Oh yeah? What's good about it?

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning  Center which is just up the road from here, released this animation of the 1964 tsunami for Good Friday this year.

Every year when Good Friday comes around, the apprehension level rises a bit.  While Christians go to church, others of us check our emergency stashes to make sure we're ready for some sort of disaster.  Of course it's a bit of exaggeration, but that apprehension has its roots in reality.

You see, the two biggest disasters in the history of Alaska occurred on Good Fridays.  Those would be the largest earthquake ever measured in North America and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, now only the second largest U.S. oil spill after BP outdid us in the Gulf of Mexico a couple of years ago.

Just for background: That earthquake measured 9.2 on the scale and destroyed parts or all of several communities along the southcentral coast of Alaska.  The quake and tsunami killed 115 people, some of them as far south as Crescent City, California.  A lot has been written about it and there isn't much value in repeating all that here as is the case with Exxon Valdez as well.

But the coincidence of Good Friday disasters may be something to acknowledge.

Now, on another, lighter note, there is the word "tsunami."  Years ago I used the term "tidal wave" in a short news item in Alaska magazine.  A scientist friend wrote a friendly letter pointing out that seismic sea waves have nothing to do with tides and the proper term is "tsunami."  I wrote back (not for publication) that my job as a writer was to translate scientific language to common English to better allow the general public to understand.  But, at the same time I did not wish to be deliberately wrong, so in the future I would refer to those waves as "goddam big waves."  But the story didn't end there.  A few years later I met a woman who spoke fluent Japanese, enough so that she taught English in Japan for a time.  I asked her if there was a literal translation for "tsunami."  She had to do a bit of research, but in time came up with this answer: "literally translated from the Japanese, tsunami means tidal wave."  Oh well.

Anyway, Happy Easter. Let's hope we get there again.

It seems Alaska isn't the only place that has suffered Good Friday disasters. After a couple of comments on my facebook page, I did a search and found several more

1865 Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday.
1979 Though it happened March 28, Three-Mile Island nuclear plant meltdown was still considered a potential disaster on Good Friday April 13.
1788 Massive fire destroyed 850 buildings in Spanish colonial New Orleans
1968  Interisland New Zealand ferry Wahine hits reef and sinks, killing 53 people
2011 Tornado leaves 22-mile path of destruction through St. Louis area.
2010 Powerful winter storm hits several North Dakota counties, knocking out 10,000 power poles and hundreds of miles of electrical lines.