Tuesday marks 22 years since the 6.8 Nisqually earthquake – KIRO 7 News Seattle

SEATTLE — Tuesday marks 22 years since the 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted western Washington.

On February 28, 2001, at 10:54:32 a.m., the ground beneath western Washington shook so violently that buildings collapsed, roofs collapsed and the ground opened open.

The magnitude 6.8 quake lasted only 45 seconds, but it felt like an eternity to those who scrambled for cover.

In less than a minute, the earthquake will cause hundreds of injuries and millions of dollars in damage.

The Nisqually earthquake resulted in the death of one person who died of a heart attack.

Western Washington shook

Former KIRO 7 reporter and chief KIRO 7 photographer Scott Kreuger was in the mayor’s conference room on the 12th floor of Old Seattle City Hall when their story for the day changed instantly.

Their quick action brought some of the first live images of the earthquake to viewers in Seattle and, eventually, around the world.

About a mile north, pieces of the roof at the Westin Hotel smashed onto dozens of people crowded into an auditorium for a technology conference. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates interrupted in the middle of presenting the new Windows XP software.

Raw video shows Nisqually earthquake shaking Microsoft event

In Pioneer Square, buildings collapsed, sending bricks and debris crashing into parked cars.

Parts of SoDo’s iconic Starbucks mall have been smashed to the ground.

Southern Sound bore the brunt of the damage.

In Olympia, the state capitol cracked, and chandeliers swayed with the earth’s roar.

A witness described the chaotic scene in the Capitol building as people were fleeing for their lives. “People were running down the hallways. I could hear the people downstairs screaming, ‘Are you okay? Exit the building. “There’s clearly a lot of panic,” Bourke Long said.

Across the street from the Capitol building, the chief justice of the state’s supreme court was meeting Mongolian dignitaries. He quickly led them to the entrance to safety.

Just five miles east in Lacey’s, food flew off the shelves at a Megafoods grocery store as workers quietly and swiftly removed customers from the building.

The Nisqually earthquake Sunday, February 28, 2021 marks 20 years since the Nisqually earthquake in 2001.

In Maple Valley, the neighbors deal with a much different disaster caused by an earthquake.

Seconds after the earthquake, a landslide rips toward the community. Homes have been uprooted and some neighbors trapped inside.

Debris from this landslide filled a channel from the Cedar River, causing floods upstream.

Airports and bridges across Washington had to close for inspections and repairs.

In all, the 2001 Nisqually earthquake caused between $1 and $4 billion in damage.

Lessons learned

The epicenter was 32 miles below Anderson Island, which helped hold back some of its force, but it could still be felt as far away as Vancouver, Montana, and Portland.

It was a warning to the state.

Since the earthquake, seismic retrofitting work has been done on the Washington bridges.

A recent study by structural engineers at the University of Washington found that most bridges would be able to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake.

“We found that the damage to the bridges was much less than expected,” explained Professor Mark Eberhard. For the vast majority of bridges in the area, we think they’ll be fine.

King County has moved its state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center to Renton, where it sits atop a ridge of solid rock and has 800MHz radio communications to nearly all of King County.

Major buildings, schools and hospitals have made upgrades to better protect infrastructure.

Harold Tobin of the Pacific Northwest Seismological Network worries more work needs to be done. The seismologist is particularly interested in unreinforced construction.

“We have codes that are great for new construction, but we don’t have codes that require updating old buildings,” Tobin said.

According to local historian Felix Pannell, many buildings in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood did not meet current seismic safety codes.

“Brick buildings don’t have any steel reinforcement or nothing holding them together,” Panelll said. “This neighborhood when the really big earthquake comes, it will just be a disaster.”

Science has advanced new tools to better track activity and monitor what’s going on beneath the surface.

In the two decades since the disaster, Tobin says, the number of seismic stations in the area has doubled.

In May of 2021, Washington Emergency Management launched an alert system to warn people on their phones, similar to a Weather Alert or Amber Alert.

The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system is available for mobile phones in Washington and may provide vital seconds of warning needed to alert people that an earthquake is about to happen.

The system uses a network of sensors that detect the onset of an earthquake and calculate the magnitude, location and amount of shaking expected from earthquakes on the West Coast.

It sends real-time information to distributors who send alerts to mobile phones and the Internet.

Washington state has the second highest earthquake risk in the United States. It also has one of the highest tsunami risks.

This system is designed to give residents time to take cover in the event of an earthquake but cannot predict when an earthquake will strike.

State officials say it’s important for people to enable emergency alerts on their phones so they can receive alerts.

Details on how to do this can be found here.

Raw video of Chopper 7 over Nisqually earthquake damage

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