3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2018
Alaska quake damage could have been worse
Stricter codes
imposed after
1964 quake
Emergency
alert test
canceled
By RACHEL D’ORO and
MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press
The Daily Astorian
ANCHORAGE — The
magnitude 7.0 earthquake that
rattled Alaska’s largest city
cracked roads and collapsed
highway ramps, but there were
no reports of widespread cata-
strophic damage or collapsed
buildings.
There’s a good reason for
that.
A devastating 1964 Alaska
earthquake — the most pow-
erful on record in the United
States — led to stricter build-
ing codes that helped struc-
tures withstand the shifting
earth Friday.
“Congratulations to the
people of Alaska for being
really prepared for this earth-
quake,” U.S. Geological Sur-
vey Geophysicist Paul Caruso
said. “Because a magnitude
7.0 in a city like that, you
know, it could have been sig-
nificantly worse.”
Gov. Bill Walker said
sometimes people, including
himself, grouse about strin-
gent building codes. But he’s
“really glad” they were in
place as he only had minor
water damage at his home.
“Building codes mean
something,” he said.
The quake was centered
about 7 miles north of Anchor-
age, which has a population of
about 300,000. People ran from
their offices or took cover under
desks. A 5.7 aftershock arrived
within minutes, followed by a
series of smaller quakes.
The two big back-to-
back quakes knocked items
off shelves, disrupted power,
broke store windows and
briefly triggered a tsunami
warning for islands and coastal
areas south of the city. Walker
issued a disaster declaration,
and President Donald Trump
declared an emergency, allow-
ing the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to coor-
dinate disaster relief.
There were no reports of
deaths or serious injuries.
Aftershocks
Still, aftershocks over the
weekend continued to fray
nerves, with people worrying
about being caught in more
massive shakers.
“They’re disturbing, and
I’m not putting anything away
that could fall until they calm
down,” Randall Cavanugh,
an Anchorage attorney, said
following a restless night at
home. “I kept waking up.”
By midmorning on Satur-
day, there had been about 550
aftershocks, including 11 with
magnitudes of 4.5 or greater,
Caruso said.
The aftershocks should be
weaker and less frequent in
the coming days, but officials
can’t say for sure when they’ll
stop, he said.
Anchorage Mayor Ethan
Berkowitz said the extent of
damage was “relatively small”
considering the scale of Fri-
day’s earthquake. He also
credited building codes for
minimizing structure damage.
“In terms of a disaster, I
think it says more about who
we are than what we suffered,”
he said Saturday at a press
briefing, adding that Anchor-
age was prepared for such an
emergency.
“People pulled together.
We followed the plans that
were in place. We looked after
one another. And when people
around the country and around
the world look at this, they’re
going to say, ‘We want to do
things in the Anchorage way
because Anchorage did this
right,’” Berkowitz said.
After the first earth-
quake, Alaska’s largest hospi-
tal activated its incident com-
mand center, but the trickle of
patients into the emergency
room at Providence Alaska
Medical Center in Anchor-
age was more like a nor-
mal workday and not a mass
casualty event. The injuries
were described as minor, and
there were no patients with
life-threatening conditions.
“The flow of patients into
the emergency department was
similar to a typical Monday,”
hospital spokesman Mikal
A countywide emer-
gency alert test was
canceled Friday after
a major earthquake in
Alaska.
The test, adminis-
tered by Clatsop County
Emergency Manage-
ment, was scheduled to
take place at noon, send-
ing messages to residen-
tial and business land-
lines, cellphones and
email addresses.
But an earthquake
measuring 7.0 struck
north of Anchorage that
morning,
prompting
concerns of a possible
tsunami.
A tsunami warning
was not issued for the
Oregon Coast, but offi-
cials did not want to cre-
ate confusion, Emer-
gency Services Manager
Tiffany Brown said.
The test will be
rescheduled for Decem-
ber. While landlines are
automatically included
in the test, cellphones
and email addresses
must be registered on
the county website.
AP Photo/Dan Joling
A car is trapped on a collapsed section of the offramp of Minnesota Drive in Anchorage on Friday after earthquakes.
“Even when people were
initially concerned, people
who might have been reaching
for the last item, looked over
and saw someone else and
said, ‘Yes, we are sharing this
with you,’” he said.
He also touted Alaskans’
longstanding tradition to stock
up for long winters.
“I would encourage peo-
ple, once the ships get in, once
things settle back down, make
sure you have the emergency
preparations, the emergency
kits that you should have,” he
said.
The 1964 quake
AP Photo/Mark Thiessen
Damage is shown to the library at Chugiak High School in Chugiak, Alaska, following
earthquakes on Friday.
‘People
pulled
together.
We followed
the plans
that were
in place. We
looked after
one another.’
Anchorage Mayor
Ethan Berkowitz
Canfield said. “It wasn’t a sit-
uation where there was a mass
rush of people.”
Road damage
Roads took the brunt of the
damage, especially the scenic
Glenn Highway, the closest
thing Alaska has to an inter-
state and links the state’s larg-
est city to suburban communi-
ties to the north.
Traffic has been snarled
since the quake. Delays came
as drivers were diverted around
road damage on temporary
detours or the highway was
reduced to one lane while crews
try to reconstruct the roadway
after the temblor caused sink-
holes and buckled pavement.
Employees who live
north of Anchorage are being
encouraged to take today off
or work from home if possible
to reduce traffic. Walker, who
leaves office at noon, gave
state workers in the Anchorage
area the day off to help reduce
the number of cars on the high-
way. Schools have been closed
until Dec. 10, which should
also reduce traffic.
Walker said he would not
be traveling to the rural village
of Noorvik for the swearing in
of Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy
but instead would remain in
Anchorage to keep working on
recovery efforts.
Normal operations resumed
at Ted Stevens Anchorage
International Airport after
flight operations were sus-
pended Friday, Transpor-
tation Department spokes-
man Meadow Bailey told The
Associated Press.
The 800-mile trans Alaska
oil pipeline was shut down for
hours while crews were sent to
inspect it for damage.
The supply chain of food
and other goods delivered to
the Port of Anchorage from
the Lower 48 has not been dis-
rupted by the powerful earth-
quake that caused widespread
damage to roads.
“The ships are coming
in on schedule, the supply
lines are at this point uninter-
rupted,” Berkowitz said Sun-
day at a news conference.
Officials on Saturday encour-
aged Alaskans not to make a run
on grocery stores, saying there
was no reason to hoard food.
However, at least one gro-
cery store Sunday morning had
no milk and little to no bread,
bottled water or bananas.
WANTED
Berkowitz said the stories
he’s heard, particularly from
grocery stores, in the immedi-
ate aftermath of the earthquake
was of cooperation and sharing.
Alaska’s 1964 earthquake,
with a 9.2 magnitude, was
centered about 75 miles east
of Anchorage. It and the tsu-
nami it triggered claimed
about 130 lives.
The state averages 40,000
earthquakes a year, with more
large quakes than the 49 other
states combined. Southern
Alaska has a high risk of earth-
quakes because the Earth’s
plates slide past each other
under the region, but it is rare
for major quakes to strike so
close heavily populated areas.
Associated Press writers
Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska;
Dan Joling in Anchorage; Gil-
lian Flaccus in Portland; Gene
Johnson in Seattle; Jenni-
fer Kelleher, Audrey McAvoy
and Caleb Jones in Honolulu;
Rachel La Corte in Olympia;
and John Antczak in Los Angeles
contributed to this report.
Appliances &
Home Furnishings
Food Drive
Now Through Dec 31st
Bring in 10 Cans of Food
Get 10% off
on all furniture & mattresses
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Divorce need not
be expensive.
We help you
get the paperwork
right and provide
mediation to help
you divide
your assets.
Christy Shoop
Brian G. Kulhanjian
Paperwork
Mediation
RESOLUTION SERVICES
552 Commercial Street Astoria (503) 325-9115
A division of Stahancyk, Kent & Hook
Hours:
M-F: 8-6pm
SAT: 9-5pm
SUN: 10-4pm
Appliance & Home
Furnishings
“We Service What We Sell”
503-861-0929
529 SE MARLIN AVE • WARRENTON • OR