October 26, 2021
by Nicole Misarti
The hotel fire alarm started blaring. Had our hall mates finally smoked a little too often in a non-smoking hotel?? A text pinged on my phone: “There is a tsunami warning, for #^^*&^ sake!” So much for relaxing into sleep after a long day of sorting bones in the Museum of the Aleutians and a nice evening with friends and colleagues on a warm, sun-filled Unalaskan beach!
No more details than that from our friends and colleagues who were likely doing some scrambling of their own. We didn’t feel an earthquake...how long would it take for a wave to arrive? Heart pounding, I threw on warmer clothes, grabbed a jacket, my backpack (because data and computer!) and ran out the door. I pounded on Caroline’s door. As she opened it I was already throwing my flipflops into her room as I struggled into my warm socks and boots. “It’s a tsunami warning!” I was shouting at Caroline to be heard over the alarms. Caroline looked at me for about 1 second and then exploded into action. “Water!” Caroline yelled as she threw on warmer clothing. Right- very good point. Water and some food. We grabbed both.
We ran down to the lobby. It was completely deserted! Where should we go? Wasn’t there an evacuation plan? We looked at each other. Without a word we headed outside and started toward the nearest hill. Outside, the actual tsunami siren as well as the spoken warning to get to higher ground were on endless repeat. On the move, we discussed the situation. How high should we go? How long did we have? At the moment we were at sea level. Right on the beach. We joined a growing number of cannery workers who were headed for the nearby hill we had decided on.
Our friend started texting again. Her husband was on his way to get us. What?? No! Too dangerous. Too much roadway at sea level between us and them. Plus – the bridge! The bridge between the islands. No way did we want to put her husband at risk. “Don’t worry about us…we are at least 100 feet up a steep hill and still climbing. We have food, water, and warm gear. We are fine. ”We kept climbing, passing groups of people speaking Ukrainian, Tagalog, and English. A message came back “Don’t worry – we have an hour before the wave hits. Come here, we want you!” Caroline and I turned back. We scrambled and slid back down the hill. The looks of surprise and consternation clearly visible on the faces of the people we had just passed on our way up. We would laugh about those looks later…
Where was our friend’s husband? There – we found him. Texted that we were safe in the car. We drove over the bridge – what would happen if a tsunami destroyed it? We kept thanking the husband profusely. We could see people climbing and driving to higher ground, noticed many of the smaller fishing boats already cruising out to sea. News was the quake had been big, the wave could be up to 40 feet high. Thankfully, the information quickly changed. The huge 8.2 magnitude earthquake had happened deep in the earth’s crust. We never felt it, nor any aftershocks. Having lived in Unalaska for a couple of years almost 2 decades ago — before the devastating tsunamis in Thailand and Japan — it was amazing to watch the town jump into motion. I had lived through a bunch of earthquakes out there but never had we evacuated to higher ground and no warning system was in place.
We waited out the warning in warmth and comfort on our friend’s couch, high above any potential wave. We listened to my other old friend’s voice on the radio, calmly telling everyone to stay on higher ground. Finally, we are back at the hotel. Its 1:30 am. We are tired but safe. And happy in the knowledge of good friends willing to help in a moment of potential crisis.
