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| View Larger Image | The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History
by Dennis M. Powers
| | List Price: | $15.95 | | Price: | $12.44 | | You Save: | $3.51 (22%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 673763 | | Studio: | Citadel | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 288 | | Publication Date: | February 05, 2005 | | Publisher: | Citadel |
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 19 reviews)
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A night that changed a city forever 
On Good Friday of 1964, when I was 11 years old, Alaska experienced an earthquake that sent whole neighborhoods sliding toward the ocean. I remember seeing those pictures in Life magazine, very well indeed; but I have only the fuzziest recollection that something also happened on that date in Crescent City, California. That "something" was the worst tsunami in history to strike a U.S. city. The series of waves, four major ones (although the sea went on with its back-and-forth surging for hours after the last major wave struck), was set in motion off Alaska. The warning that a tsunami might strike the West Coast of the "lower 48" failed to reach most of Crescent City's residents, and those who did hear it remembered other warnings when little or nothing happened afterward. Especially, some of them remembered a 1957 evacuation of their city that turned out to have been a needless precaution. So when the first wave arrived at midnight, Crescent City's people were doing what they always did on a Friday night. Partying in bars, watching television at home, or sleeping. Farther up the coast, two off duty Air Force men were fishing from a sand bar at a river's mouth. A family with four small children lay sleeping in a driftwood shelter on a beach, where the state park ranger tried unsuccessfully to find and evacuate them when the warning reached him.
The first two waves did plenty of damage at Crescent City. After both had receded, even the authorities thought the disaster was over; so they allowed business owners and residents back into the waterfront area the waves had devastated, to start cleaning up and to protect property from looters. That's how Gary Clawson and his fiancee happened to be at the Long Branch Bar with Gary's parents, and with friends who were also his parents' employees, when the third and fourth waves arrived. By dawn, all but two of those people would die - and it would happen far away from the Long Branch, after a moment when safety appeared to lie within everyone's grasp.
Gary Clawson's is just one of the stories author Powers recounts in this powerful book, which represents years of research into an event that changed a city forever. Like the law professor he is, Powers places everything in context; the reader comes away understanding not only what happened, but why it had the effects (both immediate and far reaching) that it did. Except for occasional awkwardness in word choice and sentence structure, an excellent piece of work that combines human interest with growing relevance in a world where the next "big one" is not a matter of if it will happen, but when.
April 05, 2008 | |
Gripping Story Poorly Written 
This book needed a skillful editor to tighten the narrative and correct the awkward use of the language. Problems begin in the author's note (page 11). In a discussion of the earthquake and tsunami hazards present in the ring of fire the author states: "As most of the quakes causing destructive tidal waves have occurred in the Pacific Ocean Basin, the U. S. west coast is at great risk, both from near-shore earthquake-generated tsunamis and from those that travel from Alaska Russia, or even offshore Japan. This fact, however, doesn't exclude the rest of the U. S. from being at risk." True enough, the east coast of the U. S. is at risk of catastrophic tsunamis should the volcanic Canary Islands collapse into the Atlantic, but what on earth is this gratuitous fact doing in a narrative relating to the ring of fire? Specifically, this section includes a discussion of the absence of warning systems in the Indian Ocean versus the Pacific. It is just one example of the sloppiness that is evident on page after page of this book. Frankly, the narrative is as jumbled as the wreckage of Crescent City after the disaster struck.
This reads like a cut and paste job from several drafts with insufficient attention to the narrative thread. The narrative rambles, covers the same ground several times, and displays odd shifts of verb tense, often in the same paragraph that further confuse the reader. Despite the disclaimer that the book was in preparation before the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, it smacks of a rush job to capitalize on the currency of the events.
The 1964 west coast tsunamis give us many stories of heartbreak and heroism. They deserved better than this.
February 10, 2008 | |
The Unexpected Killer
In 1964 the town of Crescent City on the northern California coast was hit by a major tsunami created by an earthquake in Alaska. Scores of homes and businesses in the downtown area were destroyed, and 11 people died. Four children died on the Oregon coast at Beverly Beach State Park, as a result of the same tsunami. Dennis M. Powers' recent book, The Raging Sea: The Powerful Account of the Worst Tsunami in U.S. History, is a remarkable full-length, in-depth account of this disaster and its effects on the town and the lives of its residents.
Powers spent 15 years researching and writing The Raging Sea. The result is a book with substantial and clear information on the dynamics of tsunamis and the technology of tsunami warning systems. But the gripping and tragic personal stories of this particular disaster are the real focus of the book.
Powers follows dozens of people who were in Crescent City on the night the tsunami struck: those who escaped to higher ground immediately, who were caught by surprise and narrowly escaped the raging waters, and who fought for their lives but ultimately perished.
The most compelling parts of the book revolve around Gary Clawson, his family and friends, and their struggle to survive. Powers makes time stand still as they battle the elements. The suspense kept me turning page after page way into the night to find out who would live and who would die. The attention to detail made me feel as if I knew these people, and I were with them in the midst of the tsunami, surrounded by the damage, death, and destruction.
Powers goes on to describe the aftermath: the shattered lives, the devastation, the reconstruction of the town. He ends by discussing what the future may hold for those living in tsunami-prone areas. As haunting as the story he has just finished telling are the last lines of the book: "A `big one' will happen again, and it unfortunately will be worse than Crescent City's experience then. The only question is when - and who will suffer this time."
January 08, 2008 | |
Some interesting lessons not related to disaster preparedness 
Detailed account of a tsunami hitting a small West Coast town. To me the most interesting part was the descriptions of tsunamis - how easily they can occur, how far around the world they can spread. All the damage, the human interest stories etc., was kind of predictable - apologies to any Crescent City readers, and I understand that there were some heart-wrenching losses, but from the point of view of a disaster book, the reader does know what to expect. Incidentally, the writing is basically workmanlike but marred by rather a lot of odd errors of vocabulary or usage.
One thing that emerged was the problems you can have when a forceful but somewhat insensitive person takes power to clean up, ramrodding through what he believes to be the town's rebuilding needs. Many felt that the rebuilding destroyed its character, and that this didn't have to happen. Jim Hooper was proud of all the new facilities and businesses he helped create, but had apparently never appreciated the unique, quirky character of the town, its old-fashioned charm that had drawn tourists to it. They might have done well to restore that, since the timber industry killed itself off by over-extraction. He is quoted as saying "It was then a rural lumber town with many old buildings. I don't believe for a moment that it had "rustic charm" as some say." (Almost sounds as if "old" = "bad.") But another resident lamented that "they plowed under all of those smaller shops and replaced it with what you see now. The city lost part of its identity and could never recover from that loss..." I can't help thinking that from the description as it is now, why would anyone particularly want to live there - or even visit - rather than anywhere else? But then, how many of us have to spend our lives in charmless surroundings anyway?
At least they got their rebuilding done and became a viable community, if not the one that was there before. Pretty interesting comparison to New Orleans, though of course that is a hundred times bigger problem.
October 15, 2006 | |
heroic and heartbreaking narrative
Dennis Powers' account of the 1964 tsunami's destruction of Crescent City, CA is a mostly straightforward chronicle of events and narratives. The author focuses on the surprise element of this disaster, both in its arrival and in the scope of the devastation. He touches on many heroic and heartbreaking stories of the residents who experienced it. The transformation of the nature of Crescent City and its inhabitants, however, emerges as the central theme of this work. Some of the problems unique to this disaster remind me of similar occurrences, thus making this material more applicable or relatable. Those include problems with false alarms, as well as the problem of residents reentering potentially hazardous areas. These occurrences can be compared and contrasted with those of the World Trade Centers on 9-11 and the collapse of the levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
This is a very readable narrative, full of engrossing stories of the death and destruction wrought by the tsunami. Powers' description of the events of Good Friday, 1964 is compelling viewed as history, human interest, or heroic drama. With interest in tsunamis and other calamities high, this book is a relevant addition to the literature of the genre.
June 25, 2006 | |
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