near the coast southeast of there, and underwater cables that supported the Alaska Communication System were cut. Lighter damage was also reported in Pelican and Sitka. It ripped limbs off trees and swept many away, decimating the shoreline's surrounding forest and leaving the high tide line barren and with few upright surviving trees except on the northern and southern edges. The megatsunami flooded the entire bay and created a damage line up to around the outline of the bay, with evidence of this damage line still visible from space to this day. Eyewitness accounts Swanson account At 22:15 hours PST on July 9, 1958, which was still daylight at that time of year, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck the Lituya Bay area. The tide was ebbing at about plus 1.5 m and the weather was clear. Anchored in a cove near the west side of the entrance of the bay, Bill and Vivian Swanson were on their boat fishing when the earthquake hit: Ulrich account When the earthquake struck, Howard G. Ulrich and his 7-year-old son were in Lituya Bay aboard their boat, the Edrie. They were anchored in a small inlet on the southern side of the bay. The two had gone out on the water at 20:00 hours PST and when the earthquake hit, the resulting rocking of his boat woke Ulrich up. He observed the wave's formation from the deck, hearing a very loud smash at the base of Lituya Bay. In his record of the wave he notes the appearance of it and how it formed: The wave made its way to his boat 2–3 minutes after he saw it and carried the Edrie down to the southern shore and then back near the center of the bay. Ulrich was able to control the boat once the main wave passed, maneuvering through subsequent waves up to 20 ft high until he could finally exit the bay. Evidence of past events Four or five megatsunamis are believed to have occurred at Lituya Bay during a 150-year period: Reports by early explorers of the loss of all trees and vegetation along the shore, and cut tree-lines. One example is the log of Jean Francois de Galaup who was the first European person to discover the bay in 1786. "At least one and possibly two waves" between 1854 and 1916, based on photographic evidence. A further