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U.S. NEWS Saturday 1 december 2018
Back-to-back earthquakes shatter roads and windows in Alaska

By RACHEL D'ORO and DAN an hour and a half.
JOLING In Kenai, southwest of An-
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) chorage, Brandon Sla-
— Back-to-back earth- ton was alone at home
quakes measuring 7.0 and and soaking in the bath-
5.7 shattered highways tub when the earthquake
and rocked buildings Fri- struck. Slaton, who weighs
day in Anchorage, send- 209 pounds, said it created
ing people running into the a powerful back-and-forth
streets and briefly trigger- sloshing that threw him out
ing a warning to residents of the tub.
in Kodiak to flee to higher His 120-pound mastiff pan-
ground for fear of a tsuna- icked and tried to run down
mi. the stairs, but the house
The warning was lifted with- was swaying so much that
out incident a short time the dog was thrown off its
later. There were no imme- feet and into a wall and
diate reports of any deaths tumbled to the base of the
or serious injuries. stairs, Slaton said.
The U.S. Geological Sur- Slaton ran into his son's
vey said the first and more room after the shaking
powerful quake was cen- stopped and found his fish
tered about 7 miles (12 ki- tank shattered and the fish
lometers) north of Anchor- on the floor, gasping. He
age, Alaska's largest city, grabbed it and put it in an-
with a population of about other bowl.
300,000. People ran from "It was anarchy," he said.
their offices or took cover "There's no pictures left on
under desks. An employee walks past a damaged aisle at Anchorage True Value hardware store after an the walls, there's no pow-
earthquake, Friday morning, Nov. 30, 2018, in Anchorage, Alaska. Tim Craig, owner of the south
"We just hung onto each Anchorage store, said no one was injured but hundreds of items hit the floor and two shelves col- er, there's no fish tank left.
other. You couldn't even lapsed in a stock room. Everything that's not tied
stand," said Sheila Bailey, Associated Press down is broke."
who was working at a high Alaska was the site of the
school cafeteria in Palmer while crews were sent to in- think, 'OK, it's going to stop,' he said. most powerful earthquake
when the quake struck. "It spect it for damage. and you say that to yourself Cereal boxes and pack- ever recorded in the U.S.
sounded and felt like the Anchorage's school sys- so many times in your head ages of batteries littered The 9.2-magnitude quake
school was breaking apart." tem canceled classes and that finally you think, 'OK, the floor of a grocery store, on March 27, 1964, was
A large section of an off- asked parents to pick up maybe this isn't going to and picture frames and centered about 75 miles
ramp near the Anchorage their children while it exam- stop,'" he said. mirrors were knocked from (120 kilometers) east of
airport collapsed, ma- ined buildings for gas leaks Soon after the shaking living room walls. Anchorage. It and the tsu-
rooning a car on a narrow or other damage. stopped, the school bus People went back inside nami it triggered claimed
island of pavement sur- Fifteen-year-old Sadie pulled up and children after the first earthquake about 130 lives.
rounded by deep chasms Blake and other members boarded, but the driver struck, but the 5.7 after- The state averages 40,000
in the concrete. Several of the Homer High School stopped at a bridge and shock about five minutes earthquakes a year, with
cars crashed at a major in- wrestling team were at an refused to go across be- later sent them running more large quakes than
tersection in Wasilla, north Anchorage school gym- cause of deep cracks in back into the streets. A se- the 49 other states com-
of Anchorage, during the nasium waiting for a tour- the road, Lettow said. ries of smaller aftershocks bined. Southern Alaska has
shaking.Anchorage Police nament to start when the Former Alaska Gov. Sarah followed. a high risk of earthquakes
Chief Justin Doll said he bleachers started rocking Palin tweeted that her A tsunami warning was is- because the Earth's plates
had been told that parts of "like crazy" and the lights home was damaged: "Our sued along Alaska's south- slide past each other under
Glenn Highway, a scenic went out. People started family is intact — house is ern coast. Police in Kodiak, the region.
route that runs northeast running down the bleach- not. I imagine that's the a city of 6,100 people on Alaska has been hit by a
out of the city past farms, ers in the dark, trying to get case for many, many oth- Kodiak Island, 250 miles number of powerful quakes
mountains and glaciers, out. ers." She posted a video of (400 kilometers) south of over 7.0 in recent decades,
had "completely disap- "It was a gym full of the inside of her parents' Anchorage). People were including a 7.9 last January
peared." screams," said team chap- home, with broken dishes told to evacuate to higher southeast of Kodiak Island.
The quake broke store win- erone Ginny Grimes. littering the kitchen floor. ground immediately be- But it is rare for a quake this
dows, opened cracks in a When it was over, Sadie A large set of antlers ap- cause a wave could hit big to strike so close to such
two-story building down- said, there was only one peared to have fallen off a within about 10 minutes. a heavily populated area.
town, disrupted electrical thing she could do: "I start- wall of the living room. Michael Burgy, a senior David Harper was getting
service and disabled traffic ed crying." Officials opened an An- technician with the Nation- some coffee at a store
lights, snarling traffic. It also Jonathan Lettow was chorage convention cen- al Tsunami Warning Center when the low rumble be-
threw a full-grown man out waiting with his 5-year-old ter as an emergency shel- in Palmer, Alaska, said the gan and intensified into
of his bathtub. daughter and other chil- ter. Gov. Bill Walker issued a warning was automati- something that sounded
All flights in and out of the dren for a school bus near disaster declaration. cally generated based on "like the building was just
airport were suspended their home in Wasilla when He said he was in an of- the quake's size and prox- going to fall apart." He ran
for hours after the quake the quake struck. The chil- fice building elevator when imity to shore. Scientists for the exit with other pa-
knocked out telephones dren got on the ground the earthquake hit. Lights monitored gauges to see trons. "People who were
and forced the evacua- while Lettow tried to keep on the control board were if the quake generated outside were actively hug-
tion of the control tower. them calm. blinking and things were big waves. Because there ging each other," he said.
And the 800-mile Alaska "It's one of those things falling from the ceiling, but were none, they canceled "You could tell that it was a
oil pipeline was shut down where in your head, you the elevator did not stop, the warning within about bad one."q