Sixty years ago, in the middle of the night on March 27, 1964, Port Alberni was hit with a tidal wave—what we now call a tsunami. It was Good Friday, and most people were asleep.
The wave—actually a series of three waves—were a result of an earthquake off the coast of Alaska that measured 8.5 on the Richter scale.
The water funneled up the Alberni Inlet from the west coast, gathering speed as the inlet or canal narrowed and spilling over the shoreline.
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