The Coliimbian Lumber Company plant and camp were completely wiped 

 out by the waves. Almost nothing remains of the facilities which occupied 

 the west end of the waterfront at Whittier (see Figure I96). Of the 13 

 people who died, 12 were in a camp building of the lumber company. 



One slip tower of the car -barge, slip dock collapsed when its 

 foundation slid away; the other was destroyed by the waves. Bending of 

 the slip, steel beams (shown in Figure 197 and I98) gives an indication 

 of the power of the forces involved. 



A H-cubic-yard, barnacle-covered boulder was carried from the tidal 

 zone, presumably, about 125 feet inland and deposited on the Alaska Rail- 

 road tracks near the depot at an altitude of about 26 feet . Boulders 

 as much as 6 feet across were strewn on the road between the small-boat 

 harbor and' the Union Oil Company (Chance, I968). 



The depot of the Alaska Railroad was heavily damaged by waves 

 (Figure 199). 



Waves that struck the shoreline at the head of Passage Canal de- 

 troyed practically all the structures near the shore. The waves washed 

 away 3 unoccupied homes on the shore, 200 to ^00 feet south of the FAA 

 stations, and completely destroyed the buildings of the Two Brothers 

 Lumber Company. The buildings of the Two Brothers Lumber Company were 

 carried inland in a southwest direction; the company's trimmer and con- 

 veyor chain were moved 200 feet , the bucking machine UO to 50 feet , and 

 the 2,300-pound mill about 100 feet to the southwest. The nearby FAA 

 station, although partially inundated by waves, was not significantly 

 damaged. 



It is inferred from debris and watermarks that the waves (or wave) 

 that damaged the west coastline of Passage Canal (Figure 191 ) originated 

 along the north coastline of the canal and traveled southwest. The waves 

 were apparently diverted near the eastern end of the airstrip, because 

 a structure about 300 feet south of the airstrip was only moderately 

 damaged (Kachadoorian, I965). 



The waves traveling southwest and south struck the point along the 

 south shore, about U,000 feet west of Whittier Creek, with tremendous 

 force. Here one wave reached more than 50 feet above MSL. It carried a 

 1-ton winch and a boulder weighing 2-3 tons 120 feet south and deposited 

 them on the Alaska Railroad tracks (Chance, I968). 



According to Spaeth and Berkman (196T), the seismic sea waves at 

 Whittier were responsible for about $10 million worth of damage (see 

 Table E-5, Appendix E). Relative to its population of 70, Whittier 

 must be considered to have suffered most acutely of all the coastal 

 communities of Alaska. For more details, the reader is referred to the 

 excellent monograph of Kachadoorian (1965)- For greater understanding 

 of the wave effects, however, there is need for a more extensive study 

 of the oscillating characteristics of the Port Wells complex of fjords. 



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