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The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History
Uses historical research and personal accounts of survivors to tell the story of the tsunamis that hit Crescent City, California on Good Friday, 1964, which damaged hundreds of homes and businesses and killed eleven people.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
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May 23, 2015
On Good Friday 1964 Alaska was shook by an 8.4 (at the time it was listed as 9.2) on the Richter scale earthquake. The resulting Tsunami roared down the Pacific coast at 500 miles an hour, resulting in damage to Crescent City, California. Crescent City had thirty city blocks ravaged, 289 homes and business destroyed or damaged and eleven people died. The tsunami had four separate waves stretching over a period of an hour and a half, with the fourth wave being the killer.
Dennis Powers chronicles how the people pulled together to save the lives of friends and strangers sometimes risking their own lives to help. The author weaves together historical research with compelling survivors’ accounts. I remember the 1964 tsunami as Santa Cruz, California was the second hardest hit area after Crescent City but at least we had no loss of life.
I found the book most interesting but that maybe because I live near the tsunami warning area and we go through tsunami drills each year. The book was loaned to me by a friend; it is 288 pages long and published in April of 2005 by Citadel Press.
Dennis Powers chronicles how the people pulled together to save the lives of friends and strangers sometimes risking their own lives to help. The author weaves together historical research with compelling survivors’ accounts. I remember the 1964 tsunami as Santa Cruz, California was the second hardest hit area after Crescent City but at least we had no loss of life.
I found the book most interesting but that maybe because I live near the tsunami warning area and we go through tsunami drills each year. The book was loaned to me by a friend; it is 288 pages long and published in April of 2005 by Citadel Press.
June 23, 2022
This book covers the 1964 Alaska Earthquake (also known as the Good Friday Earthquake). On March 27, 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake that lasted over four minutes struck near Anchorage. Something like 600 miles of fault line was involved in the rupture. This book went into great detail about how earthquakes and tsunamis occur, which was interesting but kind of got dull after pages and pages of explanation. I did learn about soil liquefaction, which I didn't know was a thing. The disturbances to the ground caused a lot of structural damage- building collapse, destroyed roads and bridges, the sewer and water lines were damaged, etc. Many areas were directly affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. Tsunami waves were reported in other countries, including Peru, Japan, and Mexico. Port Valdez suffered quite a bit of damage due to a landslide underwater that destroyed the docks and harbor. 32 people died here due to the event. Another nearby town, Chenega, was completely destroyed. At the time, there were 68 people living there. 23 of them died. The tsunami wave generated by the earthquake that hit Chenega was 27 feet high.
This book had a pretty concentrated focus on Crescent City, California. The tsunami finally reached the city on March 28, 1964, four hours after the initial earthquake. The first wave produced some localized flooding that residents were concerned about. The second and third waves were smaller, but the fourth wave to hit was massive. It is estimated that the wave was 21 feet high, though the measuring devices were damaged. (When I googled imaged of the damage, there were a couple of articles that came up that claim the wave was 75 feet. I think that was an exaggeration, because more than 60 blocks would have been affected.) The water in the harbor was sucked dry prior to the wave coming in. 1,000 cars were damaged, 30 city blocks were destroyed and 30 more were flooded, 289 buildings were destroyed, and many fishing boats and personal boats were destroyed. 12 people died, 100 were injured, and some people were missing and never found. The underwater geography of Crescent City had a lot to do with how much damage the tsunami caused, the location from the epicenter of the earthquake and the rivers in the city also factored into the damage. It was estimated that the damage was about $15 million dollars.
Overall, the book was engaging. I was really invested in the personal stories of the people mentioned in the books. I learned a lot about ocean geography and how earthquakes and tsunamis work, but that being at the beginning of the book was a little bit dull. I was ready to get to the meat and potatoes of the story. For that reason, I gave it a 3 star rating instead of a 4. I suppose it hadn't really crossed my mind that tsunamis happened in the United States, though I am not sure why since that whole West Coast is near fault lines and the Pacific Ocean. I guess most of the news articles I have seen or tsunamis that I have been alive for have occurred in Asian countries like Japan and Indonesia. I wasn't using my critical thinking skills.
This book had a pretty concentrated focus on Crescent City, California. The tsunami finally reached the city on March 28, 1964, four hours after the initial earthquake. The first wave produced some localized flooding that residents were concerned about. The second and third waves were smaller, but the fourth wave to hit was massive. It is estimated that the wave was 21 feet high, though the measuring devices were damaged. (When I googled imaged of the damage, there were a couple of articles that came up that claim the wave was 75 feet. I think that was an exaggeration, because more than 60 blocks would have been affected.) The water in the harbor was sucked dry prior to the wave coming in. 1,000 cars were damaged, 30 city blocks were destroyed and 30 more were flooded, 289 buildings were destroyed, and many fishing boats and personal boats were destroyed. 12 people died, 100 were injured, and some people were missing and never found. The underwater geography of Crescent City had a lot to do with how much damage the tsunami caused, the location from the epicenter of the earthquake and the rivers in the city also factored into the damage. It was estimated that the damage was about $15 million dollars.
Overall, the book was engaging. I was really invested in the personal stories of the people mentioned in the books. I learned a lot about ocean geography and how earthquakes and tsunamis work, but that being at the beginning of the book was a little bit dull. I was ready to get to the meat and potatoes of the story. For that reason, I gave it a 3 star rating instead of a 4. I suppose it hadn't really crossed my mind that tsunamis happened in the United States, though I am not sure why since that whole West Coast is near fault lines and the Pacific Ocean. I guess most of the news articles I have seen or tsunamis that I have been alive for have occurred in Asian countries like Japan and Indonesia. I wasn't using my critical thinking skills.
May 22, 2019
The short version first . . .
Few disasters wreak more havoc than a tsunami also know as a tidal or seismic ocean wave. Tsunamis are usually associated with earthquakes under or near a large body of water such an ocean or a sea. The wave's height is directly proportional to end results of the undersea earthquake that is its impetus. One such event occurred on Good Friday in April, 1964. The earthquake measured between 8.4 on the Richter scale with an epicenter located in Prince William Sound about 75 miles east of Anchorage, AK. The force measured by the United States Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory was determined to be equivalent to the simultaneous detonation of 12,000 Hiroshima sized atomic bombs. The focal axis of the quake pointed directly at the west coast of the United States, and the event occurred in the night. The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History by Dennis M. Powers provides a view of the wave's effects on the people and places which were the primary impact points for the wave as it propagated from the Alaskan Coast to the Western Coast of the United States.
Crescent City, California, was one of the smaller towns whose population was directly affected by the tsunami. Mr. Powers focuses on several survivors of the tsunami's effects on Crescent City. The stories show that there were no special precautions taken despite several warnings from the Seismic Sea Wave Warning System (SSWWS), located in the Hawaiian Islands. Most of the SSWWS warnings were sent to "first responders" who would provide the information to local officials and media outlets. Despite these efforts, little or no proactive measurements were taken.
Mr. Powers's account focuses on how the citizens of Crescent City, CA, pulled together and helped each other as the wave destroyed thirty city blocks in the heart of the small city. As more and detailed information was made available, citizens and first responders all pitched in to help batter something which few of them had even seen, much less lived through the power and devastation a seismic sea wave. Fortunately, only eleven people were killed by the initial impacts of the wave. As the survivors rode out the effects of the wave, they were shocked by the 289 homes and businesses were damaged, destroyed, or rendered uninhabitable in the wave's aftermath.
Mr. Powers's interviews with the victims, the first responders, and those citizens who pitched in to help their neighbors are the basis for most of the story he provides. It is clear that the wave struck first with little or no warning as the SSWWS warning system was an information outlet designed to be used by State and National Agencies to provide information to their citizens. It is clear that while the warnings were issued; due to the time of day, the holiday starting, and the effects of darkness enhanced by the change to Daylight Saving Time, all had an impact in the hard work of rescuing survivors, treating the injured, and dealing with the devastation of homes, businesses, and those impacted in ways which ranged from minor wounds to drowning and victims trapped in downed buildings and boats washed ashore by the succession of waves.
The story is not completely dark, though. The stories of the survivors are seen throughout, some of whom put their lives in harm's way on numerous occasions as they tried to help their friends and neighbors in the small city. In the aftermath of the wave, other issues developed that would challenge the resources, workers, and first responders as fires began to break out in various areas of the city due to power lines down as well as broken gas mains and other critical services.
In the end, the tsunami spent its power and became a wave series with few bad effects. The people who survived in Crescent City cleaned and cleared the debris, and they returned to their lives deeply affected by the wave and its aftermath. Fortunately, with a lot of help and some sacrifice, Crescent City continues to this day to have many things to see and do, despite the effects of the raging sea in the spring of 1964. In fact, it is amazing that Crescent City is even larger than before. All can be attributed to faith, hard work, and a positive attitude. And so, life goes on beside their beaches and ocean view.
Recommendations:
This book is historic in its setting, and it is powerful in the tenacity of those who reside and work in Crescent City, California. Its scope encounters determined, hard-working people who want to live and work there.
Despite the problems of Good Friday, 1964, Crescent City and its story are worth a read from anyone interested in a disaster turned into a Godsend by a group of hard-working citizens.
This book would find a good readership in middle school and high school libraries.
Review of The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Word Tsunami in U.S. History by Dennis M. Powers by Richard W. Buro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212916.The_Raging_Sea.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at " rel="cc:morePermissions">Contact .
Few disasters wreak more havoc than a tsunami also know as a tidal or seismic ocean wave. Tsunamis are usually associated with earthquakes under or near a large body of water such an ocean or a sea. The wave's height is directly proportional to end results of the undersea earthquake that is its impetus. One such event occurred on Good Friday in April, 1964. The earthquake measured between 8.4 on the Richter scale with an epicenter located in Prince William Sound about 75 miles east of Anchorage, AK. The force measured by the United States Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory was determined to be equivalent to the simultaneous detonation of 12,000 Hiroshima sized atomic bombs. The focal axis of the quake pointed directly at the west coast of the United States, and the event occurred in the night. The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History by Dennis M. Powers provides a view of the wave's effects on the people and places which were the primary impact points for the wave as it propagated from the Alaskan Coast to the Western Coast of the United States.
Crescent City, California, was one of the smaller towns whose population was directly affected by the tsunami. Mr. Powers focuses on several survivors of the tsunami's effects on Crescent City. The stories show that there were no special precautions taken despite several warnings from the Seismic Sea Wave Warning System (SSWWS), located in the Hawaiian Islands. Most of the SSWWS warnings were sent to "first responders" who would provide the information to local officials and media outlets. Despite these efforts, little or no proactive measurements were taken.
Mr. Powers's account focuses on how the citizens of Crescent City, CA, pulled together and helped each other as the wave destroyed thirty city blocks in the heart of the small city. As more and detailed information was made available, citizens and first responders all pitched in to help batter something which few of them had even seen, much less lived through the power and devastation a seismic sea wave. Fortunately, only eleven people were killed by the initial impacts of the wave. As the survivors rode out the effects of the wave, they were shocked by the 289 homes and businesses were damaged, destroyed, or rendered uninhabitable in the wave's aftermath.
Mr. Powers's interviews with the victims, the first responders, and those citizens who pitched in to help their neighbors are the basis for most of the story he provides. It is clear that the wave struck first with little or no warning as the SSWWS warning system was an information outlet designed to be used by State and National Agencies to provide information to their citizens. It is clear that while the warnings were issued; due to the time of day, the holiday starting, and the effects of darkness enhanced by the change to Daylight Saving Time, all had an impact in the hard work of rescuing survivors, treating the injured, and dealing with the devastation of homes, businesses, and those impacted in ways which ranged from minor wounds to drowning and victims trapped in downed buildings and boats washed ashore by the succession of waves.
The story is not completely dark, though. The stories of the survivors are seen throughout, some of whom put their lives in harm's way on numerous occasions as they tried to help their friends and neighbors in the small city. In the aftermath of the wave, other issues developed that would challenge the resources, workers, and first responders as fires began to break out in various areas of the city due to power lines down as well as broken gas mains and other critical services.
In the end, the tsunami spent its power and became a wave series with few bad effects. The people who survived in Crescent City cleaned and cleared the debris, and they returned to their lives deeply affected by the wave and its aftermath. Fortunately, with a lot of help and some sacrifice, Crescent City continues to this day to have many things to see and do, despite the effects of the raging sea in the spring of 1964. In fact, it is amazing that Crescent City is even larger than before. All can be attributed to faith, hard work, and a positive attitude. And so, life goes on beside their beaches and ocean view.
Recommendations:
This book is historic in its setting, and it is powerful in the tenacity of those who reside and work in Crescent City, California. Its scope encounters determined, hard-working people who want to live and work there.
Despite the problems of Good Friday, 1964, Crescent City and its story are worth a read from anyone interested in a disaster turned into a Godsend by a group of hard-working citizens.
This book would find a good readership in middle school and high school libraries.
Review of The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Word Tsunami in U.S. History by Dennis M. Powers by Richard W. Buro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212916.The_Raging_Sea.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at " rel="cc:morePermissions">Contact .
February 5, 2011
It was interesting but very dry. Lots of facts and details of oceanography, etc. so well researched. Just wasn't expecting it to be so dry.
December 24, 2018
Very informative and lots of interesting survivor accounts, but too long and repetitive.
December 9, 2021
I pulled this book from a shelf of unread books and elected to read it just to see how it compared to the very good tsunami-disaster movie, "The Impossible," which recorded the experiences of a British family caught in the Thailand tsunami of 2004.
I was disappointed in the book generally, because it spent a large amount of time discussing civil defense and post-tsunami recovery, when I was hoping for more stories about the experiences of the townspeople in Crescent City, Cal., and the survivors when a tsunami generated by the 1964 Anchorage earthquake struck their Northern California coastal town. What was included was very well re-constructed, but the author chose a sort of textual jump-edit style of storytelling that broke up the stories of the few survivors he was able to speak with.
Credit to the author for recovering the stories he did track down and feature. Also, kudos for the sobering conclusion that a repeat of the 1964 quake will likely kill far more people than the Crescent City losses, simply because few West Coast communities have even invested in tsunami alert systems; populations have increased dramatically; and human nature today pretty much guarantees that instead of fleeing under a tsunami warning, people will instead line up on the shoreline to take videos. How have we managed to survive as a species for so long?
I was disappointed in the book generally, because it spent a large amount of time discussing civil defense and post-tsunami recovery, when I was hoping for more stories about the experiences of the townspeople in Crescent City, Cal., and the survivors when a tsunami generated by the 1964 Anchorage earthquake struck their Northern California coastal town. What was included was very well re-constructed, but the author chose a sort of textual jump-edit style of storytelling that broke up the stories of the few survivors he was able to speak with.
Credit to the author for recovering the stories he did track down and feature. Also, kudos for the sobering conclusion that a repeat of the 1964 quake will likely kill far more people than the Crescent City losses, simply because few West Coast communities have even invested in tsunami alert systems; populations have increased dramatically; and human nature today pretty much guarantees that instead of fleeing under a tsunami warning, people will instead line up on the shoreline to take videos. How have we managed to survive as a species for so long?
November 21, 2025
Very In-depth telling of the tsunami and the people affected by it. He included information about earthquakes and tsunamis - much of types and ratings and why few earthquakes create tsunamis. Totally fascinating geological, but heartbreaking for the people of Crescent City. He also included the ins and outs of restoration and clean up.
August 5, 2021
By starting on page 91, I was immediately riveted to the stories of individuals. Later I backtracked to get the nuts and bolts of what happened and scientific explanations of tsunamis.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
May we be ready for whatever comes our way.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
May we be ready for whatever comes our way.
June 6, 2017
One of the most accurate recordings of the tsunami that destroyed part of Crescent City, CA.
November 26, 2019
Interesting history and details. Especially after just vacationing there.
January 23, 2020
I made it to 38%.
This book needs so much editing.
Or actually: this story needs a different author, someone who has followed a course about story-telling.
Very interesting piece of history, but such awful writing.
This book needs so much editing.
Or actually: this story needs a different author, someone who has followed a course about story-telling.
Very interesting piece of history, but such awful writing.
November 28, 2023
When I was a kid, part of my dad's job involved fetching rent-a-cars that belonged to his boss that had gotten stuck in faraway places. There was hardly a weekend where we didn't go somewhere.
One of the more common destinations was a small town in the far northwestern corner of California called Crescent City. It's beautiful country up there in Del Norte County with the fog and the redwoods and the lighthouse, and I liked our trips there. And part of the reason I liked the trip was something I saw out the car window as we drove to the airport -- a structure that looked something like a giant's lost jack.
It turns out that odd structure is called a tetrapod, and it's used to construct breakwaters in harbors. And the reason that particular tetrapod is special is because it's a memorial to an event that happened in Crescent City in the wee morning hours of March 28, 1964.
On Good Friday 1964, which was March 27th, a large quake struck just offshore of Alaska. Depending on which accounts you read, the Good Friday quake measured anywhere between 8.4 and 9.3 on the Richter Scale, and it set the entire Pacific Ocean into motion. Traveling at 500 miles an hour, the tsunami roared down the west coast of Northern California, where, in a tragic play of undersea geography and circumstance, the tsunami engulfed Crescent City. In a period of four separate waves stretching over a period of an hour and a half, with the fourth wave being the killer.
This book tells the story of that awful night in Crescent City and of the capricious and randomness that tsunamis are capable of. Depending on how you count, either 11 or 12 people were killed that early morning, and the book talks about that along with explaining how the disaster could have been much worse. There were several stories of bravery and heroism on that crazy night, and those stories are recounted as well.
While the subtitle is technically incorrect -- there have been tsunamis at Hilo, Hawaii that have killed more than the Crescent City disaster, it is the worst tsunami to have occurred on the US mainland. Besides, that minor point doesn't change the fact that this was a powerful event.
If you want to read some nifty stories of survival, or understand just why a tsunami is so dangerous, this is a great book. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
One of the more common destinations was a small town in the far northwestern corner of California called Crescent City. It's beautiful country up there in Del Norte County with the fog and the redwoods and the lighthouse, and I liked our trips there. And part of the reason I liked the trip was something I saw out the car window as we drove to the airport -- a structure that looked something like a giant's lost jack.
It turns out that odd structure is called a tetrapod, and it's used to construct breakwaters in harbors. And the reason that particular tetrapod is special is because it's a memorial to an event that happened in Crescent City in the wee morning hours of March 28, 1964.
On Good Friday 1964, which was March 27th, a large quake struck just offshore of Alaska. Depending on which accounts you read, the Good Friday quake measured anywhere between 8.4 and 9.3 on the Richter Scale, and it set the entire Pacific Ocean into motion. Traveling at 500 miles an hour, the tsunami roared down the west coast of Northern California, where, in a tragic play of undersea geography and circumstance, the tsunami engulfed Crescent City. In a period of four separate waves stretching over a period of an hour and a half, with the fourth wave being the killer.
This book tells the story of that awful night in Crescent City and of the capricious and randomness that tsunamis are capable of. Depending on how you count, either 11 or 12 people were killed that early morning, and the book talks about that along with explaining how the disaster could have been much worse. There were several stories of bravery and heroism on that crazy night, and those stories are recounted as well.
While the subtitle is technically incorrect -- there have been tsunamis at Hilo, Hawaii that have killed more than the Crescent City disaster, it is the worst tsunami to have occurred on the US mainland. Besides, that minor point doesn't change the fact that this was a powerful event.
If you want to read some nifty stories of survival, or understand just why a tsunami is so dangerous, this is a great book. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
March 5, 2017
A interesting account of one of the worst Tsunamis to ever hit the mainland USA. Does suffer from being too repetitive, each account sounding exactly like the previous and gets bogged down in technical details.
August 25, 2016
I picked up this book at a yard sale over the summer.
The Raging Sea is about an 8.4 earthquake that happened in Alaska that sent a tidal wave 5 hours later to Crescent City, CA in 1964. Of course tidal surges happened all along the Western coast early that morning but it was Crescent City that faced it's worse.
Residence of Crescent City were very accustom to hearing warnings about tidal waves. In fact, they started to ignore them over time and would continue with their normal activities. But on Good Friday in 1964 at midnight when most of the people were asleep, an earthquake sent a massive tidal wave that was to hit their shores and catch the residence unaware. A series of 4 tidal waves hit the town. While emergency crew went door to door to wake residence and to warn those in local bars, many either didn't hear them or didn't believe them. It was the 4th wave that destroyed the town and changed their lives forever. This is the alarming tale of the that event and how it has changed the way we monitor, record and communicate earthquakes and tidal surges around the world.
The Raging Sea is about an 8.4 earthquake that happened in Alaska that sent a tidal wave 5 hours later to Crescent City, CA in 1964. Of course tidal surges happened all along the Western coast early that morning but it was Crescent City that faced it's worse.
Residence of Crescent City were very accustom to hearing warnings about tidal waves. In fact, they started to ignore them over time and would continue with their normal activities. But on Good Friday in 1964 at midnight when most of the people were asleep, an earthquake sent a massive tidal wave that was to hit their shores and catch the residence unaware. A series of 4 tidal waves hit the town. While emergency crew went door to door to wake residence and to warn those in local bars, many either didn't hear them or didn't believe them. It was the 4th wave that destroyed the town and changed their lives forever. This is the alarming tale of the that event and how it has changed the way we monitor, record and communicate earthquakes and tidal surges around the world.
May 21, 2011
Includes a photo section and good map of the Crescent City area, subject of this country's worst tsunami disaster. That's worth a star. Would have loved more maps of the other affected areas including the center of the earthquake, but at least one of the coastal areas affected in relation to one another. There was a diagram showing the progress of the wave from Alaska out to the rest of the world. That was cool to see.
September 29, 2012
Considering I had no interest in tsunamis or California history, I still think this was a good book and an interesting story. The only destructive tsunami to strike the continental United States. Well written and well covered. If you have an interest in the subject you would probably enjoy it more than me. I would still say it was worth reading. I am glad to have learned about this mostly unheard of event in American history.
August 14, 2011
This is a very enlightening account of one small American town's (less than 100 miles from me) experience of tsunami devastation.
Though I found the account disjointed sometimes, the information and stories I gained were well worth it.
Not bad for a buck at the Dollar Tree.
Though I found the account disjointed sometimes, the information and stories I gained were well worth it.
Not bad for a buck at the Dollar Tree.
October 31, 2014
On our honeymoon in Alaska, we learned about the effects of the "Good Friday Earthquake" of 1964. We did not know about the massive effects in Crescent City, CA, from the subsequent tsunami. This book is very interesting and I previously knew nothing about the subject.
April 19, 2011
nice retelling, through interviews and archives, of the 1964 Crescent City disaster, as well as its heroes and tragedies.
March 4, 2016
Fascinating read about the Tsunami that hit the town of Crescent City in 1964. I would have given it 5 stars but was overloaded at the beginning and end with unnecessary information.
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