6.8 earthquake jolts Pacific Northwest
It was the biggest quake to hit the area since April 13, 1949, when a magnitude 7.1 quake struck Puget Sound.
For a quake of such magnitude, though, today's caused no catastrophic property damage and there were no reports of fatalities.
Twenty-nine people suffered injuries, five serious, and were being treated at Harborview Medical Center. Two of the most seriously injured were an 83-year-old woman and her 84-year-old husband.
Thirty five people were treated and released from St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, none from serious injuries. Two people had broken bones. Others experienced chest pains.
In several cities, Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia, the streets and highways were jammed with people trying to rush home or check on their loved ones.
Today's epicenter was 11 miles northeast of Olympia and 30 miles deep. The quake was felt as far south as Portland. At midday, Gov. Gary Locke declared a state of emergency, allowing officials to utilize the National Guard and summon assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Capitol dome was cracked during the quake and immediately evacuated. The Cherberg Building, where state Senate offices are located, also has several major cracks. Locke, who was in his office when the quake hit, was not injured.
At 11 a.m., the state opened its Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray National Guard Base near Tacoma to assess the damage. About 150 people from state agencies and the national guard are in the operations center, coordinating the state's response.
Susan Zemick said initial reports show 200,000 people without power, structural damage throughout the state and damage to the control tower and runways at Sea-Tac Airport, which was closed. Boeing Field has reported a one-foot drop along one of its runways. The other Boeing Field runway is open only for emergencies.
Amtrak and freight trains have stopped operations so they can perform safety inspections.
As of 3:30 p.m., five counties had declared states of emergency: Kitsap, King, Grays Harbor, Pierce and Thurston.
Traveling in the Midwest, President Bush promised "whatever resources are necessary to help the people" of the Seattle area.
"Let us hope that it doesn't create much damage, or take anyone's life. But it is a serious earthquake," he said. "I just called the FEMA director to stay in touch with the emergency office to make sure we are on top of it, and we are."
Later, Bush told reporters: We will provide whatever resources are necessary to help the people. Anything we can do to help, we will do so."
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh was leaving Washington aboard a federal jet tonight and traveling to Seattle to assess the damage with local and state officials. The agency put two search and rescue teams in California, as well as a regional logistical center, on alert but had no immediate plans to activate them.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., received assurances from White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Allbaugh that the administration was closely following the situation on the ground and that federal assistance was available.
"The president is fully aware of what's going on and (they) assured me that they would be available for whatever assistance they could provide," Murray said.
The Legislature and state agencies sent employees home in Olympia. And Boeing immediately evacuated its Renton production plants when the earthquake hit, and decided within an hour to dismiss workers.
The "481 building," where both 757s and 737s are produced, had no power, and some water pipes burst. Workers said they had heard reports of possible gas leaks, but those reports could not be immediately confirmed. The Olympic Pipeline, which ruptured in Bellingham in June of 1999 causing an explosion that killed three people, was shut down as soon as the quake occured, said Olympic spokesman Dan Cummings.
Ground crews and air patrols are checking the entire length of the 400 mile line, which runs from Anacortes to Portland. There are no reports of any leaks so far, Cummings said.
At a midday news conference, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell said a preliminary assessment of the city's public buildings, roads, dams and power-transmission lines indicated no significant damage, although there were some power outages and water main breaks.
Government buildings in Olympia and several of the city's bridges were closed for inspection. The city's waterfront aquarium will be closed for a few days - no tanks broke but some are leaking.
Seattle City Councilwoman Jan Drago credited the city's decade-long effort to seismically retrofit public buildings with the remarkable lack of catastrophic damage. "If this had happened 10 years ago, it would be a very different story," she said.
Drago and Schell had planned to attend a meeting that had been scheduled for 1 p.m. to discuss the city's earthquake preparedness. The quake, Schell said, "would have been a huge punctuation mark for the end of that effort." Needless to say, the meeting was cancelled.
Schell urged people not to call 911 to report gas leaks or property damage, but to use this emergency response number instead: 206-684-3355.
Seismologists will spend the next few days looking for landslide-prone areas that might have been made more vulnerable to slipping.
The damage of the quake was reduced by its 30-mile depth. If it had occured in the shallower Seattle fault, "you would have seen a lot of damage in older buildings like those in Pioneer Square," said state seismologist Anthony Qamar.
"If you're going to have a magnitude 7 in the Puget Sound area, let it be a deep one," said Bill Steele, spokesman for the University of Washington Seismology Lab.
Damage was less than that of the nearly equal 1949 quake because area buildings and other structures have been built more safely, said Qamar. "Engineers learn their lessons."
Luann Taylor, building manager for the state Capitol building, toured it shortly after the earthquake and said it came through well.
One column has been cleaved away from the dome, outside the building. And there was particular concern about the cupola, the cylindar cap that tops the dome.
"The cupola was shaking like a dog's tail, which is exactly what it was supposed to do," Taylor said.
Some older buildings in downtown Olympia were in a shambles. Police officers and emergency response teams were searching for 15 senior citizens who were living in the Hotel Olympian, a brick building that was converted to an apartments. An elevator shaft had collapsed in the structure, which one tenant estimated to be about 80 years old.
"It's pretty severe inside. You can see places where walls shifted over a foot," said Olympia Police Officer Anthony Rios.
Across from the building, a sidewalk clock stopped at 10:54, when the earthquake began.
At the Attorney General's Office, the force of the quake locked Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Lane inside his office. Two top deputies, Dave Walsh and Fred Olson, had to kick his door in to get him out.
Christine Gregoire was in her office but escaped okay. She was in the middle of a job interview.
In the Washington Supreme Court, located across from the Capitol building, Chief Justice Gerry Alexander was in the chambers with a delegation from Mongolia, who didn't speak English.
When the rumbling began, he gathered them up and pulled them under the doorway.
"He looked like Samson holding up the columns," said Mary McQueen, the court administrator.
At Washington Federal Savings, the front façade of the building collapsed onto the street and smashed the front end of a parked car. Hundreds of people were milling the streets gawking at the damage all afternoon, and there were traffic jams for awhile as state employees rushed home.
In Seattle, at the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Hotel, more than 500 educators from around the country were gathered for a conference on technology and education. The quake occurred during Bill Gates' keynote speeech as the Microsoft leader and an assistant demostrated the new Microsoft Windows XP operating system. They stopped speaking as the shaking got more intense and walked off stage. Tile fell from the ceiling, and the reflector ring off a stage lamp fell near Gates as he left the stage.
He agreed to continue the demonstration, but engineers held things up while they checked the building. They warned people of aftershocks and told them to stay inside the building.
Mark East, Microsoft Worldwide Director for Education, circulated in the crowd and joked with people, "Windows XP makes the floor rock."
At about 12:45, Gates resumed his demonstration. Asked if he was scared, Gates said, "No, I was worrying about what was going on, was there a bomb or what was going on."
No injuries were reported at any Seattle schools but two schools suffered some damage, as did the district offices on Lower Queen Anne.
The Space Needle was safely evacuated shortly after the quake. Building operators were inspecting it, finding no initial damage. No one in or around the Needle appeared to have been injured. The restaurant was planning to reopen later today for dinner.
The Alaskan Way Viaduct remained open to traffic immediately after the quake, but was closed by mid-afternoon to be inspected.
"It was visibly swaying, but not more than anything else that was swaying," said Del Pittman, who was standing less than half a block north of the Viaduct on Western Avenue. "There wasn't any snap, or anything that made it look like it might come down."
The construction site at the future Seahawk Stadium was shut down for the day after the quake sent scaffolding falling to the ground and knocked down a huge vertical form with rebar, leaving it hanging horizontally off the side of the stadium.
Rod Lewis is an electrician working on the stadium project, says he has been through other earthquakes, but never when he was 30 feet high in the air on a hydraulic scissor lift.
"It's a long way down. And that lift rocked!" Lewis said. "It was scary. A whole bunch of guys were jumping off those lifts."
Two cars were crushed when part of a brick wall about 10 by 30 feet crashed into a parking lot beside the building at 1001 First Ave. S. across Occidental Way from the Stadium Exhibit Center. Dave Cronin, 41, the housekeeping manager at First and Goal, Paul Allen's Seahawks offices, said, "When I came around the corner, the wall fell and crushed my car flatter than a pancake."
Both the King County Courthouse and Administration Building were evacuated and closed for the day for engineers to assess damage. Judges and other who left the courthouse said that there were holes in walls and cracks throughout the building.
Many county workers gathered in City Hall Park next to the courthouse, and arrangements were being made for them to run into the closed buildings quickly to retrieve personal items. But those who were not cleared to go inside were turned away, including Norm Maleng, county prosecutor.
Walls caved in at the Fenix Underground at 323 Second Ave. S. and passersby could look inside to see floors that appeared to have collapsed.
Marylue Bryant, 52, and her roommate had to climb over spilled clothes and broken dishes when they fled their third-floor apartment at Sixth Avenue and Virginia Street with her cockateel, Tweety.
"God is talking. He's serious and he's telling us to wake up and get ready," she said, as she wiped away tears.
The quake threw open dresser doors and shook pictures off the walls of her apartment, she said.
Fred Derome, 51, of Puyallup, was working on l8th floor of the building under construction at Eighth Avenue and Virginia Street when the quake hit.
"Everything started moving," Derome said. At first Derome thought someone had dropped something heavy, causing the movement. But then he looked across the street where he saw the gold-tinted windows of another building.
"It was really beautiful and fun," Derome said.
The Pioneer Square streets swelled with residents and office workers evacuated from area buildings; nearly everyone had a cell phone attached to their ears, but nobody seemed to be getting through. People gathered souvenir bricks from the street and told fellow evacuees and total strangers their stories.
"We were eating breakfast at Trattoria and had just paid the bill," said Tim Rodgers, a Pioneer Square resident. "We heard a bunch of cracking noises and the ground became really wavy. Traffic lights were swinging, the building was shuddering, glass was breaking."
Rodgers, who had been at the Mardi Gras party the night before, stood near the Alaskan Way viaduct, the very place he thought he probably shouldn't be after an earthquake, inspecting the damage the cars and buildings.
"It's been an exciting 24 hours for Pioneer Square," he said.
Fifth- and sixth-grade students from Pine Tree Elementary in Kent came to Seattle for a field trip and were inside the auditorium of the Klondike Gold Rush Museum watching a film when the quake hit. Later, the class was to take the underground tour of Seattle. Now they stood huddled together in Occidental Park, evacuated from the building, trying to call the school and get word out that they were okay.
"The kids thought it was special effects!" said Ann Barstow, a parent and class chaperone. "I was yelling to them to get out and one of the doors wouldn't open. And afterwards one of the workers went back in and found huge chunks of concrete in the auditorium. What a day for a field trip."
A man came through the park, carrying a big plastic bag and addressing the evacuated crowd.
"We know God did that!' he shouted to the kids. "Jesus! Jesus!"
Regardless of whose hand was at work, the earthquake knocked out nine feeder lines between substations and power lines from south of downtown to southwest and south Seattle, including Harbor Avenue Southwest and along the Duwamish. Fifteen employees were inside Seattle Chocolate at 1962 First Avenue as the loading dock roof collapsed and a brick façade separated from a wall of the 1915 building and fell. No one was hurt, but Joe Gunderson said, "We won't be making chocolate here anymore."
The Compass Center, at Alaskan Way and South Washington Street, was evacuated and the sidewalk was closed off in front of the 100-year-old building.
Cindy Jackson, development director at the homeless shelter, was in her third-floor corner office overlooking the Alaska Viaduct.
" I just stood up and wondered if the building was going to go down or if the viaduct was going to collapse. Cars were stopping on the viaduct."
She said Compass Center officials were contacting the city to see about opening public buildings to provide temporary housing.
The Bread of Life Mission at First Avenue South and Main Street is housed in a 110-year-old building but had minor damage - some plaster fell from the ceiling and some windows broke.
Loren Beason, assistant director, said the shelter would open its doors to homeless men tonight and would offer extra beds to compensate for other shelters in the area that sustained more damage and will be closed.
Normally the shelter provides 50 spots for the homeless. All of them had left the building when the quake hit today and only the staff was there.
The Union Gospel Mission in Pioneer Square served lunch in a parking lot, but director Bill VanderMeer said the shelter would be open tonight and serve dinner inside.
Damage to the building on Second Avenue South was relatively minor, he said. But the front door was cordoned off because of concern about the stability of the brick façade.
The shelter ordinarily sleeps about 225 men, he said, but mats would be placed in the chapel and dining room tonight to accommodate extra people.
The lobby of the building and the sidewalk outside the hotel were jammed for several hours while officials from the Seattle Housing Authority, which manages the building, checked its safety.
The Seattle Center has shut down all its performances tonight, including Seattle Opera's "Tosca" at the Opera House, Disney's "Toy Story on Ice" at KeyArena, "The Merchant of Venice" at the Performance Studio in the Center House and Seattle Repertory's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Experience Music Project also shut down for the day. A Seattle Center spokesman said they are inspecting all the buildings at the center, and have found only minor damage so far. All venues are expected to be back in operation by tomorrow. The Seattle Opera is trying to schedule a make-up performance of "Tosca." Ticketholders for tonight's "Toy Story" can go to another performance and exchange their tickets at the box office.
Going on as planned tonight is "The Civil War" at the Paramount Theatre and "References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot" at Empty Space Theatre.
For performing artists, probably one of the best places to be during the quake was Benaroya Hall, whose 1998 construction followed the most current seismic guidelines with every available safety feature.
Musicians were rehearsing in Taper Auditorium inside the hall when the earthquake struck, and a master class with famed cellist Janos Starker was just beginning in the adjacent Nordstrom Recital Hall inside Benaroya. According to Rosalie Contreras in Seattle Symphony public relations, the hall's occupants were quickly moved into the Taper Auditorium for additional safety during the quake and its aftershocks. No damage was reported to the building, and normal operations continued soon afterward.
High school basketball games were being played on schedule today at the Tacoma Dome, which suffered no structural damage, according to two earthquake experts on staff. The building is "100 percent structurally sound," according to a spokesman.
Seattle Times staff reporters Eric Sorensen, Kevin Galvin, Eric Pryne, Eli Sanders, Susan Gilmore, Lynda V. Mapes, Jack Broom, David Postman, Ralph Thomas, Dave Birkland, Peyton Whitely, Nancy Bartley, Kyung Song, Mike Carter, Ian Ith, Duff Wilson, Caitlin Cleary, Andrew Garber and Brier Dudley contributed to this report.