The ground shakes, buildings crumble, walls fall, and music swells in the opening moments of the 19-minute U.S. Army Corps of Engineers film, “Response to Disaster,” detailing the events of Great Alaskan earthquake (also known as the Good Friday earthquake) on March 27, 1964. “Beneath this rugged crust of Earth in our 49th state, Alaska, tremendous stress has built up miles below the surface,” the announcer warns beginning at mark 00:32 as the camera pans snow-covered mountains. At mark 00:50. disaster strikes. At the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, the base commander (starting at mark 01:20) explains the 8.5 magnitude earthquake. The film takes the viewer through the aftermath: burning oil, ships tossed out of the ocean, and homes, apartments, and buildings turned to rubble in and around Anchorage. At mark 02:54, the damage is shown in Seward, Alaska, about 80 miles away, including damage to highways and harbors. Following President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of the region as a disaster area, Office of Emergency Planning (OEP) Director Edward A McDermott is shown speaking from his office at mark 03:50, pledging federal help to the Alaskans and commending residents for their desire to immediately rebuild.
The Corps of Engineers, in association with the OEP — FEMA’s predecessor — moved in to help the quake-stricken region. quickly to help communities in distress. Less than 10 hours after the calamity, Alaska District Engineer Colonel Kenneth T. Sawyer sent emergency to assess the damage. A survey of the damage continues throughout the film, including a scene at mark 07:20 showing nearly dry land where there was once a harbor. At mark 07:55, the viewer is shown another scene from Seward, where railroad facilities slid into the ocean. Following footage showing engineers separating stable ground from still-unstable soil, the film takes us to scientists at the University of California-Berkeley, where at mark 09:45 they’re shown conducting experiments to determine what may have caused the quake.
As clean-up continued, Governor William A. Egan visits Valdez at mark 11:30 during Independence Day celebrations, commending the Alaskan peoples’ morale and the assistant of the OEP and the Corps of Engineers, as the film continues to roll and show the viewer demolition and reconstruction efforts.
As a result of the earthquake, 139 people are believed to have died — 15 in the earthquake and 106 from a subsequent tsunami, and the Corps spent more than $110 million on salvage, rescue, and rehabilitation operations. By the end of the film, however, fisheries are back in operation, children have returned to schools, tourism was resuming, and railways have been repaired. “Today Alaska is well along the road to recovery,” we are told by McDermott at mark 17:22 “It’s people look forward not merely to the restoration of what was but to the creation … of perhaps a new way of life in our 49th state.”
