Response To Tsunami Warning: The March 1964 Prince William Sound Earthquake
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Date
1970-06
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Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Following the Alaska earthquake the Seismic Sea Wave Warning System issued a first advisory message indicating the possibility of a tsunami not quite 1 1/2 hours after the earthquake, and a formal tsunami warning just over 3 hours after the earthquake. By the time the initial advisory message was issued, all affected Alaskan communities had already been struck by the locally generated tsunamis or the initial waves of the major tsunami. Unofficial warnings led to some saving of life; more lives could have been saved if the earthquake itself or initial waves had been perceived as warnings, but at some places the waves arrived too soon for any warning to be effective. SSWWS warnings were received early enough at affected communities outside of Alaska to have induced appropriate response (except in Canada which was not part of the system). The responses varied greatly, however, from community to community, depending on the experience and understanding of system officials and of the public. Fatalities from the tsunamis totaled 103 in Alaska and 15 elsewhere. This brief summary of the warning of tsunamis associated with the 1964 Alaska earthquake and of human responses to these warnings, is not intended to be comprehensive or particularly detailed. Its focus is on the general description of the range of warnings and of responses among the several communities in Alaska and elsewhere that were struck by the tsunamis or warned of possible tsunami effects. Greater detail may be found in Geography volume of this series, in which Norton and Haas (in press) have discussed the warnings and responses in various Alaskan communities and Anderson (in press) has compared the warnings and responses at Crescent City, California, and Hile, Hawaii.
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Keywords
Prince William Sound Earthquake, Tsunamis, warnings, responses