Photo by Nathaniel Wilder/Reuters - Road damage in Alaska due to the recent earthquake
The Washington coast for the second time this year was under a tsunami alert after a strong 7.0 earthquake struck near Anchorage, Alaska on Friday, November 30. Four minutes after the initial earthquake a strong 5.8 aftershock erupted and since then over 190 aftershocks have been reported. Several of those have been 5.0 are greater and have kept the area rumbling.
The 7.0 earthquake was so strong it collapsed bridges and destroyed many roads. Stories of terrified students hiding under their desk at school as their teachers attempted to keep them calm has been widely heard. Department buildings and stores had items fall from shelves or shelving collapse. Buildings near and far from the earthquake's epicenter sustained severe damage with collapsed roofs and other structural damage.
In the minutes following the strong quake the National Tsunami Warning Center rushed to assess the tsunami threat to not only the Alaskan coast but the entire Pacific Ocean. Washington, Oregon, California and much of the Pacific Ocean territories were put on high alert while the scientist and models decoded the information they had to make a decision about issuing warnings.
The Pacific County Emergency Operations Center was activated within minutes and all hands were on deck. Pacific County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott McDougall was in close contact with the state EOC center during the entire event. "I've been in close contact with the state EOC," he said during a phone update to the Herald. "They are pretty confident we aren't in danger, but they plan to remain active the rest of the day to monitor the situation as well I."
Roughly an hour after the quake and alerts were issued the all clear was given by the NTWC that there was no threat of a tsunami. In the coming hours after the earthquake, Alaskans began assessing the damage and in some areas found it was near apocalyptic. One image shown by Reuters showed a worker standing next to a sunken road with a SUV at the bottom. Despite the strength of the earthquake not a single life was lost and there were no major or sizeable tsunamis.
Director McDougall and PCEMA have been educating residents via Facebook on the aftermath of the Alaskan earthquake and the damage it caused. So Pacific County residents know what to expect after a large earthquake strikes. McDougall has long expressed that residents should always have emergency preparedness kits at the ready and be prepared to get to high ground on foot. The earthquake Friday destroyed many roads and bridges and limited the ability to travel by vehicle. Something he strongly believes can and would happen in Pacific County due to liquefaction of the soil.