Southeast residents who have been living through the rainfall and mudslide deluge of this past weekend may remember the historic Thanksgiving Day storm of Nov. 22, 1984. That was when one of the highest tides of the year coincided with a massive low pressure system that arrived from Sakalin Island area in Eastern Siberia. The storm ended up causing millions of dollars in damage and at least some homeowners found their houses washed into the ocean.
The tide was expected to reach 20.3 feet in Juneau, but the surging waves from the wind added another 2-3 feet of water along the shore. Waves in Lynn Canal were up to 10 feet high. In downtown Juneau, the Federal Building logged gusts at 90 miles per hour, and in Gastineau Channel, the winds exceeded 100 miles per hour. Parts of Marine Park’s underpinnings were washed out in downtown Juneau and mudslides blocked Thane Road.
The wind flipped smaller aircraft at the airport, and boats sank on their moors in the harbors. Dozens of homes were without power as trees toppled over power lines, and waves crashed over Egan Drive.
Taking the brunt of it, however, was Tenakee Springs. About 20 homes were destroyed during that storm, and property damage was in the tens of thousands in Gustavus, the homesteading gateway to Glacier Bay National Park.
Whether it had anything to do with a total solar eclipse that occurred the same day is not known, but the eclipse’s total darkness was seen in the Southern Pacific Ocean, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.
A Thanksgiving Day storm of epic proportions also struck Florida the same day that year, grounding a freighter and causing significant coastal erosion on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.
Years earlier, it was Nov. 28, 1968, when a southerly gale struck Ketchikan on Thanksgiving Day, and although it was a usual fall storm with hurricane force winds, this one did significant damage to the First City homes and infrastructure, and delayed a number of Thanksgiving Day meals. There was nothing unusual about the position of the moon or sun on that day.
[Read about the Ketchikan Thanksgiving Day Storm of 1968 at SitNews.com]
Do you have memories of the 1984 Thanksgiving Day Storm or the 1968 Thanksgiving Day Storm? Share them in the comment section.
