00:00:06.490 - 00:00:34.300

Shanika was a town. Just a village really. It sat in a lovely tree lined Covanta. *** island in Prince William sound. It was an old village. The natives were Aaliyah whose descendants of Eskimos and early Russian fur traders. Mm hmm, mm hmm. It was a store,

00:00:34.310 - 00:01:14.450

the Bureau of Indian Affairs School, a good water system, piers and docks for the fishing boats and skiffs that were used in hunting seal. Yeah. Mhm. The houses were well built, sturdy, made it huge logs and heavy timbers.

00:01:14.940 - 00:01:45.470

It stood for many years stood through Alaskan winters on the west side of the island side that faced icy bay in the gulf of Alaska. Mhm. Mhm. With the thought, people came out, 77 people lived there and Megan spoke English and most had at least a

00:01:45.480 - 00:02:21.730

6th grade education. They were good family people, fond of their kids. They were deeply religious Russian Orthodox. The church was the center of their village. Yes. They had a working self government and intelligent town council. Mm hmm. Mhm. Monica was a good place to live. It

00:02:21.740 - 00:03:03.640

was good friday and easter to the Russian Orthodox is a very important event that morning. The teacher had written the date on the blackboard in the schoolhouse. Mm hmm. All right. Yeah. Now it was nearly dinnertime. The men fish and women cooked. The kids were playing

00:03:03.640 - 00:04:22.720

by the edge of the water, waiting for dinner to be called. Thank you. Yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm, mm hmm. Mhm. Within

00:04:22.730 - 00:05:03.450

five minutes. She *** was gone and no one even knew about it. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Mhm. Well on good friday I went home for an early night's sleep because the previous two nights we had five alarm fires back to back.

00:05:03.840 - 00:05:18.010

Red Cross had been on the scene of these two fires to see that the disaster victims had shelter, clothing and food. I had had dinner and it was about 7 30 I believe. And the phone rang and I went to answer the phone and the red

00:05:18.010 - 00:05:32.060

cross switchboard operator from the Golden Gate Chapter Red Cross saying Mr Ashton will tell me on the phone. I don't know whether he's a crank or what but you better talk to him. So I she put him on the line and I talk to this gentleman

00:05:32.060 - 00:05:46.240

was very frantic voice. He was very excited, upset. And the only time come out and say well what's the matter? And he says we're having an earthquake, we need we need help. And I said well if you're having an earthquake in Alaska where you want to

00:05:46.240 - 00:05:59.960

get a hold of the western area Officer Red Cross, you've been connected with the san Francisco office. I'm the disaster chairman of SAn Francisco. I think what you want to get a hold of our western area Disaster director. Let me see if I can transfer this

00:05:59.960 - 00:06:15.350

call. And the man very excited. He said you know don't hang up, don't hang up, don't transfer the call. He said this is the only telephone line we can get out of Alaska. And with this the line went dead and I really felt very inadequate but

00:06:15.940 - 00:06:36.260

I felt I had to do something. I arrived over at the western area Red Cross headquarters on Center Street, uh the Professional Disaster Team and the Red Cross professionals were there. They had a map of Alaska on the wall and they were trying to find out

00:06:36.260 - 00:06:54.620

what was happening. But they also had conflicting and confusing information. And as I walked in, don stout, the general manager for the western area of american. Red Cross was saying It looks like anchorages has about 600 dead. The city is in flames. We don't know how

00:06:54.620 - 00:07:07.790

accurate this is, but we do know one thing is they need help so we'll get a team up there as soon as we can. The Air Force will provide us with the jet. And with this he turned to me and said, Pete, will you go? My

00:07:07.790 - 00:07:28.040

first reaction is you know what in the name of heaven will I do? But then my second reaction was if two more hands can do anything to help, I'll do what I can. The Red Cross people from Anchorage were there to greet us and offer whatever

00:07:28.040 - 00:08:07.120

assistance they could in what it had to be done. Yeah, by saturday afternoon after the quake Red Cross was there with people branching out to take an evaluation of the problems at hand. Yeah, I was assigned as the coordinator Red Cross activities with the state Civil

00:08:07.120 - 00:08:31.440

Defense Office. We really immediately found the problem with one of communications in Alaska. Communications during normal times are somewhat difficult. The telephone lines were down, the normal radio networks that are available were out. Uh, and we were operating through all sorts of jury rig type communications.

00:08:32.640 - 00:09:20.480

Mhm. It was the 3rd day I was in Anchorage, we received word that there was a another little indian village on an island in Prince William Sound. A little island of ***. Mm hmm. Mhm, mm hmm. We're sitting at the table and earthquake just to its

00:09:20.480 - 00:09:41.650

supper and we felt a shake. It started a little bit, you know, okay. I just looked at each tradition and she was scared. As soon as the quake started, my wife jumped up and she walked out the door and then I stayed in the house a

00:09:41.650 - 00:10:05.000

little longer. Our smallest baby was sleeping then on the bed at the time it happened. And then so I finally myself got up. Yeah, I walked out. He just stands still in front of our house there. Nobody said a word. I was getting ready for steam.

00:10:05.000 - 00:10:25.430

But I will try to, I told him off next door neighbors when the earthquake started. Yeah. Then I ran down the house to see my wife and kids. By the time I got down the house, they were coming out of the house crying. Then it got

00:10:25.440 - 00:10:50.710

worse and worse and we went outdoors, stood out on the porch and watch two and then just in the middle of the quake, they kind of glanced out in the water. Then I noticed there starting to world, I don't really know how how it looked, but

00:10:50.720 - 00:11:16.620

I noticed there was something going on down the water. Mm hmm. We started back to the village where the rest of the people in the graveyard there. I noticed he was already starting to break the water. It's already coming in and I knew there was something

00:11:17.440 - 00:11:40.560

starting to happen and I thought of tidal waves and I I wasn't sure of myself, he said the title, he was coming and we started up the hill looking over towards the village here and then we've seen those big waves coming in, watch a little morning,

00:11:41.750 - 00:12:04.460

two boats ready to be busted together rocks. Then later on I looked out over here and see some houses drifting off the waves were taken out of here. And so I took her and said, let's go to higher ground. And I told my wife you might

00:12:04.460 - 00:12:28.670

as well start growing up. The next one might be bigger By the time we're 50 ft away from the House World we're living, we've seen the house going down and I told my wife, I just keep going. But I still then I think to myself it

00:12:28.680 - 00:12:49.500

couldn't be one way went dark and we made it up the other one halfway. And he said Davis was up there. Some people were up there. He told us to go up there by lake. He kept on going. There was something happening behind us. But I

00:12:49.500 - 00:13:06.500

didn't dare look back. Next time I looked back I seen the church going down and I told my wife, I said, there's no use. We must focus. Just started growing up. I was hanging on to both of the boys. I knew there was something catching up

00:13:06.500 - 00:13:30.320

with us behind you. I didn't, I didn't see the wave, only part machine. It went down and that boy was caught in there every time It was about 30 ft away from us. So we were drifting back and I told them boys, we're going to get

00:13:30.320 - 00:13:51.890

into water water now. And I told him get lost. You can't do anything. I heard there was quite a few people that didn't make it. They went out with the tidal wave, some of them still in their homes. This far enough. We'll be safe here. No,

00:13:51.890 - 00:14:13.990

I said, no, we might as well just go. We could see where we're at. The first thing I knew my older boy there got hold of something. I knew it was appalled and I myself got ahold of it and hang on for I don't know how

00:14:13.990 - 00:14:41.600

long then. First thing I knew I, the water was up to my waist here. We got up the hill. It's just 2 3 of us knew the water was running out again, but I really don't remember how it works. How did it work? What happened pretty

00:14:41.600 - 00:14:58.510

soon. I've seen a few of them from all directions coming towards us. The first thing I knew after that we were on a dry ground again. I told my boys run run again. Up to hire you had for the higher ground at least up to the

00:14:58.510 - 00:15:22.760

hill there. He just kept running. What the hell? I thought I was up and safer ground. By then when I heard scream, somebody screaming. It sounds like little girl. I looked back. It was one of my little girls. He was caught on one of them a

00:15:22.760 - 00:15:45.870

little bit behind behind here. And then so I took a chance. I run back for I made made it to her and I got hold of her arm and I as fast as I can make it. I tried for the higher ground again, dragging her half

00:15:45.870 - 00:16:07.400

dragging her. Mm hmm. And then she wasn't. He was all the weapons. He was so scared he couldn't. And he never looked back after that. I didn't know where the rest of the people were. And finally, mm hmm caught up to him by the tree there.

00:16:07.400 - 00:16:36.730

Under the tree. Nice. All right calling. And who who's there where you're at? So here's my wife and our youngest baby. You're just lucky school teachers. The school didn't go down well. If we'd be all kids would be pretty cold. We got milk from school blankets.

00:16:39.440 - 00:17:09.460

Gas. Right? Radio. We decided to stay in school. And then after that there was pretty good tremors right after we got in school again, the women were pretty well shaken up. They couldn't stand another Trimmer like that. There were two or 3 of them after that.

00:17:10.840 - 00:17:26.400

So they decided to go grow up in a hill and spend the night up in the hill. No, I don't think anybody slept that night. Most of whom were all sitting up around the fire. There was some food for the Children, but I don't think any

00:17:26.410 - 00:17:57.980

growing upset because they wanted the Children to eat about this time, one of the fellas walked in and said that he just received a report over the marine radio that the village of Chenega had been devastated at the same time. We I heard that help was

00:17:57.980 - 00:18:21.240

on the way to Chandigarh and we were no longer concerned with the survivors. In Geneva and I sat up in the hill and sat down all night. There was a fire. But that didn't help too much. We shouldn't have to wait a wait. We thought maybe

00:18:21.240 - 00:18:50.830

a plane might come that everybody's listening all the next day. Right trying to come and the Coast Guard plane came. Sure we're all in one and it took off and we were all still happy to see because it never did come back. The village was so

00:18:51.060 - 00:19:06.240

totally washed away that saturday morning after the quake. When the Coast Guard airplane flew over to do the survey, the pilot who had never been to show *** before flew over and he saw the nice white school with the red roof high on the bluff and

00:19:06.240 - 00:19:28.550

he radioed back that there was no damage at a ***. There was no wreckage *** with this attitude radio all night. What was going on? By that time we've seen Mark Pet coming across from my CB and I guess everybody felt good to see boats coming

00:19:28.550 - 00:19:47.480

in. Early next morning, I received a call relayed from one of the boats in Canada for help with the help that had been on the way of teaching me had not arrived. When we sent an airplane, we found that the community of Cordova had been spared.

00:19:47.840 - 00:20:04.130

We had all of our electricity. We had a hospital intact. We had the only fuel immediately available in all of Prince William's town. We found that we were perhaps in the best situation to assist in the evacuation of the other communities where Civil Air Patrol people

00:20:04.130 - 00:20:23.050

flew me from Anchorage some 95 miles across the Prince William Sound into the Cordova. I arrived in the vicinity of night island, which is just north of the island from my position over this island that was approximately 300 ft. I could see that the tidal wave

00:20:23.050 - 00:20:41.800

and the resulting wash out of the water had done a lot more damage than I had imagined. There was an area of approximately 30 to 40 square miles covered with debris of very small caliber boards, pieces of boxes, furniture and everything of course, intermingled amongst this

00:20:41.800 - 00:21:02.450

was numerous sea fish. The fish that you would ordinarily find that 300-500-foot depths. As I approached the village of Chenega, I could see that when they said that it was devastated, that it was truly devastated. There was nothing left of the village itself way up on

00:21:02.450 - 00:21:21.030

the higher ground, of course was the Bureau of Indian Affairs School. We have heard the acquittal airline coming in and everybody just jumped up all start coming down and we started down the hill. When we got down to down to the village, there was no houses

00:21:21.040 - 00:21:35.300

at all. After I landed, I taxied up onto the beach and one of the things I did notice was that there was an exceptionally low tide or that there was an awful lot of land showing that hadn't been showing me for everything of course was completely

00:21:35.300 - 00:21:51.460

different where the doc had been, there was nothing but a stub piling cleaned off right at the sand mark and beside the dock was where I had always pulled the winding up on the beach. So I turned the aircraft around and shut the engines down. It

00:21:51.460 - 00:22:09.460

was the morning after the earthquake that we learned of the seriousness of the damage to the village of Chenega. We learned from Jim Osborne Corona Airlines pilot that many of the villagers had been killed in the tidal wave that followed the earthquake. Must have been two

00:22:09.460 - 00:22:24.200

or 3 minutes before a couple of the natives walked down to the beach. I asked them if they needed medical attention. They said that they had two women who were injured. So I said we would load them up and take the pregnant women and small babies

00:22:24.200 - 00:22:40.960

and these two wounded women on the first trip, what can you say to somebody who's lost their mother and their brother and their Children? You could tell from the looks on their faces that they had been through hell. And of course returning to Cordova but Maybe

00:22:40.970 - 00:22:53.350

5 10 minutes out of Geneva, the one girl that was sitting next to me, quite a young girl that started to cry. This is the first sign of emotion I've seen since I write in Geneva, I didn't know them, but she had lost two small Children

00:22:53.350 - 00:23:12.220

in the flood. Then we went into Cordova. When we first got into Cordova, we stayed at my sister in law and then later in the day we moved into christian center on the Wednesday of that week. Mr Francis stevens of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and

00:23:12.230 - 00:23:29.110

Pete action from the Red Cross arrived in Cordova and took over the operation. At that point, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was concerned that the people would be kept as a group and that they would make their own decisions. We didn't want them to be stampeded

00:23:29.110 - 00:23:47.670

into doing something that they would be sorry for after the emotion of the disaster wore off. And the main thing that we emphasized throughout the early context was that the group keep thinking for themselves. We came here to the social hall in the baptist church to

00:23:47.670 - 00:24:03.810

find the survivors of the *** had been gathered together here in the social hall. The 54 people that survived the ordeal of a tidal wave that wiped out their village, the women were sitting around in the kitchen, the men were sitting on the bed holding the

00:24:03.810 - 00:24:20.290

Children in their laps and holding on to those who had survived. And going into the kitchen, across the hall from this social room, the women who were cooking the meals for the village had been preparing soup and sandwiches for the three days that they had been

00:24:20.290 - 00:24:37.160

here and I realized that this was merely existing not living. So I challenged the women, I asked the women who were in the kitchen, what's the matter? Don't the women of Canada know how to cook? And this is a sore point with all women. When you

00:24:37.170 - 00:24:50.960

question their pride of cooking and sure enough, they did take an interest. I said, I bet the women of Canada don't know how to make a meatloaf. And we did get them to kind of perk up and take an interest in what they were doing and

00:24:50.960 - 00:25:14.260

start thinking about tomorrow instead of just sitting looking at one another. There were times that it was extremely difficult to work with the people, particularly. Each time a body was recovered, the planning would all be held back and the matter of the burial would have to

00:25:14.270 - 00:25:36.890

be taken care of. We first, I figured that we had problems both post office wise and mortuary wise on this good friday earthquake when Jim Osborne called the house and said, be ready for anything. The first of the recoveries was a very dear old friend of

00:25:36.890 - 00:25:59.800

mine, the matriarch of the village and of alas off who was recovered within hours after the quake occurred at the same time, they recovered the body of a youngster Tommy selling off, mm hmm. It was about two or 3 years old. Thank you. One of the

00:25:59.800 - 00:26:18.470

most shaking things I've witnessed is those people, all of whom had lost some member of their family and some instances 90% of a large family would be wiped out. But still the survivors would be out there fighting the snow. I hacking their way through the frozen

00:26:18.470 - 00:26:29.950

musk egg trying to get a grave open and one day I was in the church and the chief of the village came in to me and said, pete, can we get some more gloves? And I said, sure, charlie, what's it for? And he said, it's for

00:26:29.950 - 00:26:47.140

the grave diggers, charlie explained to me that the Alaskan native indian has a tradition that the nearest person to the deceased should dig the grave for them. And arriving on the the graveyard is hill with the wind blowing across and just blowing the snow across the

00:26:47.150 - 00:27:08.680

top of the hill to see these men up in this graveyard, and this man with pick, trying to dig in his frozen hard ground with snow whistling around him and to realize that this man was trying to dig a grave for his wife. And the real

00:27:08.680 - 00:27:22.830

meaning of Red Cross came to me and then I realized that I couldn't do this for him. And Red Cross couldn't do it for him. But this was something that he had to do for himself and all we could do was to provide him warm gloves

00:27:22.830 - 00:27:39.380

that might make his job a little less miserable understanding and sympathy to be there and to help him to help himself. So that in this setting, we had to try to get people thinking about the future. And we did this by getting them to sit down

00:27:39.380 - 00:27:50.820

and say that they had to make some decisions as to what they were going to do that Red Cross would help them. The Bureau of Indian Affairs would help them. But they had to decide what they were going to do. Mr stevens and I talked to

00:27:50.820 - 00:28:08.820

the chief of the village chief, charlie selling off who had suffered considerable loss himself to try and find out what had happened, what was happening and what he wanted us to do. He indicated that the people had not been back to the site of the old

00:28:08.820 - 00:29:17.460

village of Chenega and I had indicated that we might have an opportunity to get an airplane to go back over there. Mhm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mhm. Okay. Mhm, mm hmm. Yeah, mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah,

00:29:21.390 - 00:31:02.440

mm hmm. Mhm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mhm, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mhm, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Okay. Mhm, mm hmm. Mhm. Mhm, mm hmm. Yeah, mm hmm. Okay. Yeah,

00:31:03.040 - 00:31:38.070

mm hmm. Okay. Yeah. Mhm, mm hmm. Coming into the harbor at *** High on this bluff. Is this nice bright white school and there was a certain quiet beauty about it. It really didn't look like the scene of a tragedy

00:31:38.070 - 00:31:54.850

because there wasn't wreckage around where there wasn't people crying or wailing. It was, it was a quiet thing. But when the plane taxied out of the water onto the beach, you felt the impact because you begin to see things like canned food washed down along the

00:31:54.860 - 00:32:17.020

beach, A little girl's shoe washed up against the break water and a man's shirt washed up in the trees along the edge of where the village had been broken chair here, sewing machine had washed down from what had been somebody's home. It was quiet as we

00:32:17.030 - 00:32:55.710

walked up on the beach from the airplane and to see kate and charlie selling off walking around. I don't think they were consciously looking for their daughter. Perhaps they were as they walked around looking under timbers and looking behind rocks and boulders. Mm

00:32:55.710 - 00:33:28.190

hmm. Maybe that maybe that was it. Mhm. To see an Jackson who herself had not suffered an actual loss of loved ones. Finding lee the tapestries of the Russian Orthodox Church, some of those tapestries that have been washed up under the the roots of the trees

00:33:28.190 - 00:33:46.570

and under the rocks and searching out these tapestries and and saving them, putting them all over her arm and walking back occasionally stopping to wipe a tear out of her. I this was the effect on a woman who herself had been fortunate. One of the few

00:33:46.570 - 00:34:18.620

in Geneva who had not lost a loved one. See the few houses that were left up on some of the isolated peninsulas to see them toppled. And to see that there were still pans on the stove to see food out on the sink and there were

00:34:18.620 - 00:34:47.210

still beds, uh with blankets on them slightly ruffled from the previous night's sleep. Okay? We knew that there were 23 people who we're not found after the tidal wave. And he had to kind of look for them. And yet you were terrified that you might find

00:34:47.210 - 00:35:16.970

these bodies and you had to keep searching. There was a compulsion to keep searching. They hoped that you would find someone who had been perhaps trapped but we're still alive. But the knowledge that, you know, if you found someone they would probably be dead. Mhm. Mhm.

00:35:19.740 - 00:37:08.910

Mhm. Mhm mm hmm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm wow, mm hmm. Mhm Yeah. Mhm mm hmm. Mhm mm hmm, mm hmm, mm

00:37:09.080 - 00:38:45.540

hmm. Open up. Mhm, mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. What?

00:38:50.220 - 00:39:27.680

Mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm, mm hmm. On the plane back to Cordova. I realized how badly in shock these people were. How great was their loss. How desperate was the situation could realize why these people couldn't function or make decisions or act

00:39:27.680 - 00:39:47.760

on their own. I realized that something had to be done immediately. No one seemed to have any idea of what they wanted to do they did. However, feel that they could not go back to the site of the Chenega village. So we sat down with the

00:39:47.770 - 00:40:08.030

people of the village to explain to them what Red Cross could do. Well two days later we started having meetings and decided what to do. So the people of Senegal decided to stay together as best as we can do. The reason why we didn't move back

00:40:08.030 - 00:40:29.490

to the *** is we are the women didn't like to go back here. I didn't want to go back there right away. So we had a meeting and decided where to still. There are new homes, village council met in this room and decided they would not

00:40:29.500 - 00:40:52.570

go back to you ***. They considered a number of possibilities. And finally, by council action decided that as a group, they would establish a new village in a new site. Chief of the village of which is a village about 60 miles away from Cordova. Came into

00:40:52.570 - 00:41:13.750

the church to invite the villagers of *** to move in with them. So we went up to see if if it was in fact a good place to start building the new village of Chenega because the people of Canada didn't want to just move into another

00:41:13.750 - 00:41:37.110

village and lose their identity and lose their village council. Right, mm hmm. We're very pleased to find that upon arriving that there was a flat land area adjoining the village of public in which we felt that the new village of Chenega could be built. That Hitler

00:41:37.150 - 00:41:53.990

did have a brand new two room schoolhouse that would be adequate to serve the Children of two Tillich and the Children of the *** so that it looked like this was the place that the new village of Chenega would be built. There were a number of

00:41:53.990 - 00:42:12.750

times that we took members of the council to the new Chenega village site and had them on the site for the purpose of discussing how the move would be made and what it was they expected in the way of planning for housing and community facilities in

00:42:12.750 - 00:42:31.310

the new site that we found that the date Department of Public Health would assist in the new village of building a sewage system and water system so that both the new village of Chenega and the old village of Tiktaalik would gain a certain advantage of upgrading

00:42:31.310 - 00:42:51.360

their their way of life. Time was important. The fishing season was about to start and we wanted to have these people back to work so they could be moving and helping themselves rather than sitting around glassy eyed, worried and concerned about the past. Yeah. And talking

00:42:51.360 - 00:43:09.210

to them in the case work study, I found that these people make their living by fishing hunting seals. And I recognized that under red crosses policy of replacing the tools of trade of a family craftsman, if there's a flood and a tailor's washed out, that red

00:43:09.210 - 00:43:24.250

cross will give him a new sewing machine so he can get back to work. And I realized that as unusual as it was the tools of trade for these people, we're a rifle and a and a skiff and an outboard motor because this is their only

00:43:24.250 - 00:43:41.860

means of transportation is the only means of earning a living as they hunt seal. And they sell the seal skin. And they use the seals for food and the fishing season was about ready to start and they use their boats for fishing. So we went to

00:43:41.860 - 00:43:58.980

the boatyard in Cordova contacted the boat builder and while he had already received orders for people who wanted to buy boats because their boats have been damaged in this tidal wave earthquake, the boat builder said that the people of Tunisia would get first priority and all

00:43:58.980 - 00:44:23.170

the others would have to wait until we were able to get the boats for the fishermen of Geneva. So they started building the skiffs for the Canadian people. There was some question is how those gifts would be given to the people as to who would get

00:44:23.180 - 00:44:42.870

the first one. We drew straws and the men in the act of drawing the straws to see who would get the boat. And in this act of starting to do something about the future begin to see a light and an interest. Then I talked to them

00:44:42.870 - 00:44:56.890

about rifles and most of these men had lost three or four rifles. And I had to explain to them that Red cross did not replace on the basis of loss that we would give each head of a household rifle so he could get back to his

00:44:56.890 - 00:45:11.950

ceiling and hunting. There was a real soul searching of the men as they we sit down and talk with them about which gun they wanted to order. But the real breakthrough and an attitude and the breakthrough in outlook on life came was when the rifles came

00:45:11.960 - 00:45:25.660

in and you have to realize that these men grew up with a rifle in their hand from small boys and this way they make their living. And when I was able to give out their new rifles and when that man put that rifle up to his

00:45:25.660 - 00:45:39.610

shoulder and he cited down the sights, you could almost see a new new look in his eye as as he was looking into the future and there was going to be a tomorrow. He was going to go back to his way of making a living of

00:45:39.610 - 00:46:02.850

providing for his family. I felt that we made a major breakthrough in that now we had the men as well as the women thinking and talking about tomorrow. Yeah. You want to get a little light. A lot of that. Going up to the village site of

00:46:03.050 - 00:46:20.620

Affliction *** discovered that the tent city was really quite well built with wooden floors and wooden walls and that the stoves have been put in and the dying sets and the beds were all in use and they sit down and talk to the people and see

00:46:20.620 - 00:46:39.610

that they had come so far in a special school program. It was set up for the summer and the interest and excitement they showed when they were told that the summer school would not be just reading, writing and arithmetic, but there would be games, music and

00:46:39.610 - 00:46:57.830

singing. The kids reacted and responded with an enthusiasm that just makes you hope they'll continue to go to school and get the background so they can take over and do some of the things that are being done for them. Now, the attitude of the people right

00:46:57.840 - 00:47:17.380

now is fairly optimistic. They still have their memories. They still have the pain of losing their families and friends, but they seem to be ready to go ahead and build a new community and continue to build their lives right. As a volunteer called to go to

00:47:17.380 - 00:47:32.220

a disaster. Our first job was to try to find out where the areas were, get them the supplies, where they'd be medical supplies or blankets or food, find out what the problems were and to get people into the areas of need and then finding of this

00:47:32.220 - 00:47:53.250

little village that was totally wiped out, Flying into the area of Cordova and helping these people to help themselves to find a new life, to help them through the tragic experience of burying the dead that had been discovered The four out of 23 to help them

00:47:53.250 - 00:48:08.630

in finding a new village, a new place to build a new home and helping them to get the tools of their trade a boat and the kicker and a rifle and close. I'm starting to think about the future. I realized that I was very fortunate to

00:48:08.630 - 00:48:46.040

have this opportunity to serve on behalf of Red Cross and the people of the United States who give this help through Red Cross. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. All right. After days of waiting, I saw that mr Bill come around the point

00:48:46.040 - 00:49:24.840

of land. I watched it steam up the day I realized it was reality the people of an eagle would have home warm and dry by snowfall. The Red Cross has done all it could be done. Mm

00:49:24.840 - 00:51:54.330

hmm, mm hmm. Right. Yeah, mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Okay. Mhm, mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah, mm hmm. What can you say to a man who's lost his

00:51:54.340 - 00:52:16.200

daughter? What can you say to a father whose baby is drowned in freezing water? What do you do when everything is wiped away past, present? Any hope of the future, no matter how terrible loss the man will rebuild his life, if he thinks there's hope, he

00:52:16.200 - 00:53:44.570

thinks there's a future when tragedy takes everything away, Red Cross gives the future back. Okay. Okay. Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Mhm, mm hmm. Mhm. Mhm