ollowing a significant earthquake that generated a tsunami warning, thousands of Americans along Alaska’s coastline rushed to higher ground on Wednesday, fleeing their houses.
At at 12:38 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. ET), the US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a magnitude of 7.3, with its centre in the Pacific Ocean southeast of Sand Point, close to the Shumagin Islands, just south of the Alaska Peninsula.
Residents across a wide area of southwestern Alaska, from Kennedy Entrance near Homer to Unimak Pass near Unalaska, were warned to leave right away by sirens and emergency warnings that lighted up phones throughout the area.
“We’ve been hearing [that] initially there was a lot of bumper-to-bumper traffic and people just trying to get you to get off the spit,” said Rachel Lord, the mayor of Homer.