BC Cook
FOUR young school teachers looked out the window to view the strange behavior of the sea. A few moments later only one of them was alive. This is her story.
An earthquake occurred in the ocean near Alaska in 1946, and while the quake caused little damage, it unleashed a tsunami that spread around the Pacific and ravaged the Hawaiian islands.
The damage to property and the loss of human life were catastrophic, and the discrepancy between the relatively harmless quake and the tremendous tsunami it set off led to changes in the way we think about these natural disasters and motivated us to increase our ability to predict these monsters from the sea.
But underneath all of that the 1946 tsunami is a human story, a story of loss, but for one woman, a story of survival. Marsue McGinnis had a front row seat to one of Hawaii’s greatest natural disasters.
Helen, Dorothy, Sadie and Marsue awoke to an island boy shouting to them, “You want to see a tidal wave? Come quick!” They put robes on over their pajamas and looked out the window to see the ocean pulling away from the land. Folks on the big island of Hawaii knew that the waters receded just before a tsunami hit land. They thought there was time to see the strange action and still get to safety. Most of them paid for that mistake with their lives.
The first wave hit the shore and splashed in a frothy mess. Then the water receded again, this time a little further out to sea. That meant that the second wave would be even bigger. The lagoons emptied, fish flopped in small puddles, and children ran in the newly exposed sand.
The second wave hit with more force than the first, but most homes were high enough to escape damage. Marsue was a little nervous after the second wave, but assured herself that the locals would let her know when they were in danger. Then the next wave hit, and the illusion ended.
The third, colossal wave ripped Marsue’s little building to pieces. She nearly drowned but clung to a small piece of wood and was pulled out to sea, where she eventually spotted the roof of her cottage. She climbed onto it and learned that the impact of the wave had ripped off her clothes. During the frenzy, Marsue watched all three of her friends go down into the waters. None survived.
She drifted for hours until a plane flew overhead and dropped her a life raft. Some time later a small boat approached with rescuers, but Marsue told them she was naked. One of them, Leabert Fernandez, stood at the front of the boat and gave her a blanket to wrap up in, preserving her dignity.
All told, around 170 people died in the 1946 tsunami, including five lighthouse keepers in Alaska. Marsue miraculously survived the disaster that claimed the lives of nearly everyone else around her. Maybe she had a stronger will to live, or maybe she was in the right place at the right time.
Today, we enjoy the presence of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, which monitors wave activity and sends warnings to oncoming disaster. It has saved countless lives since its creation in 1949. You will be interested to know that the system was created as a direct result of the 1946 tsunami, and you may also be interested to learn that Marsue, and the rescuer that gave her the blanket, later got married.
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for over 30 years. He is a director and historian at Sealark Exploration.
