November 30, 2018

Massive Earthquake Hit Alaska, but the Risk of a Tsunami Subsides

Here are some shocking images from the aftermath of a 7.0 quake.

Earthquake activity recorder from November 14-30, 2018. An intense earthquake struck the Anchorage area Friday morning, causing severe shaking and damage and triggering fears of a tsunami. The magnitude-7 quake occurred at 8:29 a.m., local time, the epicenter just north of Anchorage. UAF Quake Center/ZUMA

This story was originally published by HuffPost. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. 

Residents of Anchorage, Alaska, are assessing the damage from a massive earthquake that struck Friday morning and are breathing a sigh of relief after officials canceled tsunami warnings.

Measured as a magnitude 7.0 quake by the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake hit at 8:29 a.m. local time, with the epicenter just 10 miles from the city of nearly 300,000 residents. Residents of Fairbanks, a city of about 30,000 more than 350 miles away, reported feeling shaking there too.

Though officials have yet to release any estimates of damage, injuries or fatalities, people have begun to share photos and videos of destruction on social media. An image from the KTVA newsroom, the CBS affiliate station in Anchorage, shows collapsed tables and computers and TVs dangling from their mounts. All local TV stations were reportedly knocked off the air.

Other shocking photos and videos show collapsed roads with cars stranded on them, including these near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport:

Officials canceled a tsunami warning posted for the Cook Inlet and southern Kenai Peninsula near Anchorage. The National Weather Service had warned residents in Kodiak and Seward that tsunami activity could start just an hour after the earthquake struck. 

A 7.0 quake can be highly dangerous. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco was measured at magnitude 6.9 and killed 63 people, and the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake in Southern California killed 57―though both quakes struck areas more populous than Anchorage. 

A National Weather Service employee on duty in Anchorage during the temblor called it “the scariest earthquake I have ever been in.”

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin released a statement that her “family is intact” but her “house is not.”<

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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