‘I can’t stop shaking’
Tasha DiMarzio, 39, was in her office at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Anchorage, Alaska, when the floor beneath her began to shake, making her legs feel like jelly and the adrenaline rush through her body. As the 7.0 earthquake rocked the building, DiMarzio and her co-workers ran from their second floor office, computers falling off the desks and picture frames came crashing down. DiMarzio described the terrifying ordeal to the Herald’s Kathleen McKiernan:
“I knew the second it started what it was. I didn’t panic ... until it kept going. It lasted so long. The intensity just got bigger. This one hit really different. I heard everyone running. My boss said get out of the building.
I felt more like being slammed into. It was pulses. We were standing in the door frame and heard everything falling.
Everyone grabbed their cellphones and called their children. I thought about my husband in Seward. He works at a marine research facility and the aquarium tanks were sloshing back and forth. I felt it for five to 10 seconds before we realized it was bigger than anything we’ve ever felt.
We had a lot of plants in the office. The pots shattered. The computers fell on the floor. It’s pretty bad. We work for the state, which declared an emergency. They can’t guarantee the buildings are safe.
Right now, most people are trying to get their kids from school. There is no bus service. Most people are trying to get home but there are aftershocks Everyone is trying to make it home. A few gas lines burst.
The main doors to the building don’t open and close. Sidewalks have shifted. It is the most intense earthquake I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in earth- quakes that were strong.”
DiMarzio said the aftershocks have been just as terrifying. Another one hit as she spoke.
“It makes your whole body shake. I can’t stop shaking. That was number nine since the earthquake.
This was not fun. It was scary to feel how your body reacts. Your adrenaline pumps through. This felt really crazy.
I took a GPS from work that tracks routes. I’ll be checking the status of the highways. I found four cracks in the road and sidewalk in a one-mile stretch. When an aftershock starts, the trees shake and makes the snow fall off. It’s pretty crazy — like a nature warning signal.
Three hours after the initial earthquake, we are still feeling the shaking. Your legs are jelly. It is not fun. I don’t know what is to come. This might just be the beginning.”