History

Most of us know about the 1922 Astoria fire, but other than a few dedicated researchers most Astorians have never heard of the great plague of 1901…

That changed when the geeked-out history folks of Orhistory.com Doug Kenck-Crispin and Andy Lindberg (a.k.a., the crack hustlers of Oregon History) released the spooky and riveting story of The Great Astoria Plague of 1901 (in which we learn that something fishy lurks beneath the surface of Astoria) on April 1, 2012.

Listen to it now!

This was volume 4, episode 4 of the long running podcast, Kick Ass Oregon History, which covers just the good stuff: Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll and Earth Shattering, Devastating Destruction.

P.S. On April 1 fans of cosmic horror . . . and perceptive joke-getters aren’t fools . . .

A tsunami struck the Oregon coast on the evening of March 27, 1964, following the great Alaskan earthquake, the one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded and largest ever recorded in North America. In Alaska nine deaths were attributed to the earthquake, but the tsunami took the lives of 106 Alaskans, and wreaked havoc across the Pacific.

The Oregonian reported the local damage on March 28, 1964:

Astoria – Some high water but no damage.
Depoe Bay – High water, wharf broke loose.
Point Adams Coast Guard Station – Coast Guard boats moved into the Columbia River to avoid high water
Newport – High water hit in two surges, but no damage
Florence – Siuslaw River rose eight feet in eight seconds. It tore loose at least four boats.

What they didn’t know until later was that four members of a family camping at Beverly Beach State Park were drowned in the waves. Further down the coast the citizens of Crescent City, California suffered the worst fate outside of Alaska, with twelve deaths attributed to the tsunami.

Be prepared for the inevitable next tsunami: find your town’s “Beat the wave” tsunami evacuation route map or create your own using the NANOOS evacuation zone map viewer.