Elleda Wilson: The end of the world
Jul. 7—The largest tsunami runup on record, which destroyed millions of trees at up to 1,720 feet, occurred July 9, 1958, on Lituya Bay, Alaska. An earthquake loosened up to 40 million cubic yards of rock in the mountains, which crashed 3,000 feet into an inlet below, creating a wave that swept across Lituya Bay and into the Gulf of Alaska.
By the time the wave reached Howard Ulrich and his 7-year-old son, Sonny, who were in their fishing boat, the Edrie, it was steep, and about 50 to 75 feet high. The pair are pictured in 2000, and 1958 (inset), in screenshots from a BBC interview. "It looked like just a big wall of water," Howard told BBC. "You're looking at death, and this was exactly my first thought."
"He threw me a life preserver and said, 'Son, start praying,'" Sonny said. As Howard pushed the engine to climb the front of the wave, they were swept up over the land above the trees (where Howard thought they would surely land). Miraculously, they crested the wave, made it to the other side, and were washed back into the bay unharmed. "God what an awful sight," Howard recalled, "... Something like the end of the world."
William Swanson and his wife, on the Badger, were lifted by the wave and rode, stern first, below the wave's crest. He said when he looked down, he was more than 80 feet above the tree tops. After the wave crested over a spit on the way to the gulf, the boat hit bottom and foundered. They abandoned their boat, boarded a small skiff, and were picked up by a fishing boat a few hours later.
A third boat, with what was believed to be two aboard, sank with no survivors.
