Day "Tidal Wave" Heath Chicago

"A giant tidal wave hits a local urban lake." April Fool's joke? Probably. "Chicago's giant tidal wave." Joke, yes? No. It was the headline of the daily edition of the Chicago Daily News on June 26, 1954.

I left home in my battered Chevy around 9:00 am on a warm Saturday morning in June 1954 and went to downtown at Michigan's Montrose Beach and Harbor to meet my father and some friends at the Wilson Rocks Bait Shop where he hung out with my fellow fishermen. We were going to make some kind of perch ... that is chewing white meat fish, which is the taste of Heaven when it is fried and served with lemon, tartar sauce and accordion potatoes. Having prepared my last year in high school, I worked on hard construction work and needed some kind of sun and rest. Perch was the answer this Saturday morning, but soon I would discover something completely different ... something that I will never forget.

When I plunged into the parking lot, I noticed that it was full of water, despite the fact that it was a bright sunny day. The lake was unusually volatile. I also noticed that people were running to the pier. There was a feeling of something very serious and very bad, and immediately and instinctively I went to the bait shop to get in touch with my father. He saw me come and say, “Let's go to the pier, they need help there,” and we flew out at full speed along with many others. Seiche (pronounced saidsh) was stuck in Montrose Harbor without warning on this June morning. It was 8 feet high and 25 miles wide and struck all of Chicago's lake ... from Michigan City, Indiana to the North Shore. Eight people were killed, most of what was caught right in the harbor of Montrose, where about 15 or 20 fishermen were swept from a narrow 175-foot concrete pier. And we knew many of them.

When we arrived, bathers and fishermen fled behind cover. Men, women, and children lingered and fell. Yachts swayed widely in the water. The wave at some points rushed 150 feet to the side before leaving a few minutes later, which explains why I saw as much water as I slipped into the parking lot. There were rescue, panic, despair and narrow shoots. Unfortunately, we were late to provide any real help, and then helplessly get up when the rescue teams began the dismal work of pulling each body out of the lake. Apparently, the fisherman who was lying on his stomach, idly guiding the lines in the water, was simply swept away from the pier when the water was swollen and washed over them. Fishermen on the North Avenue pier, a few miles to the south, were also covered in the lake, and the same dismal work was done there. Among those who rushed into the water was Ted Stempinsky, who was fishing with his son Ralph, 16. Ralph briefly left the scene shortly before the wave got stuck. When he returned, his father disappeared. The same thing happened with John Jaworski, who also fished with his son. These tragic facts seriously went unnoticed and for a long time remained with me.

News of the impending wave quickly spread to the police of the park, which cleared the fishermen from the pier on 61st Street in Jackson Park a few minutes before the water plunged into this area. On Loyola Beach, only the Northern Waves overcame a 9-foot sea wave. All the docks in the yacht's pool in Belmont Bay were flooded when the wave lifted the water level about 6 feet.

Until June 26, no one ever heard the word "Sichet". After June 26, most of us were experts on the phenomena.
In particular, "Seiche should occur in a closed reservoir, such as a lake, bay or gulf." Seiche, a French word meaning “swing back and forth,” is a standing wave that oscillates in a lake as a result of seismic or atmospheric distortion, creating tremendous fluctuations in the water level in an instant. Standing waves break back and forth between the shores of the lake basin, and many of them are often referred to as tidal changes in the Great Lakes. are the result of atmospheric disturbances and wind conditions, not seismic activity or tremendous tidal forces ”(Heidorn, 2004; Wittman 2005).

This particular Seiche, which was the most dangerous of the three species, was fueled by a strong squall line with strong winds and rapid changes in atmospheric pressure that descended to the surface of the lake and crossed southern Lake Michigan, a few hours earlier, going from northwest to southeast . It is as if you dropped a stone in the middle of a bucket of water and watched the ripples move from the center. Atmospheric pressure caused a squall, stone and ripples were seiche. Just as water hung back and forth in a bath, fast-moving squall lines with intense atmospheric pressure caused the lake to bounce back and forth, and water levels rose on the coastline and harbor to 10 feet in a few minutes and there was no warning.

Unlike the tsunami, which can travel across the open ocean at extremely high speeds, Sash moves much slower. It took 80 minutes for Seish to travel 40 miles from Michigan City to Lake Chicago on North Avenue. It was about 30 mph. Seichet hit the entire coast of Illinois with a wave from 2 to 4 feet in height, but reached a maximum height of 10 feet when he approached the pier of North Avenue.

As an obvious witness of the immediate consequences, I was stunned by how the Chicago newspapers overcame this tragedy. The Chicago Daily News, now non-existent, launched headlines that read in two-inch black captions: "GREAT TIDAL WAVE HERE!" Many swept into the lake, fear 10 killed. Mother 11 among the victims. " 3 Divers, Boats Hunt Others. and some more were wary of the lost Saturday, when a tide wave stretched 25 miles, breaking the shore of Lake Michigan. The magical wave, estimated to be 3 to 10 feet tall, got stuck around 9 am From Jackson Park in the north to Wilmett. people hit the lake. Estimates of the death toll reached 10 ... "There was no" big tidal wave "; “Was a freak and deadly Seish. Since then, there have been many fears and reports of lesser saves, but none of them caused similar damage or deaths.

It is interesting, however, that one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of Buffalo, New York, occurred at 11 pm on October 18, 1844, when a wall of water quickly flooded commercial and residential areas along the embankment. The disaster occurred without warning, breaking the 14-foot seawater and flooding the embankment. Newspaper accounts show that 78 people have drowned. This tragedy was also caused by Seiche, as long strong winds produced Seichet by pressing water on one end of Lake Erie. When the winds stopped or moved in the opposite direction, the water moved back in the direction from which it came, and Seyhedid remained. It is estimated that Buffalo has two or three seiches per year, but this threat was significantly eliminated by building a breakwater in Lake Erie, a project that began in the 1860s.

Unlike the devastating tsunamis caused by underwater earthquakes, seiches never caused much damage in the Great Lakes, and most of them go unnoticed because they are securely hidden and invisible, which leads to the fact that water levels on the beaches rise by only one step or less.

But this one was very noticeable and occurred on a calm and warm Saturday morning in Chicago. What began as a day of peaceful fishing turned out to be an experience that remained indelible in my mind and, I think, worthy of an exchange. One thing is certain, we will never experience Sichet here .......... at least I don’t think so.

“It didn’t happen like a wall ... the water just started to rise and kept going until it was 6 feet higher than usual.” Dick Keating, brigadier Belmont and an eyewitness.