Thousands of Americans along Alaska’s coastline raced to higher ground on Wednesday, abandoning their homes after a major earthquake triggered a tsunami warning.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected a 7.3 magnitude at approximately 12:38pm local time (4:30pm ET), centered in the Pacific Ocean just south of the Alaska Peninsula near the Shumagin Islands, southeast of Sand Point.
Sirens wailed and emergency alerts lit up phones across the region, warning residents across a vast stretch of southwestern Alaska, from Kennedy Entrance near Homer to Unimak Pass near Unalaska, to evacuate immediately.
Rachel Lord, the mayor of Homer, said: ‘We’ve been hearing [that] initially there was a lot of bumper-to-bumper traffic and people just trying to get you know to get off the spit.’
Officials also warned of potential tsunami impacts on Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula, and parts of the eastern Aleutian Islands, with some areas expected to be hit first.
Dramatic images showed an eerily bare shoreline, the ocean having suddenly vanished, a chilling sign that a tsunami could be moments away.
David Snider, a tsunami warning coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told KTUU that a tsunami had been confirmed, saying the tsunami generated small waves that rose sea levels about three inches.
‘A tsunami was generated by this event, but no longer poses a threat,’ the Tsunami Warning Center said. ‘Some areas may continue to see small sea level changes.’
