- The shallow 8.2-magnitude earthquake quake hit 56 miles southeast of the town of Perryville in Alaska
- It marked the largest in the US in over 50 years, as Alaska was hit by a 9.2-magnitude earthquake in March 1964 that lead to the deaths of 250 people
- The US government issued a tsunami warning for Alaska's southeast coast
- Perryville is a small village 500 miles from Anchorage, Alaska's biggest city
- Alaska is along the earth's seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire
- Hawaiian authorities later canceled a Tsunami warning for the state
Thousands were forced to flee coastal areas after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska, marking the largest in the US in 50 years, and triggered tsunami warnings that were canceled three hours later.
The shallow quake hit 56 miles southeast of the town of Perryville, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, with a tsunami warning in effect for south Alaska and the Alaskan peninsula.
Patrick Mayer, the superintendent of schools for the Aleutians East Borough in Sand Point, told the Anchorage Daily News that he was sitting in his kitchen when it started to shake uncontrollably and causes the doors of his pantry and fridge to swing open and empty their contents.
“It started to go and just didn’t stop,” he said. “It went on for a long time and there were several aftershocks, too. The pantry is empty all over the floor, the fridge is empty all over the floor.”
King Cove School Principal Paul Barker lives about a half-mile from the school and told the Anchorage Daily News that he immediately started taking pictures off the walls and moving belongings away from the edges of counter and tables.
”Everything in my house was shaking,' he said. 'It wasn’t that violent. I expected it to get harder and shake more, but it was just kind of a steady shaking for about a minute or so.’
No comments:
Post a Comment