The Tidal Wave: At Lord's Cove

Mary (Walsh) McKenna

Mary McKenna now lives in Halifax where I visited her. This is the first part of her story about the amazing things she saw happen during the tidal wave in 1929.

I WENT OVER TO ST. PIERRE when I was thirteen and I worked at a hotel. A woman had three children for me to take care of. I used to go back to Lord's Cove in May because my father needed my help. His name was Jim Walsh. I would work with him during the summer and I was there late in the fall when the tidal wave came in.

I was coming home from the store when I felt the earthquake. I was holding a package and my father's wallet. I was just shaking, because there was nothing to hold on to.

Your whole body shakes, especially your knees, when you're standing still. You don't know if you should move or not. It was November. The ground could have had a little frost in it, but I doubt it. And I was standing there, shaking, like everyone else.

When I got home, my father said to me, "What in the heck is going on? Everything was shaking in here."

I went to look in the pantry and there were a couple of cups down on the floor. Off every kitchen in Newfoundland, in the old houses, there's a little cupboard there with dishes in it.