Christine Woods' story

Chris Woods celebrated her birthday on Friday, March 27, 1964. That evening she chatted with her mom from their living space (soon to be office) within the hanger of Woods Air Service at the Palmer Airport. One of their planes had just landed nearby when the shaking began. The phone went dead. Woods grabbed her 3 year-old son Warren, who held on tight; his eyes so big, as he stared up at her as she started to exit the hangar. Violet Roberts (Neff) a visiting neighbor refused to budge. Roberts later confided to Woods that for the past two years she often overreacted to each little tremor and had been teased by friends and family. Eventually Roberts left the building.

Outside the hanger, “The shaking went on forever, the noise intense,” stated Woods. “It was deafening.”

“Although I could have reached out and touched Violet, we couldn’t hear” each other. “I was frozen. I just couldn’t move. So much was happening and Mother Nature was in control.” They glanced up in time to see the slide come down Pioneer Peak. They couldn’t see it, but they felt the ground move. Woods watched their ’59 ford slam into the hanger, back and forth, over and over. When they shaking stopped and they again entered the hanger it was a mess, everything was on the floor, stuff fell from the cupboards, and furniture lay overturned. Glenn Woods, her father-in-law, arrived in seconds. He continued to check on Lewis, grandson Warren, and Violet hourly throughout the night.

Violet’s husband and pilot, “Bud” Woods, had flown to the Yukon with a geological survey team. When he checked his plane for the night Woods turned on the radio and heard the terrible news of the quake. He immediately contacted Don Sheldon of Talkeetna who confirmed the bad news. Woods walked back to the survey crew and told them he must return to Palmer immediately; he would send a plane to retrieve them the next day. When the crew heard the news, they opted to fly back with Woods. Arriving in Palmer at around midnight, Woods could not land at the Palmer Airport. He flew to Finger Lake and landed there. Lakeside he found a car with the keys in it. Later he would tell his wife that someone had left that car there for him to borrow, which he did to get home.