Aftermath

There is still a bit of confusion as to whether there was one big earthquake or one smaller quake followed by the 7.1 one.  Personally, it was scary during the short shaking that felt like 5 minute. 

One of the hotels in Anchorage had the sprinkler system go off due to the quake and that lead to a bunch of people evacuating to the parking lot.  I heard the siren from the hotel but I thought it was a fire truck or the police.

Several bars were open and the patrons spilled out into the parking lots and streets while clutching their drinks.  I got this from someone who had been in the bar at the time.  Many people at my hotel, took off down the stairs to the lobby as a precaution.  I also heard there were a few structural engineers staying at one of the local hotels.  Apparently, the wife of one got up and was trying to dress to go downstairs but the husband woke up long enough to look around and told her it was safe and promptly went back to sleep.

Turns out that although no one was hurt, there was property damage down in the Kenai area.   Kenai is a town, south of Anchorage, located much closer to the epicenter and thus felt the tremors much more.  Four houses burned down due to a gas line rupturing and then erupting into flames.  I read about one man who got stuff out between the first and second fires.  He had bought the house less than 2 weeks earlier.

Today on the way home, there was a rumor of an 8.0 magnitude earthquake happening somewhere near Adak which is in the Aleutian islands.  I did a bit of research and it may have been from a radio show that was comparing the latest earthquake with one from June 2014.  I think someone caught that bit and started texting it to others and it was spreading.

As of today, everything was back to normal in Anchorage.  The city and state had sent engineers and workers out to check the bridges in and around Anchorage, Kenai and places between as a safety matter and the school districts sent folks to check all the buildings, again all as a precaution.

So in case anyone was wondering, the extent of damage was not bad at all and was less than it could have been.