California Tsunami Victims Recall 1964's Killer Waves National
Geographic News |January 21, 2005| The news of the December 26
tsunami had special resonance for residents of Crescent City,
California. Their waterfront town of about 7,500 was devastated
when a tsunami swept in from the Pacific Ocean early on March
28, 1964. The business district was leveled, and 11 people were
killed. Gary Clawson is still trying to make sense of what
happened on that long-ago night. The ferocious waters spared him
but killed his parents and his fiancé. The survivors of the
Indian Ocean tsunamiwhich killed more than 225,000will endure
the same puzzled agonizing for the rest of their lives, he said.
"I've lived (the 1964 tsunami) two or three times a week since
it happened," Clawson said from his current home in Florence,
Oregon, just up the coast from Crescent City. "You can't define
how it felt, or what you go through when you can't breathe. You
have to live that experience to know what it's like." Clawson
said he would never