Harry Buzby's story

I was 14 years old. We moved to Palmer in 1951 from Fairbanks. I don't remember but I don't think that we had a TV set. It was march 27th and we had just eaten dinner, as a family, like we did with every meal, altogether. Me, being the youngest of five, I can't recall if my brothers were home, both in the armed services at the time. I do remember there was my father, mother and one sister at home.

Like I was saying we had just finished dinner, tuna casserole, it was the first and last time that my mother made that particular dish. The local news was on the radio, my sister was in the bath room, and I believe my mom, dad and I were sitting at the table listening to the news. It was then that the news announcer said that the earth was shaking, we were indeed having an earthquake. The radio went dead. The we heard a booming sound like no other and the house started moving up, down, side to side. Now we have had earth tremors before but this one wouldn't quit. My mom kept saying " get under the doorway, " but I remember I wanted to see what was going on outdoors. I looked out our back window, between our house and the chugiak mountains were acres of fields where now is the Palmer airport and golf course. It appeared to me that it was rolling like an ocean swells. It was late spring and I don't recall if there was much snow on the ground but I remember looking at Pioneer peak and seeing a massive avalanche. The trees that bordered the field were flapping sideways and I would almost bet that I recall some of them hitting the ground and going straight up again. Dishes fell out of the cupboards, water in the kitchen sink had whitecaps. When it was finally over my mother let us move from the protection of the archway that separated our dining room and kitchen.

Within a couple of days I went to Anchorage with a neighbor friend of the family to pick his wife up at the airport. The new highway across the Palmer hay flats had not been built yet so we had to use the old Glenn highway. Once we crossed the old Knik bridge is where signs of the earthquake were quite visible. That avalanche that I had seen during the quake had completely covered the road on which we were traveling. Fortunately for us the state, or some construction crews had a one-lane road opened through the slide area. I remember going through this trough that was a mixture of snow, cottonwood and spruce trees, huge rocks and all sorts of debris. It was an awesome sight for a 14 year old. When we finally did get to Anchorage I remember roads were closed all over town. Didn't get to see much because of all the devastation.

We did go to school the following week, can't remember if it was Monday or not but we continued to have tremors which would always make some of the girls shriek.