Monster tsunami hits nearby town lake." April Fool's joke? Likely. "Titan Tidal Wave Hits Chicago." Joke, correct? No. This was the feature of the evening release of the Chicago Daily News on June 26, 1954.
I went out in my beat-up Chevy at around 9:00 a.m. on a warm Saturday morning in June 1954 and drove uptown to Lake Michigan's Montrose Beach and harbor to meet my dad and a few companions at the Wilson Rocks Bait Shop where he hung out with his kindred anglers. We were going to do some Perch fishing......which is a chewy white meat angle that is an essence of Heaven when pan fried and presented with, lemon, tartar sauce and accordion fries. Getting prepared for my last year in secondary school, I had been working a hard development work and needed some sun and unwinding. Roost were the answer this Saturday morning, yet I would soon discover something truly different......something that I would always remember.
As I maneuvered into the stopping territory, I recognized it was brimming with water in spite of it being a brilliant sunny day. The Lake was bizarrely wild. I likewise perceived individuals running toward the wharf. There was a feeling of something intense and terrible going on and promptly and naturally I set out toward the draw shop to interface with my dad. He saw me advancing and said "we should go to the dock, they need help down there," and we took off at full speed alongside numerous others. A Seiche (affirmed saysh) had struck Montrose Harbor without notice on this June morning. It was 8 feet high and 25 miles wide and hit Chicago's whole lakefront......from Michigan City, Indiana toward the North Shore. Eight individuals were murdered, the vast majority of whom were angling in that spot in Montrose Harbor where around 15 or 20 anglers were cleared off the restricted, 175-foot solid wharf. Also, we knew large portions of them.
When we arrived, bathers and anglers were running for spread. Men, ladies and youngsters rushed and fell. Yachts weaved broadly in the water. The wave at a few focuses had surged 150 feet inshore before dying down in almost no time which clarified why I saw such a great amount of water as I maneuvered into the parking garage. There were salvages, frenzy, hopelessness, and close calls. Sadly, we were past the point where it is possible to be of any genuine help and after that remained by vulnerably as the salvage groups started the troubling occupation of pulling every body from the lake. Evidently, anglers who had been lying on their stomachs, without moving controlling lines in the water, were just cleared off the dock as the water swelled up and washed over them. Anglers on the North Avenue wharf, a few miles toward the South, were likewise cleared into the lake, and the same dismal work was being done there. Among those heaved into the water was Ted Stempinski, who had been angling with his child Ralph, 16. Ralph left the scene for a minute right away before the wave struck. When he gave back his dad was gone. The same thing happened with John Jaworski who likewise was angling with his child. Those unfortunate certainties barely ran unnoticed and stayed with me for quite a while after.
News of the approaching wave was spread rapidly by park police who cleared anglers from a wharf at 61th St. In Jackson Park minutes before the water submerged that region. At Loyola Beach just North the waves broke over a 9-foot seawall. All the docks at the Belmont Harbor yacht bowl were overflowed when the wave raised the water level there around 6 feet.
Spanish Woman vs Tide Waves by Espnstaar
Title :
Spanish Woman vs Tide Waves
Description : Monster tsunami hits nearby town lake." April Fool's joke? Likely. "Titan Tidal Wave Hits Chicago." Joke, correct? No. Th...
Rating :
5