Strong earthquake shakes Utah, rattles frayed virus nerves

SALT LAKE CITY » A strong earthquake struck Salt Lake City Wednesday, damaging some roads and buildings, shutting down a major air traffic hub and scaring millions of people already on edge from the coronavirus pandemic.

The 5.7-magnitude quake just after 7 a.m. showered bricks onto sidewalks, sent a chemical plume into the air outside the city and damaged a spire and statue atop the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ iconic Salt Lake Temple.

The epicenter was just southwest of Salt Lake City, between the city’s international airport and the Great Salt Lake. The temblor and its aftershocks were felt by about 2.8 million people. Most were hunkered down inside their homes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus when buildings started shaking, and many ran outside to the streets in panic.

“This is extremely bad timing, because we already have the coronavirus issue going on right now causing a lot of anxiety,” Gov. Gary Herbert said.

There were no reports of injuries in the hours immediately after the 7:09 a.m. quake, Utah Emergency Management spokesman Joe Dougherty said.

Operations at Salt Lake City International Airport came to a halt, planes were diverted and the control tower and concourses were evacuated.

Far fewer people than normal were in the airport. On a typical travel day, the airport would have had about 24,000 people inside it and more making connections. But there were just 9,000 there, said the airport’s executive director, Bill Wyatt, making an evacuation of the terminal easier.

Marsha Guertzgen of Evanston, Wyoming, was about to board a flight when the quake struck and said “pandemonium and chaos” immediately erupted in the terminal — only to be heightened by each aftershock.

“Everybody was running around, they were scared I don’t think they knew what was going on,” she said. “People were screaming, kids were screaming, people were climbing under things.”

No runway damage was found and most of the damage in the terminal appeared to be caused by a broken water line, Wyatt said. Cargo and non-commercial flights resumed late Wednesday morning, but commercial flights were delayed into the afternoon.