Kodiak residents recall ’64 disaster

Maria recalls people walking or running to higher ground. Some kids climbed trees so that they could see the wave coming in.

Maria also recalls getting claustrophobic when someone put the army cot on top of the sleeping bag she and her sister were bundled in.

“I was screaming,” recalls Maria. “I didn’t know if anybody could hear us.”

Maria can’t recall how long she and her sister were trapped in the sleeping bag, but it was “long enough to be a scary experience,” she said. By the time it was over, the tsunami did little damage to Larsen Bay. The most noticeable  “scar” was the erosion of the embankment near the Agas’ home.

Several years later, Maria’s dad and uncle moved their house up in the woods — further away from the beach. Maria recalls her elders saying that March 27, 1964, was a very calm day. Definitely “the calm before the storm.”

Other villages on Kodiak Island didn’t get by unscathed. Residents in the village of Afognak had to relocate because of damages sustained by the wave. Village leaders decided to move the community to Settler Cove in Kizhuyak Bay, several miles away. The new village was named Port Lions in honor of the Lions Club, one of the agencies that helped the villagers make this big move.

The village of Kaguyak on Kodiak Island’s east side also was rendered unlivable because of the tsunami. Many of those residents moved either to Akhiok or Old Harbor. Many of the homes in Old Harbor were destroyed, but the people decided to rebuild.

Ella Torgramsen, who grew up in the village, was in Anchorage during the 1964 disaster.

“I was in a restaurant…with a friend,” recalled Ella. “Pretty soon (the room) started shaking. People were looking at each other, screaming. I was hanging on to a stool. Trees were going from one end to another. I was on Fourth Avenue. The streets were rippling.”

Before Old Harbor could become livable, much work had to be done, said Ella.

While the village was being rebuilt, people lived in tents and Quonset huts. The late Guy Powell, renowned Kodiak king crab biologist,was in Seattle during the 1964 catastrophe. His wife, Merle — pregnant at the time — was at the Powell house in Kodiak on a promontory overlooking the ocean.

He received news that Kodiak got hit hard by the tsunami, but because of the location of the Powell house he was confident that his family was safe.

“I sent a telegram to Merle’s mother and father in Louisiana…and said, ‘Don’t worry about anything,’” Guy told me in an interview.

As he suspected, the Powells’ house was untouched by the tsunami. His wife told him that during the chaos she waddled over to their neighbors — Harold and Marcy Jones — and watched the action from their kitchen table.

Long after the disaster, Merle’s mother told Guy that she couldn’t thank him enough for letting her know that the family was safe. She had heard that Kodiak had disappeared, so it was reassuring to get a telegraph saying that everything was fine.

Because he was a professional diver, Guy was asked to help raise sunken boats and look for casualties of the Goood Friday disaster. Guy was taken to Kalsin Bay in a small plane to assess damages. “We landed on the road, which was the only place we could land,” said Guy. “I started diving in those holes. Every little depression was full of water. There were a lot of … dead cows all over the place,” said Guy.

A few days after March 27, Sid Digree, publisher of the Kodiak Mirror, counted the losses that Kodiak Island suffered during the Good Friday tragedy. Millions of dollars were lost by the fishing industry and other businesses, public facilities and homes.

The fatalities included Art and Bess Vosgien’s 12-year-old son, Ricky; their friend, Maurice Curry; the high school band teacher and his wife, Eugene and Rose Marie Shultz; and Arlene Wallace and her 7-year-old son, Jackie. Arlene’s husband, Gordon L. Wallace, survived the disaster.

Guy Powell said that the Shultzes had invited his wife — who was also a teacher — to go with them on their drive to Chiniak that day. But she had other matters to take care of, so she declined the invitation.

On the night of the tidal wave, John (Sut) Larsen was taking his boat, the Spruce Cape, to the village of Ouzinkie. According to Charlie Reft, who kept in touch with John by way of radio, the men had survived two big waves and a third one was coming toward them.

“It’s big, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to make it,” John hollered over the radio. That’s the last Charlie heard from him.

A search team found the bow piece with the name Spruce Cape on it and the body of John Larsen in the trees on a bluff — ironically at Spruce Cape.

Other casualties of that mishap included Harry Nielsen, Theodore Panamarioff and Eli Wasillie.

Amidst destruction, sorrow and death, Kodiak Islanders remained resilient.

Wrote Digree: “The spirit of its people, as evidenced throughout the catastrophe and the days that followed.”