‘Everything is broken’: powerful 7.0 and 5.8 earthquakes buckle Alaska roads, trigger brief tsunami warning
- A 7.0 quake and a 5.8 aftershock rock Anchorage area, but no deaths or serious injuries reported
- Tsunami warning for southern coastal area was automatically generated based on the quake’s size and proximity to shore but it was later cancelled
Back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.0 and 5.8 rocked buildings and shattered roads on Friday morning in Anchorage, Alaska, 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 US Geological Survey said the first and more powerful quake was centred about 12 kilometres (7 miles) north of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, with a population of about 300,000. People ran from their offices or took cover under desks.
Cracks could be seen in a two-story downtown Anchorage building, and photographs posted to social media showed fractured roads, as well as fallen ceiling tiles at an Anchorage high school. A large section of an overpass near the Anchorage airport collapsed, marooning a car on a narrow island of pavement next to where the road gave way.
The quake also disrupted electrical service and knocked out traffic lights in Anchorage, snarling traffic, while cereal boxes and packages of batteries littered the floor of a grocery store, and picture frames and mirrors were knocked from living room walls.