Ah, the excitement of living in Alaska.
I was asleep and woke up to the bed shaking violently. My first thought was my 15 month-old in the next room, then thinking it was probably a good thing that we never got around to hanging the framed Brambly Hedge canvas above her crib.
I went to get up and saw my husband with our daughter in the doorway. We went through our morning routine amid aftershocks, getting E her bottle of milk and sitting in her room. E was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite waking up about two hours early. My first call was to my parents, who live two blocks away. At their house, a couple glass angels broke, a wineglass, and a Galileo's thermometer. My parents are geologists, so I knew they were fine. In fact as soon as my father heard the epicenter was north, he correctly guessed that the quake occurred on the Castle Mountain fault. In case you ever wondered, "What do geologists do during earthquakes?" the answer is count the seconds, and try to distinguish between s-waves and p-waves. Then refresh the USGS earthquake site (which they already have bookmarked just for fun) as the aftershocks happen. There was one aftershock whose epicenter was 0.0 km away from us. 😶
Andy and I were texting out of state family and friends, and checking on family and friends in town. We assured everyone that we were fine, that E wasn't really bothered by any of it. She was laying down during an aftershock, and her eyes got a bit wide. Otherwise, she barely paused playing.
We got a tsunami warning, which we ignored. We do live close to the coast, but we live on the north part of Turnagain Arm. Any tsunami would be slowed by going around that curve, so our tsunami danger is minimal. A wave similar to the one in Lituya Bay in 1958 would be dangerous for us, but not likely.
Andy showed me a picture of the northbound on-ramp at Minnesota, and my first reaction was to scoff at the fake picture. That kind of damage happened during the 1964 quake, we grew up seeing pictures like that, but it hadn't happened in Anchorage since then. And yet, it was real. Driving home through the airport last night I saw a sidewalk that had cracked and buckled. It's real.
It has slowly occurred to me how historic and significant this earthquake was. We have been so lucky. My house is standing, undamaged. We never lost power, and experienced no gas or water leaks. The only two items that broke were a ceramic gnome and a plastic finger brush. This wasn't the largest magnitude earthquake I've experienced. I remember the 2002 Denali quake, which was 7.9 m.
Earthquakes of this magnitude kill people and destroy buildings in other cities. The 1994 Northridge (California) earthquake had a 6.7 m, and 57 people died. Hundreds, even thousands are killed in earthquakes in other countries. It's humbling, and sad.
Now, to get political, strong building codes put in place after the 1964 earthquake helped prevent worse damage. Realistically not trusting contractors to build future buildings to be earthquake safe since that takes more time and money, the city of Anchorage apparently has an extensive permit review process. Buildings are required to be built to withstand shaking. Sometimes big government does save lives. With things like homes, medicine, and food, trusting vendors is naive and dangerous.
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