Seward daily gateway., 1924-02-19

On October 12, a terrific wind and rain storm joined forces with one of the highest tides of the year and swept the heavy seas over the protect ing reefs and sand spits and into and over the lower portions of the pres ent town of Kanatak. Nearly all the buildings on the south side of First avclue were moved across tin, way. n" Pullman and Rus ,iO;7'S store v'.re the prominent ones remaining. .A! boats including the Lier%ge Cos alG Assocated On Cos lats," scows lardcd across First av",:Ic About 'hIriy buildings of various !, 'es and
 'escrir ions were move i <rGn the f. n',. ,...tions at diStanC $ ya;y!..s iron q f-w feet to almost quarter of a nit. fer the Ocean vi " which land ing up nanatak creek. Many Of these 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 arc 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- 1 pairs to his building will be under s4,OOO. With but few exceptions the | cost of replacing the buildings 1n their former positions will cover most of the damages. The total loss should be under $10,000.
 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 hans in a decade and most likely neV- CT again. There is higher ground a. vailable 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 Of Providence which could not be avoid ed but Ruth Kolmacoff, chief of the Kanatak natives, says, White man drink whiskey, no go church, stay up 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. This company holds a group of claims To- cated near the lower end of Wide Bay, MT. Sterling, superintendent for the Alaska Road Commission, review ed the road 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. Lindberg, 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 hard enough to support the weight of a horse during the night. The snow line varied but the average remained at probable elevation of 500 on the east slopes and 400 on the west. All the streams were open, even Summit Lake at an elevation of 800 feet had never frozen.
 But about the first of December the change came. The winds came from out of the north and northwest bring ing below zero weather with them, driving the drifting snow before them and blowing as only they knew how on the Alaskan peninsula. The ther. mometer ran down to 12 below at Ka- natak, while 21 below was reported at the drill camps. In about ten days the storm broke and milder temper atures prevailed. This was the long est period of uninterrupted, severe blizzard weather that the present res idents has seen here.
 During the progress of the storm, the office building belonging to the Laterage company was demolished