27th 964 an ordinary day until [ __ ] and then the earth move this is the story reef of what happened to Alaska this day and in Prince William Sound Off the Gulf of Alaska the chena has already passed this way an alaska steamship freighter in bond for valdez and in fishing ports from cordova to kodiak the trawlers are tying up for the weekend it's a long weekend today is Good Friday Sunday's Eastern Monday will be Seward day the 97th anniversary of Seward's folly the purchase of a worthless wilderness for seven million dollars there's plenty of wilderness still but it's hardly worthless Alaska's on the move booming new state Anchorage International Airport is crowded with people coming and going one of them mrs. Carol Brady has just been chosen mrs. Alaska and the photographer's are down to see her off orient Airlines flag liner service from Seattle Tacoma now arriving others are coming home for the holidays among them Douglas floor until three weeks ago the city's civil defense director but he resigned to enter private business now he's just returning from a trip to the lower 48 [Music] in downtown Anchorage the days nearly over at 5:30 mrs. Blanche Clark leaves the office on her last trip of the day picking up and delivering film for a photographic lab her first stop will be a downtown department store there are still some buyers lingering in the stores for last-minute Easter shopping most people are on their way home school's out work is over tonight the Little Theater Group art at Alaska Methodist University will be playing our town [Music] summer at church attending Good Friday services at Bell DS the China's come in always a red-letter day in the life of the town [Music] for the men it means the first pay day of spring working cargo in the hold and down on the dock for the women it brings fresh fruit and vegetables to Valdez the first they've seen since winter set in and for the kids it's always a little like Christmas they flock down to the dock when the ship comes in knowing the deckhands will greet them with fruit and candy it's dusk almost too dark for good photography but aboard the ship two of the crewmen tread new mayor and Ernest Nelson unlimber they're eight millimeter movie cameras trying to get some pictures of the grinning youngsters and their dogs on the dock below then at 5:30 6:00 a dozen miles deep under the mountains north of Prince William Sound the earth shivers begins to move [Music] suddenly the whole harbor at valdez begins to empty drains almost fried a subterranean chasm opens directly alongside the ship slowly the chena starts sinking down into it soon only its mass ships can be seen from the top the docks Flinders goes down with it while crewmen tried frantically to reach the people out in the Gulf of Alaska the ocean bottom plunges then heaves upward a full 50 feet and a wave starts racing for sure [Music] Sakina hi smashes it down with a doctored bin then drives it into the heart of town fred humor grabs the Dex tension holds on for dear life and eats his camera running [Music] no one on the docket Valdez will survive the longshoremen the kids for their dogs now the tremor builds rips like lightning around a 500-mile mark in Anchorage [Music] and 544 the seismic wave hits sewer exploding the gas tanks sending people racing for their lives as a wall of fire and water sweeps into town [Music] it strikes kodiak later first a high silent tide then a 40-foot monster thundering up the channel turning town and harbor into a crazy whirlpool of capsized boats and floating buildings [Music] all the clocks have star t6 and so as everything else tasks has been hit by a natural force equal to 10 million atomic bombs of the size at level Hiroshima the greatest shot to hit this continent within the 20th century our town at 5:45 [Music] two people lie dead under the concrete slabs fallen from this storefront in Anchorage but a third Blanche Clark by some miracle is still alive inside this crushed car already passes fire trying to free before more loose slabs come plunging down others are rallying to at 5:47 the first mobile unit of racing the radio amateur civil emergency service pulls up in front of the state civil defense office on Robert Alaskan warning officer for national civil defense at Elmendorf Air Force Base last warning center calling all stations calling all stations any of those stations that are on please come in no cons Alaska Warning Center calling all that week hasn't knocked out our northern defense the commander in chief Alaska still retains full control of his air defense forces to alternate communication channels but for the moment rizz Lee's own circuits are out now darkness is fallen [Applause] [Music] at Providence Hospital on the edge of town an emergency generator has kicked in to keep the hospital alive all the others in Anchorage have lost power heat light and water in the next few hours Providence will be called on to supply emergency treatment for nearly 300 victims of the quake among them Blanche Clark rescuers have finally managed to pry the concrete slabs apart an acetylene torch has cut her out of her car still alive in spite of a broken neck and on three fractured ribs and shock the Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base are both hard-hit but as the size of the disaster begins to come clear elastic command alerts military police medics signalmen and engineers mountain rescue troops the National Guard just finishing up two weeks of training at Camp Denali is ready - and trucks and ambulances begin rolling out toward the city [Music] in the gopher hole the emergency communication center in the basement at state civil defense shortwave operators are picking out first reports from pilots flying over the devastated [Applause] they're still unable to make contact with the outside world not even with the capital at Juno Ford on Lowell the state civil defense director is trying desperately to get through the entire civil defense staff in this the largest state in the Union consists of exactly six trained professionals two secretaries on the local level Seward Kodiak and Valdez each have only one part-time worker the city of Anchorage has none no replacement for Doug klore has been hired but the man who no longer holds the job is doing it anyway already Claus made a downtown damage survey for Jarnell contra the governor's aide and delivered a load of emergency medical supplies to Providence now in front of State civil defense he runs into georges seurat the mayor of Anchorage is drafted back into duty the Public Safety Building at 6th and C is one of the few in Anchorage with emergency power city officials are pouring in now so is military assistance [Music] eighteen minutes after the quakes station KF QD has returned to the air on auxiliary diesel power begun broadcasting emergency messages and other Anchorage radio stations are joining in has been blocked off a station is being set up at the old First Federal Savings and Loan building at Fifth Avenue an Ace Frehley I thought there is needed there as all structural and architectural engineers for the u.s. district of Army engineers are to report to Row 1 1 1 history jobs engineers building yet [Music] in the combat center Bob Risley begins contact was Don Lowell in Juna how many warning points do you have on right now Don known Fairbanks Bethel Juneau Sitka Ketchikan and Palmer then he begins relaying the first civilian reports of the disaster to California and Washington Roger warning center out still no one's been able to get through to some of the missing town Jarrell I presume you can hear me is there any indication or scientist fire at Stewart we received this report through the city manager here in Anchorage says both the oil tanks and dock are on fire at Stewart [Music] [Applause] in Resurrection Bay the oil-soaked pilings are floating like candles in the night and roaring oil tanks led up the sky a prettier and Valdez [Music] [Applause] [Music] in Valdez Harbor the chena rides at anchor at the end of an incredible journey three times bounced off the bottom of the bay driven into town and up again and yet through luck consuming ship still alive afloat and in the Pacific the seismic sea waves are running smashing at the shores in Hawaii and all along the west coast civil defense workers and state troopers are spreading the warning but on a beach in Orion four children are swept away at midnight the tidal bore hits Crescent City California and another dozen people are dead but all through the night the crests keep hitting Alaska hardest and so does the earth itself they'll be four major aftershocks during the night and a dozen minor tremors but mountain rescue troops and civilian volunteers keep moving in darkness through the dangerous ruins searching for dead and injured [Music] it's reporting that an elderly lady with somebody in the neighborhood lead check her home for safety before the high voltage power line is down on the people needed for money there'll be no sleep tonight or for 72 hours to come but we do want to remind these key personnel to report at the Public Safety Building it is okay in the morning they come down the stairs the city manager the mayor Lieutenant General Raymond dreams commander-in-chief of Alaska command controlling all military forces on this frontier representatives of the utility companies and other key civic leaders they meet in a darkened basement room to set the essential priorities for tomorrow which things will have to be done first to put the shaken City back on its feet some problems can't even wait till tomorrow immediately we have places at the Armory we have places at the National Guard hangar we have places at the top of this hall this is to bring blankets McLennan extra food and first-aid kit Tyler we're wandering up here at Kent you nice scipios about the number of people are being housed now in the emergency shelters does anyone ever figure on that I don't know that I have I have no idea tomorrow the teams will go out and evaluate what has happened and that is two buildings two homes and we don't know right now how many people have been killed no one can look the darkness hides it all only daylight can bring the answer at dawn Saturday Governor William Eagan arrives in Anchorage to take charge of relief and rescue operations he brings don lowell and other key officials with him sets up his command post at state civil defense overnight the organization's mushroomed from just six people to nearly 150 the building's too small to hold them for huge house trailers have brought in for the overflow and the army moves in emergency communication [Music] no one really knows yet what has to be faced but the helicopters have been taking off since dawn and now in the cold gray light of Saturday morning Alaska learned the answer [Music] the Alaska Railroad [Music] Sooey it looked like this the morning after [Music] I can see through it just a mass of flames like I just wanted it first if the world had come to an end it was lumber and debris just coming down like it was just going to engulf me and then there's a monster's roar and I looked up and miles of beaches had just just caved in like an elevator had gone down it was fantastic I can't really describe it Seward aftershock in fire in six tidal waves to the west at Harbor in the morning employee actually remember it this way and suddenly here comes this firstborn and then the whole thing went of course right through that channel are five boats running in a bunch and you'd see them just going out the channel for all they were worth and few minutes later here they come back again you'd see one running backwards and one run forward and all they were trying to do was keep from hitting each other my boat kept getting hit by debris in the backwash I didn't fight the little stuff but then I got hit by the Standard Oil building well she thinks she cracked my bow kodiak homeport for a hundred fishing vessels nah more than half lies stranded for a wash no trace of the other forty will ever be found [Music] Anchorage Turnagain by the sea the fashionable suburb just southwest of town built on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet on top of a bed of greasy blue clay the quakes turned it into quivering jelly the whole shorelines collapsed out toward the bay some houses have traveled 1,200 feet strewing their wreckage behind them [Music] The Fault runs into the city toward the heart of town fourth Avenue in the downtown business district one whole side of the street has dropped from ten to thirty feet [Music] a modern department store opened less than a year ago here Blanche Park was trapped in her car [Music] a new hotel they say--it's wait a dozen feet at the top but still it survived the Four Seasons didn't a luxury apartment building still under construction luckily no casualties here the workers had knocked off only half an hour before the quake the first tenants were to move in next month the toll mom's foot here 11 dead cordova Seldovia badly damaged and valdez valdez this is the fear where the Chino is back the other way they saw her complete bottle I saw maybe a dozen people turn and and and break for the beach and they hadn't level littlest chance my eyes can't seem to get rid of it Alaska the morning after already helps on the way general Reeves has promised full support from all elements of his Alaskan command and general Ned more of US Army Alaska his airlifting rescue forces into Valdez and Seward one relief column is battering its way down the wrecked highway toward portage another is rolling into Anchorage [Music] on Kodiak Island headquarters for the Alaska Sea Frontier the Naval Base lies half flooded by tidal wave action but still more than a thousand men are detailed to help in civilian rescue operations there's been no looting and there'll be no martial law the military is there but only to help and all of it will be channeled through civilian Authority [Music] in downtown Anchorage rescue teams and engineers are still searching the ruins for victims checking off the unsafe buildings as they go it's also important that you do not go into the downtown area you will not be a minute the downtown area has been blocked off and police will issue summonses if that is indicated no one we repeat no one will be allowed to enter any building barring a red sign of condemnation at the Public Safety Building still some confusion nearly 200 would be volunteers milling around waiting to be told what to do some finally grab armbands just take off on the roll Doug clora finds it impossible to spare much time for them now he's got more urgent matters in mind a special announcement from Anchorage civil defense office any water area is in effect at this time the inlet is now covered with a layer of gasoline once part of Harbor could go up like Seward again but Doug plude digs up some surplus hose the Coast Guard and firemen begin flushing the gasoline away [Music] another hazard linking gas mains shattered by the quake and the House explodes [Music] [Applause] [Music] another victim claimed by the quake [Music] water and sanitation problems are even more serious between to be boiled or treated before use it may be treated by adding two five gallons of water 1 teaspoon already army water tanks from Fort Richardson are fanning out through the town to relieve the serious water shortage and if anyone eats any water to bring their bucket down there Filipov bottarga house army field kitchens are filling another gap there's no gas or electricity for cooking so field units are there to feed the hungry the homeless the hundreds of volunteer rescue workers in Anchorage alone they'll serve fifty five thousand meals this weekend now a hundred other relief operations are underway civilian military governmental and under the governor's direction the staff at state civil defense has the complicated task of coordinating them all working out the logistics of supply then relaying requirements through the Mars military stations at Richardson and Elmendorf needed typhoid serum water and sewer pipe sanitation equipment food clothing auxiliary generators a gas leak detector a thousand other urgent needs 2,000 miles south the first planes already are beginning to load up the white house has alerted all departments of the government all branches of the military to stand ready for maximum assistance at Point Mugu in California a battalion of Seabees in planes for Kodiak Naval Station and McChord Air Force Base in Washington an army field hospital unit takes off for Anchorage shelter supplies will come from Seattle food and clothing from a half a dozen states the gas leak detector from Texas [Applause] [Music] Anchorage International Airport the control tower is down a million gallons of jet fuel spilled near the runway [Music] incoming planes must land at Elmendorf Air Force Base one of the first ones in Air Force One the president's been awakened twice in the night for early bulletins on the emergency and the dawn he's officially declared Alaska a major disaster area let his personal plane two senators greening and Bartlet house representative rivers on the west coast from the disaster struck will be coming in on a separate flight with the two senators Edward McDermott the director of the office of emergency planning responsible for coordinating all federal assistance in natural disasters their assignment to tour the stricken areas make a first-hand survey of the damage then fly directly back to Washington to make a personal report to the president [Music] victims from the outlying areas begin to forend [Music] some of the injured are airlifted down the Seattle others into Anchorage n Providence Hospital Jack King of Aldean's one of the men aboard the chena when the wave tossed it into town a longshoreman working deep in the hole trapped and crushed under shifting cargo now he's barely breathing and both of his feet are gone but still an uncommon man feet or no feet he's sworn he'll walk down the street in Valdez again and do it under his own power now the problems to keep him alive huge areas in the quake zone are still unheard from and the Civil Air Patrol swings into action at the Fort Worth airstrip on Lake Clark estimated 175 miles southwest of Anchorage that message is signed in the next 10 days the volunteer pilots of the c.a.p will fly search and rescue missions equal to three and a half trips around the world the military effort will be even larger 50,000 square miles have been shattered by the quake and now Air Force Army and Navy are joining the Coast Guard and civilians in covering every inch surveying damage dropping supplies seeking survivors isolated back in the bush and along the tide wrecked Coast [Music] [Music] all villages have disappeared janiga off prince william sound the beach looks like a log dover forest but the stumps are foundation pilings warehouses no longer there [Music] 23 people died here 13 of them children the only building left the schoolhouse 90 feet high on the hill and spray from the seismic waves even reached there [Music] on Saturday night at Kodiak naval base the refugees begin to come in the native fishing villages at Old Harbor Kaguya afognak whose inky have all been swept away to fishing vessels have picked the natives up and finally brought them to safety [Music] they're still stunned unable to talk what is your name sir what happened to do ya no words left but now at last there's food and clothing and finally a warm place to sleep you get a jacket there that ought to keep you good and warm there you go Easter Sunday the Earth's still shaking there been a score of tremors since the big one some sharp some small but all enough to keep people on edge as I say if you see the Sadler is moving a little bit just stick around if you see the building start shaking then take off let me be the quarterback let me call the shots take it easy watch yourselves don't do anything rash and above all remember all those who are in need if any of you need any help I have quite a few telephone numbers with people who are willing to give shelter who are willing to give food if any of you need any help please stop by and see me and we'll get you back on the road and we Almighty God the Father [Music] the second day time to begin picking up the pieces the small pieces of people's lives in some cases all that's left that Turnagain by the sea the postman still delivering the mail but 150 addresses aren't there and I don't believe all the Bombers of World War two could have done this much damage some of the people thought an atomic bomb had gone off at the time people's values have changed considerably home has no value car has no value the main thing is what you have left you have your wife and your family you're rich most people here had taken one look and given up everything for lost but now volunteer rescue teams have stepped in to save everything that can be packed out [Music] more important than cleanup the question of health civil-defense has arranged for emergency supplies of typhoid serum to be flown in to stave off the threat of epidemic and insured anchorage Kodiak Valdez the people and the children line up [Music] [Applause] [Music] now the long distance lines the telegraph wires the shortwave sets they're all swamped with messages from in and out of the earthquake zone and all the other 49 states people anxiously trying to find out what's happened to missing relatives and friends airline people are safe now toward the end of the second day the plane starts streaming in from the lower 48 bringing food supplies water and irrigation pipe a hundred kinds of equipment the biggest load a three hundred and thirty thousand pound Bailey bridge for the engineers to restore the highway to Kenai before this huge era of silver airports mats and other military planes will bring in more than a million and a half pounds of supplies and the effort will go on day and night for the next two weeks until the emergency is over [Music] all federal assistance is being channeled through the state authorities and governor Egan has appointed Don Lowell as his official coordinator responsible for funneling the aid wherever it's needed most and so on 5th Avenue they're heading into their third straight sleepless night [Music] Monday Seward a the 97th anniversary of the Alaskan purchase the week when the town of Seward had planned to celebrate a brand new honor its selection as an all-america City now instead every able-bodied man is drafted to clean up the mess the same in Anchorage the building and register in the ruined areas along 4th and 5th all buildings have been red-flagged since Saturday morning too dangerous to enter the grounds still slipping but now merchants have permission to try to retrieve their stocks and volunteer helpers pitch in the third day since the quake the initial shocks had time to wear off and now the reaction sets in some show it with signs others put it in words I was talking on the phone and then the thing started he said hey we got a little earthquake I said yeah yeah and we talked for a little time and then we both said Oh see you we're used to the shakes but when the warm champagne started to explode we went out the doors and I mean all the doors you know my odd sense of humor when I got home - how does this from my house there was a neighbor of ours and she was really really shaken to the roots and and of course we all were but I thought well there's no point being ultra sir he has about all this when I drove up trying to get home I said so what's new Alaskans will need their sense of humor their sense of courage - especially people like Blanche Clark remembering the moments inside that crushed car Chris Clark how long was it then before Cal King well it doesn't say very long huh Sadie and a couple of children went by and they said I wonder if there's anyone in that car and I called out because for them to know that I was there and they said that they were sure that the help would be right along you seem in pretty good spirits how do you feel toward the future now oh you can't keep Alaskans down loss of life spin miraculously low in the final count only 115 dead or missing but the damage suffered is something else that if somebody spit over here the whole damn thing will collapse what we should do if somebody's gotta love gut I might even have the guts once in a while to I'm a linear by nature tireless - if you'll be posting that let's get a few cats 200 feet away and the bullet down Alaskans have risen superbly to their crisis state and local authorities and civil defense all the civic groups Red Cross Salvation Army and thousands of volunteers but in one sense Alaska's been lucky as the state closest to possible enemy attack it's heavily garrison and the Alaskan command has poured in military manpower and equipment unstintingly to help pull it through this crisis but the loss to staggering for any state to bear alone now the national government will have to take a hand Alaska needs help and it'll get it in the time ahead federal assistance in one form or another will run to more than three hundred and fifty million dollars but inevitably the bigger part of the job ahead must be done by Alaskans themselves and so on Monday evening a weary governor speaks to his people events of the past 75 hours now it is time to take a good hard look at the future and what is being accomplished to restore our communities and our life time to begin again for Blanche Clark it'll take three months to leave this hospital bed for Jack king of valdez still longer it'll be Labor Day five months away before he'll finally walk out on brand new feet the last victim of the quake to leave Providence hospital but ready at last for what he's sworn to do to walk down the street in Valdez again and do it under his own power [Music] [Applause] [Music] in Chenega and the other native villages they'll mourn the lost and then start thinking of life again God is our hope and our strength therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea seventy five hours three endless days of prices are over the long long work of recovery still stretches ahead but the rebuilding can begin tomorrow now it's time for a little sleep [Music]