Bedford Public Library

This is Chance!, the shaking of an all-American city, a voice that held it together, Jon Mooallem

eng

Includes bibliographical references

contains biographical information

photographs

no index present

non fiction

This is Chance!

bibliography

Jon Mooallem

the shaking of an all-American city, a voice that held it together

"In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolisthe largest, proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. For four and a half minutes, the ground lurched and rolled. Streets cracked open and swallowed buildings whole. And once the shaking stopped, night fell and Anchorage went dark. The city was in disarray and sealed off from the outside world. Slowly, people switched on their transistor radios and heard a familiar womans voice explaining what had just happened and what to do next. Genie Chance was a part-time radio reporter and working mother who would play an unlikely role in the wake of the disaster, helping to put her fractured community back together. Her tireless broadcasts over the next three days would transform her into a legendary figure in Alaska and bring her fame worldwidebut only briefly. That Easter weekend in Anchorage, Genie and a cast of endearingly eccentric charactersfrom a mountaineering psychologist to the local community theater group staging Our Townwere thrown into a jumbled world they could not recognize. Together, they would make a home in it again." -- Book jacket