Seward daily gateway., 1924-02-23

On October 12, terrific wind an rain storm joined forces with one C the highest tides of the year an swept the heavy seas over the protec ing reefs and sand spits and into an over the lower portions of the pres ent town of Kanatak Nearly all tn buildings on the south side of Firs avenue were moved across tn- oal The Pullman and Rus .ho~'s stor ~"re the prominent ones 1amainine All boats including rhe Li;er"ge Go, ahd .Assocated On Cos la,s~ scow landed across First av..:.lC Abou thirty buildings of vtriors {: ,es anc ':escriI lions were movci *ro n the. fIa''"tions at distanC ,s vaiy;..s iron 8 few feet to almost quarter of q mile fer the Ocean Vi,v which land. ing up hanatak creek Many of ,hese structures were cabins, etc. of a tenn. porary character, were empty and va cated at the time and none were ser iously damaged except two which were completely demolished.
 The important buildings have now been replaced upon foundations but many of the owners of the cabins, etc are not in Kanatak and these will position until spring. The scows and boats are now back to the creek. The Literage Company did the moving.
 Chas. Madsen, sustained the great est individual loss He estimates that the damage to his stock and the re- pairs to his building will be under s4,000. With but few exceptions the cost of replacing the buildings in their former positions will cover most of the damages. The total loss should be under s1O000.
 The reports available here indicate that this storm and high tide was prevalent along the peninsula, and caused more Or less damage along the coast Hence this flood does not re- fleet upon the available ability of Ka- natak as a townsite No visible signs of such high water as drift wood, etc. exist in this vicinity nor have the oldest natives ever remembered see ing the tides at this elevation. True this may come again tomorrow, per haps in & decade and most likely neV- CT again. There is higher ground a. yaiIabIe for a townsite which will be used when Kanatak expands but the local people who suffered the heavy losses are standing by their present locations.
 Some say that this was an Act oI Providence which could not be avoid ed but Ruth Kolmacoff, chief of the Kanatak natives, says, White man drink whiskey, no go church, stay UT all night. Water come, take houses away. Native go church all time. Wa ter come, no touch native houses"
 On October boats: c. E. Hopkins field manager for the Alaska Oil x Development Co.,, arrived in Kanatak He left on the Starr with Jack Mas on, president of the company rms company holds group of claims lo cated near the lower end of Wloe Bay, MT. Sterling, superintendent fol the Alaska Road Commission, review cd the noad constructed out of Kanat ak this summer.
 On the November boats: MT. Woo ten. driller, arrived to replace Walter Edkins, driller, who left several weeks ago. c. Kinsar, tooldresser, and A Iindberg, tractor driver, left for the States.
 The weather was very mild at Kan atak until about the first of Decem Der. As a rule the temperatures were above freezing during the day time while the ground seldom froze harc enough to support the weight Of horse during the night. The snow line varied but the average remained a a probable elevation of 500 on thf east slopes and 400 on the west. Al the streams were open, even Sunni lake at an elevation of 800 feet ha( never frozen.
 But about the first of December tn change came. The winds came iron ont of the north and northwest bring ing below zero weather with then driving the drifting snow before ther and blowing as only they knew hoy on the Alaskan peninsula. The the1 mometer ran down to 12 below at Kt natak, while 21 below was reported a the drill camps. In about ten day the storm broke and milder tempe atures prevailed. This was the lont est period of uninterrupted, sever blizzard weather that the present re- tdents has seen here.
 During the progress of the storn the office building belonging to tn Laterage company was demolishe