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Radio announcement of the 1964 Alaska Earthquake
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The following paragraph is a recording from the radio announcer R. Pate, at the radio
station KHAR, who was on duty when the earthquake struck.
(Bolt,1978)
"Hey, boy!Oh-wee, that's a good one! Heyboy oh boy oh boy!
Man, that's an earthquake! Hey, that's an earthquake for sure!Whee-eee!
Boy oh boythis is something you'd readdoesn't come up very
often up here, but I'm going through it right now! Maneverything's
movingyou know, all that stuff in all the cabinets have come up
loose... Who-eee! Scared the hell out of me, man! Oh boy, I whish this
house would quit shaking! That damn bird cageoooooh man! I've
never lived through anything like this before in my life! And it hasn't
even shown signs of stopping yet, eitherooooeeeethe whole place
is shakinglike someone was holdingHold it, I'd better put the
television on the floor. Just a minuteBoy! Let me tell you that sure scared
the hell out of me and it's still shaking, I'm telling you! I wonder if I should
get outside? Oh boy! Man, I'm telling you that's the worst thing I ever lived through!
I wonder if that's the last one of 'em? Oh man! OhOh boy, I'm telling you that's
something I hope I don't go through very often. Maa-uhn!I'm not fakin' a bit
of this I'm telling you, the whole placed just moved like somebody had taken
it by the nape of the neck and was shaking it. Everything's moving around here!I
wonder if the HAR radio tower still is standing up. Man! You sure can't hear it, but
I wonder what they have to say on the air about it? The radio fell back here
but I don't think it killed itOh! I'm shaking like a leafI don't think
it hurt it. Man, that could very easily have knocked the tower downI don't
get anything on the airfrom any of the stationsI can't even think! I
wonder what it did to the tower. We may have lost the tower. I'll see if any of the
station come onNo, none of them do. I assume the radio is okayBoy! The
place is still moving! You couldn't even stand up when that thing was going like
thatI was falling all over the place here. I turned this thing on, and started
talking just after the thing started, and man! I'm telling you, this house was shaking
like a leaf! The picture framesall the doors were openedthe dishes
were falling out of the cabinetsand it's still swaying back and forthI've
got to go through and make a check to make sure that none of the water lines are ruptured
or anything. Man I hope I don't live through one of those things again...."
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