Severe earthquake shakes Alaska
Magnitude-7.0 temblor splits roads; thousands without power
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Chris Riekena was driving with his 7-year-old son when the road beneath their car began to shake.
Riekena, an engineer with the state Department of Transportation, thought he blew a tire, so he pulled to the shoulder. Then he saw the row of streetlights above him swaying, and he saw the red SUV in front of him sink into the road.
A severe earthquake, rated 7.0 on the moment-magnitude scale, ripped across the Anchorage area Friday at 8:29 a.m., Alaska Time. Buildings roiled, roads cracked, and thousands lost power during the morning commute. A tsunami warning was issued but lifted without incident a short time later. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries.
Dozens of aftershocks rippled across the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, including a 5.8 magnitude in the city of Anchorage.
Dramatic scenes like the one Reikena witnessed on Minnesota Drive played out across the highest populated city in Alaska.
The SUV “sank, and then it sank some more
The off-ramp he and his son were driving on had buckled into a dozen massive slabs of asphalt. The driver of the red SUV walked away unharmed, Reikena said.
Local and state officials spent the rest of the day assessing damage, the extent of which remained unclear Friday afternoon, though it included “major infrastructure damage across Anchorage,” according to the police department. Utility companies and cooperatives reported more than 50,000 customers lost power Friday, though the number of outages fell as the day went on, and electricity was restored.
Police officers were dispatched across the region to handle “multiple situations,” the department said.
Keri Scaggs and her neighbor RieAnn Fullwood snapped selfies in front of the collapsed road as a third neighbor, still in her bathrobe, waited for them in the car. Scaggs clutched a bottle of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, while Fullwood snuggled her cat. The pair fled their cabins in the Spenard neighborhood after the tsunami warning.
“I grabbed the essentials,” Scaggs said. “Birth certificate, passport and Pappy Van Winkle,” she said, cradling the whiskey bottle in the crook of her elbow.
The Federal Aviation Administration had declared a ground stop at the airport after the earthquake. At 11:30 a.m. in Anchorage, the FAA said it had begun letting flights depart from the airport, but the ground stop was kept in place for arrivals.
The National Weather Service in Anchorage briefly suspended operations on Friday morning after the tsunami warning was issued. All of the office’s duties were handed over to the Fairbanks office, and the meteorologists and staff evacuated. Operations resumed at the Anchorage office after the warning was canceled.
Anchorage's school system canceled classes and asked parents to pick up their children while it examined buildings for gas leaks or other damages.
The USGS estimates a low probability of fatalities from the earthquake.
The state averages 40,000 earthquakes a year, with more large quakes than the 49 other states combined.
Friday’s quake occurred on a fault line between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, the USGS said.
Some of the top Alaska producers, like ConocoPhillips of Houston and BP, primarily operate on the state’s North Slope — roughly 800 miles from Anchorage — so those operations were unaffected. BP said it evacuated its Anchorage office building and is assessing damage.
The Houston company Hilcorp Energy, which works in the Cook Inlet region near Anchorage, said there were no known spills or injuries to report. Hilcorp, however, said it shut down some of its drilling and production for safety.
Marathon Petroleum, which owns an oil refinery outside of Anchorage, did not immediately comment.