At Port Valdez, 32 people died, oil tankers caught fire and were swept out to sea on the tsunami, and the town itself was largely swallowed as its sand-and-gravel foundation liquefied beneath it. The Army Corps of Engineers eventually relocated the entire town 4 miles away.
Where this was said
At 14:35 · chapter starts 12:40
The earthquake itself was devastating, but it was the water that killed most people. Chuck notes that only about 15 Alaskans died from the earthquake directly — the majority of the 131 total fatalities came from the tsunamis that followed. The largest wave reached an estimated 200 feet in height, with effects felt as far south as California (killing 12 people there) and westward past Hawaii all the way to Japan [1] — Chuck "At Port Valdez, 32 people died, oil tankers caught fire and were swept out to sea on the tsunami, and the town itself was largely swallowed…" 14:35 . For the village of Chenega — home to just 68 people — there was almost no warning: a tsunami arrived just 4 minutes after the quake, killing 23 residents. The only building to survive was the schoolhouse, built on high ground 100 feet above sea level. At Port Valdez, 32 people perished as the tsunami swept the waterfront, oil tankers caught fire, and burning vessels were carried out to sea on the waves — a scene straight out of apocalyptic fiction. Soil liquefaction compounded the destruction, turning Valdez's sand-and-gravel foundation into liquid and swallowing structures whole.
The largest tsunami generated by the 1964 Alaska earthquake reached a wave height of approximately 200 feet, with its effects reaching as far south as California and westward to Japan.
The village of Chenega, home to 68 people, was struck by a tsunami just 4 minutes after the earthquake, killing 23 residents; only the schoolhouse built 100 feet above sea level survived.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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