ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Back-to-back earthquakes that measured 7.0 and 5.7 rocked buildings and shattered streets Friday morning in Anchorage, briefly triggering a warning to residents in Kodiak to flee to higher ground for fear of a tsunami.
The warning was lifted without incident shortly after the quakes struck. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first and more powerful quake was centered about 7 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, with a population of about 300,000.
A large section of the street near the Anchorage airport collapsed, stranding a car on a narrow island of pavement surrounded by deep chasms in the concrete. Several cars crashed at a major intersection in Wasilla, north of Anchorage, during the rumbling.
Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll said he had been told that parts of the Glenn Highway, a scenic route that runs northeast out of the city past farms, mountains and glaciers, had “completely disappeared.”
The quake smashed store windows, caused cracks in a two-story building downtown, disrupted electrical service and disabled traffic lights, snarling traffic. It also threw a full-grown man out of his bathtub.
All flights were halted at the airport after the quake knocked out telephones and forced the evacuation of the control tower. The 800-mile Alaska oil pipeline was also shut down while crews were sent to inspect it for damage.
Anchorage’s school system canceled classes and requested that parents pick up their children while it examined buildings for gas leaks or other damage.
Jonathan Lettow was waiting with his 5-year-old daughter and other children for the school bus near their home in Wasilla when the quake hit. The children got on the ground while Lettow tried to keep them calm.
“It’s one of those things where in your head, you think, ‘OK, it’s going to stop,’ and you say that to yourself so many times in your head that finally you think, ‘OK, maybe this isn’t going to stop,’” he said.
Soon after the shaking stopped, the school bus pulled up and the children boarded, but the driver stopped at a bridge and refused to go across because of deep cracks in the road, Lettow said.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tweeted that her home was damaged: “Our family is intact — house is not. I imagine that’s the case for many, many others.”
Officials opened an Anchorage convention center as an emergency shelter. Gov. Bill Walker issued a disaster declaration.
Cereal boxes and packages of batteries littered the floor of a grocery store, and picture frames and mirrors were knocked from living room walls.
