The 127-acre (51 ha) facility adjacent to and south of Ted Stevens International Airport was home to the 176th Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard until that unit moved to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (in an area now known colloquially as Camp Kulis) in February 2011.

Guard members quickly converted a base warehouse into a shelter for civilians rendered homeless by the quake with a makeshift dining hall and more than 100 beds.

Kulis would reprise this role less than six years later, when the Chena River overflowed its banks, causing a devastating flood in downtown Fairbanks in August 1967.

Within five hours of the first call for assistance, the first of many C-123 Provider flights began ferrying disaster relief supplies to Fairbanks, and evacuating area residents to Anchorage.

Evacuees received food, shelter and medical attention at Kulis; others were housed at the Alaska National Guard's Camp Carroll, on Fort Richardson.