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Nightmare11Waves Slam Beach AreasBy the associated pressA peaceful, moonlit night turned to sudden terror when seismic waves spawned by the great Alaskan earthquake swept into trailers of scores of tourists on Washington State beaches last weekend, j The great tidal waves hit the beach area north of Aberdeen, slamming at trailers, knocking out two highway bridges and piling logs and debris on the beaches, almost miraculously, they took no lives.Trailer occupants swam for their lives to keep from being washed out-to-sea.A motorist was nearly trapped ' in his car in the Copalis River \ as a bridge gave way.! A park ranger at Ocean City ' was credited with saving more than a dozen men, women and children.“It came over the dunes shooting five feet high, tossing around those logs like match-sticks,” said Park Ranger Wallace Beckley, 6? “I helped pull a woman out of the surf who was so frozen with fear she could not move.”Eeckley was to aid many others before the water receded.Mr*. Oavid Mansfield, Sumner, from her hospital bed, recalled how she, her husband and three children barely escaped 'death when the water hit their trailer, sending them fleeing up the beach.“It was a nightmare/’ she said. “We were up to our waists one moment and then tumbling head-over-heels the next .... AH I know is that we prayed—I kept telling the kids to pray.“Finally, the water began ^ to get shallower and we saw a high spot, but a log — it was three feet thick — kept bobbing and rolling around us ami t thought it was going to crush us. It wouldn’t go away/' IFor Leonard Hulbert, 50, Co- ; palis, the brush with death was j perhaps even closer as he was, driving home to get his three children. .Hulbert had stopped in (he' middle of the Copalis River bridge to watch driftwood piling up. when the bridge gave way) and his auto plunged down. | He fought out of the deathtrap by opening the left door against the force of the rushing water, and barely was able to pul] his leg free when it became pinned by the dour.“I thought for a minute I was a goner,” he said.Mrs, Mtrl* Medbury, Olympia, remembered waking up suddenly as the water rocked her trailer. She stepped out into waste-deep water rushing around her.“Some of the time it went over«our heads/' she said. “I was all right until I got on higher ground, and then my heart began acting up .... It was a terrifying experience/’Mrs, Medbury, suffering from a heart ailment,- was taken to an Aberdeen hospital.R. L. McLean, an area resort owner, said the water swept nearly half a mile beyond its normal tideline, carrying some trailers more than 100 feet.1!X('We'll Make Out'Former CentraliansKeep Anchorage HomeOne of the first direct words from Anchorage, Alaska, after the devastating Friday quake there, came over the weekend from a former Centralia family which said its home is the only one standing in a mile-long area. fThe word came by letter — 1 mailed Saturday from Anchor- ) age — from the Leo A. Walsh! family. lie is a general contrae-j tor there. jWdfsh wrcf* “the house next door is 30 feet below us/1 He explained the homes are on a bluff and that he has fear any more quakes will destroy the Walsh [ home, too. He said there was j no water, heat or lights, “but1 we’ll make out all right. We're j belter off than most pimple ini our neighborhood.1’ jMany Lewis County familieshave relatives and friends in Alaskan areas. Monday most had not heard from them, but here and there word was passed out. Mr. and Mrs. John Bena, Cehalis, learned their daughter and family, Mr. and Mrs. Otho Hoover, Anchorage, are safe. The news came in a telegram.One Chehalis family said it had also received word* from the Crescent City, CaJif., disaster that the Keith Colton Sr., family, who moved ihere two weeks ago, is sale.Methodist churches in the Lewis County area announced j they have a special offering j day Sunday lor the earthquake ( victims. The call is general forjMethodists throughout t h c i Northwest. ;Spring Sunshine MakesEaster Sunday PerfectcbT!TUCbCFCLong overdue spring sunshine i made Easter Sunday a perfect j one for Lewis County commit--nities.With a high ol 74 degrees, the day was the warmest for March i sinee 1956. The official temper-1tralia fire deportment weather station.The warm sunshine added to record turnouts for traditional Easier Sunday church services, started off with sunrise rituals held in a number of Lewisb:trweib:l)iG
Newspaper Details
Centralia Daily Chronicle
Centralia, Washington, US
Mon, Mar 30, 1964
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Timberland R.
WA, USA 29 Jul 2021
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