Wednesday marks 23 years since the 6.8 Nisqually earthquake

Wednesday marks 23 years since the 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake shook 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 split open.

The 6.8-magnitude quake lasted only 45 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity to those who rushed to take 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 was shaken

Former KIRO 7 reporter and KIRO 7 chief photojournalist Scott Krueger was in the mayor's conference room on the 12th floor of Old Seattle City Hall when their story for the day changed on the spot.

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

Just a mile north, parts of the ceiling at the Westin Hotel came crashing down on dozens of people gathered in a ballroom for a technology conference. I interrupted Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, while he was demonstrating the new Windows XP software.

In Pioneer Square, buildings collapsed and bricks and debris were scattered on parked cars.

Parts of the famous Starbucks Center in Sodo crashed to the ground.

The South Sound bore the brunt of the damage.

In Olympia, the state Capitol cracked, chandeliers swaying as the ground shook.

One witness described a chaotic scene in the Capitol building as people ran for their lives. “People were running in the hallways. I could hear people screaming downstairs, ‘Are you okay?’ Get out of the building. Obviously there was a lot of panic,” Burke-Long said.

Across the street from the Capitol, the chief justice of the state's highest court was meeting with Mongolian dignitaries. He quickly led them to the entrance for safety.

Just five miles east in Lacey, food flew off the shelves at a Megafoods grocery store as workers quietly and quickly ushered customers out of the building.

In Maple Valley, neighbors dealt with a very different disaster caused by the earthquake.

Seconds after the earthquake, a landslide occurred toward the community. It destroyed homes and trapped some neighbors inside.

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

Airports and bridges across Washington were forced to close for inspection and repairs.

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

Lessons learned

The quake's epicenter was 32 miles below Anderson Island, which helped mitigate some of its strength, but it could still be felt as far away as Vancouver, Montana and Portland.

It served as a warning to the state.

Since the earthquake, seismic retrofit work has been done on Washington's bridges.

A recent study by structural engineers at the University of Washington found that most bridges would be able to withstand an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale.

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

King County has relocated its Advanced Emergency Operations Center to Renton, where it is located atop a ridge of solid rock and has 800 MHz 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 Seismic Network, is concerned that more work needs to be done. The seismologist is particularly interested in unreinforced construction.

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

According to local historian, Felix Pannell, many buildings in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood do not meet current seismic safety standards.

“Brick buildings that don't have any rebar or don't have anything holding them together,” Pannell said. “In this neighborhood, when there's a really big earthquake, it's just going to be a disaster.”

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

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

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 for mobile phones is available in Washington and may provide vital seconds of warning needed to alert people that an earthquake is about to strike.

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

It sends real-time information to distributors who send alerts to cell 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.

The system is designed to give residents time to take shelter in the event of an earthquake, but it 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.

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