Interview Index

Interview Indexing

Name of Interviewee: Molly Macintosh

Name of Interviewer: Rj Roy

Date: June 7, 2013

Location: Kodiak Public Library

Length of Interview: 11:26

Background Information: Molly has been living in the state of Alaska for almost 50 years. She was residing in Anchorage with her family at the tie of the earthquake.  At the time of the earthquake, her cousins were actually living in Seward, during the quake. Molly now currently works at the Kodiak Public Library.

Questions asked:

·      What stories do you have about the earthquake? 0:11

·      How long did the earthquake go on for? 4:38

·      You didn’t experience the tsunami at all? 5:05

·      Could you please describe the damage you saw in Anchorage? 5:30

·      When did they start repairing the town after the earthquake? 7:03

·      Did you have any help, besides from the state? 8:06

·      What thoughts were going through your mind, during the earthquake? 9:06

·      Did you leave Anchorage after the earthquake? 10:15

·      Was your house damaged during the earthquake? 10:27

·       Would you like to share anything else? 10:51

·      Is there anyone else we could talk to? 11:02

Overview:

0:30 (Mother’s reaction) We had small earthquakes when we were little, so when my mom started screaming we kind of laughed at her, It just got worst and worst.  Get under the table! Two of my sisters were down stairs, so she had to wiggle her way down the stairs. Every step you took, the ground wasn’t there or it came up to meet you.  The stairs led down to cement floor (floor was rolling like waves) my sister would get knocked against the wall, she would let go, and she rode that wave back down the hall way.

2:00 No communication, finally the radio came back on, we didn’t know that Anchorage couldn’t be hurt by the tidal wave, because the inlet is so small. We heard terrible thing about our cousins in Seward.

2:26 For days we would go down to the Red Cross, to try and contact our cousins. Family in states could not be contacted.

3:06 Scary after shocks

3:32 Woken up by being thrown across room. Went on for days and days.

3:43 (Lack of resources) Told not to light fires, only parts of town had water at a time.

4:20 Immunizations, series of typhoid shots.

5: 34 Description of damage in Anchorage.

6:15 Only way to see family, go in a convoy. I was afraid of tipping over. It felt as if the whole thing was going to topple over.

6:50 (Part description of damage in Seward) A row of houses were just completely gone, the boat dock was gone too.

7:10 It was more cleanup than repair

8:10 I was too young to remember, but there were a lot of private foundations that helped our cousins in Seward.

9:08 We thought is was funny that our mom was freaking out, and then we wondered if it was ever going to stop, because it lasted like five and a half minutes. And that is a long time, and it just got worst and worst and worst.

10:19 We wanted to leave. We were just kids and we wanted to feel safe.

10:29 Our house was not damaged. That area of town was built more on gravel. Over on Turnagain, it was built more on clay. So when that shifted, a lot of it just fell into the ocean.