7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes King Cove

Observation by Ginger Bear:

I didn't think I was going to be in a bigger one than the 2018 one at the Hilton. I thought I was going to die under my kitchen table. It was horrible. Brought me right back to 2018 standing outside the Hilton, thinking it was going to fall on me. It lasted a good long while. It was very loud on the second floor in my apartment. I was sure the darn floor was going to open up and that was going to be it for me. I was just getting ready for bed, about to brush my teeth. I was under my table with my toothbrush and toothpaste.

It seemed to start up faster than the one in 2018. I remember in 2018 thinking it wasn't so bad, then it got going so I ran to a doorway, then it got really bad so I ran outside. This time it started and I panicked, and it got going right away and I got under my kitchen table and it was very violent and loud and lasted quite a while. The tsunami sirens started right after it stopped. I grabbed some things and headed to higher ground at a friends house. And just like 2018 the phones wouldn't work. Super bad PTSD. We kept getting Nixle alerts on our phones about tsunami warnings. The first was at 10:23 and said the warning was until 11:19, then at 10:53 until 11:50, again at 11:40 until 12:19, 11:53 until 12:51. The last was at 12:32 it was finally canceled and said there would be aftershocks. I knew that all too well.

They were better prepared at the cannery this time. After the 7.9 earthquake in 2017 there people walking from the cannery to higher ground at 1 am. This time they had a bus and brought everyone to the school. Our clinic staff brought some masks over to them.

I finally got back home around 1 am. I looked around the halls of my apartment building. There was a hairline crack right outside my door. (pictures) Also in a couple other places down the hall. I found my toothbrush and toothpaste under my table on a chair. Finally got a shower and brushed my teeth. It was hard to wind down and there were aftershocks of course. It was a very tense sleep that night. Everyone was pretty exhausted the next day and we started to hear more about the damage around the area. One family was on a drive out on the uncompleted Cold Bay road and large rocks started falling down the mountain, they said it looked like smoke. There were some rock slides around other places in town as well. I haven't gotten to get out and look at those yet. All of this is very exhausting. Of course I'll have to deal with earthquakes for the rest of forever living on the Ring of Fire. There's no place I'd rather be, but my nerves are shot right now.