Alaskans shaken by magnitude 7.3 earthquake, tsunami warnings

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - People in Sand Point and neighboring communities in the Aleutian Islands and Alaskan Peninsula were shaken by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake Wednesday, with many more feeling the impacts of the tsunami warning and advisory.

Kodiak Island

Tsunami sirens were heard in places like Kodiak, warning residents to seek higher ground, although the initial warning was downgraded to an advisory before being canceled outright about two hours after the earthquake struck at 12:37 p.m.

The Kodiak Emergency Operations Center reported a six-inch wave that was confirmed by the U.S. Coast Guard. The center could not confirm where the wave was detected.

Personnel on military bases, notably those in the Coast Guard at Base Kodiak, were evacuated with air crews at the ready.

Jackson Sarber, a Kodiak resident who heard the sirens going off, said most of the town’s residents went up nearby Pillar Mountain when they got the word to evacuate.

“No chaos. I think everyone in town who evacuated did an amazing job,” Sarber told Alaska’s News Source. “Everyone on [Pillar Mountain] was talking and enjoying the time outside.

“There was worry, but the community really held it all together.”

Sarber noted that the town sounds the tsunami alarm every Wednesday at 2 p.m. as a test, but he said during this occasion, the siren rang out twice.

“I think so people wouldn’t think it was an accident test,” he guessed.

Kodiak resident Marion Owen, however, decided her house was safe to stay in for the duration of the evacuation.

“The house that was here before we moved in this area had survived the 1964 earthquake and tsunami,” Owen explained. “So me, I just went, ‘Okay, let’s have lunch.’”

Owen livestreamed her experience on Instagram, telling her followers about her decision to stay on her property, which was located 70 feet above the shoreline.

“If I lived in a low-lying area, that would have been different,” she said. “I would have grabbed my kit and grabbed my kit and run.”

Owen said part of her decision to stay home was influenced by the number of earthquakes and tsunamis she has experienced in her life.

Sand Point

Debi Schmidt, the city administrator for Sand Point, told Alaska’s News Source less than an hour after the earthquake that it was the “biggest one” she’s ever felt.

“I was at home for lunch and the house was shaking and things were falling, and cupboard doors were coming open,” she said. “No damage, though.”

Another Sand Point resident, Tiffany Jackson, said the strong earthquake hit while she was having lunch with her husband and daughter with their dog nearby.

“Our dog ran under the table and started to whine and then the house started to shake, and we thought it was just the washing machine,” she recalled. “Then [we] realized pretty quickly it was an earthquake.”

After a few moments waiting to see how big it was going to get, Jackson said the shaking quickly grew, forcing them to jump up and go.

“I was going to start taking a video — I was like looking at stuff swaying — and then I realized, ‘Oh, there’s stuff starting to fall off shelves. I need to get out of the house!’"

The shaking lasted so long — Jackson estimates up to 45 seconds — she had a feeling that a tsunami warning would be coming soon after.

“You just know, and you live in this area of Alaska, you know, once it shakes that hard for that long and there’s going to be a tsunami warning,” she said, saying that within minutes, she and her family were evacuating to high ground.

Even after the tsunami evacuation was called off, Jackson said her family was still on edge with the knowledge that aftershocks were coming.

“It took a little while after the earthquake to kind of settle, like I just felt a little shaken and my mom expressed the same thing,” she said. “The whole time we’re at her house, she’s like, ‘I just feel shaken and just agitated.’”

Homer

Some residents in Homer got a notification of the tsunami alert, although they say no sirens went off and a warning was never in effect for Homer or the Kenai Peninsula.

Homer resident Billy Sullivan told Alaska’s News Source that people began leaving town shortly after the alert. He said there was a long line of cars flooding out of the Homer Spit, leading to about a 30-minute wait to leave the area.

“People were courteous to one another and let people cut in and stuff like that. It wasn’t like any panic or anything like that,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Wednesday was good practice in case a tsunami were to actually impact the shores of Kachemak Bay.

Statewide impacts

State Seismologist Michael West explained the activity is “commonplace” after an earthquake of that magnitude, and aftershocks can be expected in the “coming days, weeks, and even months.”

“We expect the vast majority of those — if not all of those earthquakes — to be smaller in size,” he explained. “But it is true that anytime we have an earthquake of this size, there is a small percentage chance of a follow-on earthquake that is the same or significantly larger.”

Though seismic activity in the region is common —as it sits along the Pacific tectonic plate boundary with the North American plate — there has been an uptick in “geologic unrest” in recent years, according to West.

“This is the fifth earthquake exceeding magnitude 7.0 in a very small stretch of the Aleutians, just a couple hundred kilometers, since 2020,” he explained. “Clearly, something is going on.”

The Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) began working to send out warnings as readings began to come in. Jeremy Zidek, the Department’s Public Information Officer, told Alaska’s News Source that multiple phone lines remained open to allow quick communications to at-risk areas.

“We reach out to the communities, try to identify what their critical needs are, and then we would mobilize the state resources to get out there to help them.”

Zidek said that the department is unable to exactly predict whether or not a tsunami is occurring until an area is already at risk.

“We don’t know if a damaging, significant, inundating wave has been created until that estimated wave arrives at a tidal gauge, which is on land.”

For this, the Red Cross of America’s Alaska Division urges residents to prepare ahead of a disaster.

“Disasters don’t really happen on an alarm clock,” said Julie Swisher, the Alaska Division’s Executive Director.

“They happen when you’re least expecting it. So being prepared is crucial.”

For residents of Alaska living away from the coast, Swisher had other recommendations for how they can check on their friends or family in affected areas.

“Just give them a call. Let them know that you’re thinking of them, just so that everybody has tabs on each other.”

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com