Strong quakes buckle Alaska roads
Man who was taking a bath at the time of the quake was thrown from the tub
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Back-toback earthquakes measuring 7.0 and 5.7 rocked buildings and shattered roads Friday morning in Anchorage, sending people running into the streets and briefly triggering a warning to residents in Kodiak to flee to higher ground for fear of a tsunami.
The tsunami warning was lifted without incident a short time later. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first and more powerful quake was centred about 12 kilometres north of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, with a population of about 300,000. People ran from their offices or took cover under desks.
A large section of road near the Anchorage airport collapsed, marooning a car on a narrow island of pavement surrounded by deep chasms in the concrete.
The shaking broke store windows, opened cracks in a twostorey building downtown, disrupted electrical service and disabled traffic lights, snarling traffic. It also threw a full-grown man out of his bathtub.
All flights were halted at the airport after the quake knocked out telephones and forced the evacuation of the control tower, and the 1,300-kilometre Alaska oil pipeline was shut down while crews were sent to inspect it for damage.
Anchorage’s school system cancelled classes and asked parents to pick up their children while it examined buildings for gas leaks or other damage.
Officials opened an Anchorage convention centre as an emergency shelter. Gov. Bill Walker issued a disaster declaration.
Cereal boxes and packages of batteries littered the floor of a grocery store, and picture frames and mirrors were knocked from living room walls.
People went back inside after the first earthquake struck, but the 5.7 aftershock about five minutes later sent them running back into the streets. A series of smaller aftershocks followed.
A tsunami warning was issued for the southern Alaska coastal areas of Cook’s Inlet and part of the Kenai Peninsula. Kodiak police on Kodiak Island warned people in the city of 6,100 to “evacuate to higher ground immediately” because of “wave estimated 10 minutes.”
Michael Burgy, a senior technician with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, said the tsunami warning was automatically generated based on the quake’s size and proximity to shore. But the quake made no big waves, so the warning was cancelled.
In Kenai, southwest of Anchorage, Brandon Slaton was soaking in the bathtub when the earthquake struck. Slaton, who weighs 209 pounds, said it created a powerful back-and-forth sloshing in the bath, and before he knew it, he was thrown out of the tub by the waves.