Quake In Alaska This Morning

I am here and have survived. Almost all my wife's heirlooms were not so lucky. We lost almost all her treasures, some of which were 150+ years old and passed down from her great grandmother. All were smashed in the quake and we lost half of our wedding crystal as well. The entire house is a real mess and many of the wife's Christmas decorations bit the dust as well. We have been cleaning up most of the day and have several more days to go. No major damage to the house and no windows broken. We are fortunate to live in a very well-built house on a substrate that seems to absorb much of the shock. We walked the property earlier today and there were a number of small cracks in the ground that probably wouldn't be visible if we didn't have snow on the ground. All the schools were closed today and the children sent home so that they could be examined for structural damage. I know some of the schools in Anchorage were damaged a good bit, but I don't think things are as bad here. The cat and the dog were totally freaked out as the ground was shaking and stuff was falling off the walls all around them in the dark. Power was off most of the day and we were preparing for a night without electricity, but we got reconnected late this afternoon. Many of the roads were severely damaged and it will take months to get the repairs done, especially since all the construction companies are shut down for the winter. The State is asking the to reopen, and I suspect paying them well to do that. We'll see how that goes.

Thanks to all who voiced concern. I just now got though the piles of clutter to reconnect to the internet, bit I had to step over junk to get here. Perhaps tomorrow we will get the office straightened out a bit. We are pretty well prepared for almost anything here, but this was sad, since my wife lost all her treasures. No injuries in the family, so that is the good thing.

 

Glad you and you wife are safe, Don, and no damage to the house.

 

Oh thank goodness you and your wife and pets are safe @Don Alaska , but I'm so sorry to hear about the damage to your home and the loss of your Wife's treasured things. Thank you for the update, it must have been difficult for you to get onto the computer with so many other things on your mind, and also I know you'll be finding it very frustrating not being able to do as much as you'd like to because of your disability.. will you be able to call anyone in to give you a hand to clear up?

was there no warning of this at all?

I feel so sad for you both, this must have been a horrible shock!!

 

Glad to know you're unharmed! I hope you can get some help to clean up.

 

So sorry to hear about the loss of your treasured items but the important thing is that you and your wife are OK.

 

Earthquakes seldom generate any warning, @Holly Saunders. They just happen. We do sometimes get warnings of volcanic eruptions, however.

 

Aren't quakes and tremblor's also signs of future volcanic eruption? I read that ancient Pompeii experienced these "warnings" but didn't know what they meant.

 

Yep, earthquakes in the area of volcanoes can signal an impending eruption, but not all earthquakes do so. It has to do with the way the ground shakes and displays on a seismometer. I am no geologist/seismologist, so I don't know all the ins and outs of it, so I just have to trust the people who study that stuff. We have volcanic eruptions all the time, but most of the time they are in uninhabited areas and only affect aviation. Twice since we moved here we have had volcanoes nearby erupt--once in 1990 and once around 2000 or so. The first closed Anchorage airport for a week, and where I lived then in the Bush, the food was running out very quickly. We all had tons of salmon, of course, and many had moose in the freezer, but there was no produce, dairy, or perishables to be had anywhere after three days. The second time we lived here and were covered with ash, and other than having to change the oil filters, air filters, and fluids in the vehicles, it wasn't terrible. The auto parts stores ran out if filters for popular vehicles rapidly, though, so we always try to keep spare filters around.

 

Good to see that y'all are OK, @Don Alaska . When we had a small earthquake here a few years ago, I felt totally disoriented for a minute or so afterward; like the Earth had tilted out of balance. Did you get that feeling?

 

I was pretty well oriented through the whole thing, but my wife got a little disoriented. She was almost ready to go to work when it hit. She couldn't get her car out of the garage as it was covered with junk that had fallen off the shelves out there. Her office was closed anyway due to holes in the road and no power or heat.

 

@Don Alaska, I feel sure you have your work cut out for you but glad you all survived as well as you did.