Anchorage earthquake was terrifying, but damage could have been much worse
ANCHORAGE — The magnitude 7 earthquake that jolted Anchorage on Friday cracked buildings, damaged roads and buckled bridges, drawing swift comparisons to a temblor in 1964 that devastated the region and remains a dominant part of Alaskan history.
But on Saturday, even amid hundreds of aftershocks, residents of this port city marveled that the damage had not been much worse. The Anchorage Fire Department responded to four structure fires as a result of the quake, according to City Hall, and two reports of structure collapse are being investigated. No deaths have been reported.
It could have turned out very differently, and many thought it would.
Experts said that while the quake was significantly less intense than the one in 1964, which was magnitude 9.2, its limited destruction was the result of the region’s growing smarter and much more resilient in the years since. Anchorage was much better prepared for a major shake, and other cities may not have fared so well.
The 1964 quake and the tsunami that followed killed more than 100 people, destroyed scores of homes and wiped out several small towns along the coast. It is the most powerful seismic event in the country’s history and the second-most powerful recorded globally.
“We have come a long way since the 1964 earthquake,” said Joey Yang, the chair of the civil engineering program at the University of Alaska. “Anchorage definitely knows about the power and damage a major earthquake can cause to the infrastructure and buildings.”
Developers must undergo rigorous requirements before building here, he added, particularly in some of the most seismically sensitive areas. Professor Yang is part of an earthquake commission that advises city leaders, whom he credited with taking the building review process seriously.
Although the extent of the damage is still being assessed, building by building and road by road, the city on Saturday had already begun to return to normal as shopkeepers and families cleaned up the mess, grateful to have evaded catastrophe.
This is not to say it was all smooth sailing. Pictures of sunken streets circulated widely on social media. Suburban commuters were stranded on Friday because of damage to major roadways. Power failures continued well into Friday evening. Some people were left without shelter in belowfreezing temperatures as their properties were inspected for structural damage. And significant aftershocks overnight made for restless sleep.
The earthquake was among the strongest that longtime residents have experienced, so intense that it frightened even hardened Alaskans who know seismic activity is a fact of life here along Cook Inlet. When it struck a few miles north of Anchorage on Friday morning, panicked Alaskans around the city ducked for cover or ran outside into the chill.
“The whole house was shaking, you could see the floor rolling up and down,” Anders Olmstead said. “Different rooms in my house were going in different angles. I was pretty scared. I’ve lived here my whole life. We kind of laugh off earthquakes in Alaska because you’ve been through so many, hundreds — some of them you sleep through.”
Mr. Olmstead, 32, said the earthquake had knocked over his toddler daughter. He grabbed her and sheltered in place with her. He said he could hear the “joints of his house snapping” and things falling all around him.
His house ended up being fine, he said. “We got very lucky.”
The city’s main utilities were all up and running on Saturday, said Bill Falsey, the Anchorage municipal manager. But Mr. Falsey warned that repair work to the Glenn Highway, a major thruway in the region, could take a long time to complete.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz of Anchorage told city residents on Saturday morning that “we’re in full recovery mode” and “on the road to returning to normal.”
Many businesses downtown remained closed, some marked with caution tape, awaiting safety inspectors to assess any structural damage. But in many shops, store managers were already taking stock of inventory. Families were cleaning up their homes, and building owners were meeting with engineers. Schools, according to officials, would remain closed until Tuesday.
Still the shock had not quite warn off. Throughout the day, at coffee shops, at gas stations and on Facebook, residents continued to swap stories of confusion and alarm.
Maddi Cassel, 21, was at her office near Midtown Anchorage on Friday morning when she noticed the shaking. She thought it would be over soon, so she continued working. But the shaking continued and grew in intensity as she was typing.
Colleagues around her were exchanging worried glances and several of them ran outside.
When they returned to the office, Ms. Cassel surveyed the damage. “Things were thrown off the shelves and walls and there was glass broken. Ceiling tiles had fallen out of the ceiling and there was dust from inside there,” she said.
“But somehow my coffee was completely unspilled though, which was cool.”