Alaska had a bit of excitement last Friday when a 7.0 earthquake struck. Although it wasn’t a massive quake per se, it was very close to Alaska’s main population center, Anchorage. I had a few observations to pass along:
- People behaved themselves well. Granted, the aftermath of the quake wasn’t too extreme, but overall people were on their best behavior. I think this shows that you can usually expect better than normal behavior from people in situations where the disaster is perceived as something that will be solved shortly.
- My preparations gave me great peace of mind, in addition to the fact that I live in a smaller town outside Anchorage and work just 3 miles from home. I can’t recommend enough living in a smaller town and working close to home.
- People from my area who commute the normal 45 minutes into Anchorage had a slow drive home the day of the quake. Personally, if I knew my family and house were safe, I would have stayed with a friend in Anchorage rather than attempt to get home. Which brings me to my next point…
- Sometimes the way people react to situations can be worse than the original event. As I said earlier, people behaved themselves well, but they were rushing on the road to get home or get their kids from school. There were several accidents that were no doubt caused by this.
Continue reading“Alaska Earthquake After Action Report, by S.J.”