Bad Friday: The Great and Terrible 1964 Alaska Earthquake

When a strong shake is felt in Alaska today, a half-century later, many who lived through the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake still become tense as they count the seconds. How long will this one last? None who were there can forget the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America -- a destructive force that in some places shook the ground for five and a half minutes, wreaking death and destruction and setting off powerful tsunamis. In BAD FRIDAY, survivors share their personal stories -- the Seward family that rode out a tsunami on the roof of a house torn off its foundations and carried away ... widespread early fears that the Russians had dropped an atomic bomb ... the fright of stunned shoppers in a furniture store where chandeliers hanging by chains swung back and forth so violently they crashed into the ceiling and shattered ... the Anchorage homes carried away in a massive landslide ... and the 441-foot cargo ship in Valdez that was tossed thirty feet into the air and knocked over on its side on dry land before powerful forces righted it again back in the bay.