Right now. We know the quake hit near capital. Now theres a tsunami warning in effect. What do you know so far . This is a very significant earthquake. We have seen damage coming in from local viewers who have thwarted in information. If theres any good news is we havent subpoena significant structural damage. We havent seen buildings toppled over or massive cracks. It pyres to be cosmetic that were see sg as a short time ago. We saw a desk flipped over and chairs on their sides. Bookshelves that have come down. Thats scary situation to be in. At this point we should mention theres no reports of serious injuries or death. For the most part there doesnt seem to be structural damage to buildings. Roadways is a different issue. What youre looking at is more user generated material thats come into our news room. It shows a massive crack in the alaska area. Its fairly remote. Some 300,000 people do live in anchorage. Its the largest city in alaska. The earthquake was about seven miles away. We have seen many images of roads that look like this one thats collapsed and have been broken into several pieces. Thats going to impedes First Responders who are trying to get out right now to assess the damage, check local buildings, respond to fires. Theres been several fires that have been reported. All of this still developing at this hour. How ready are folks in alaska for an earthquake . I know after the earthquake in los angeles, Building Codes were updated. Highs and freeways were sured up because so many of them collapsed. How prepared are they in alaska . Is it as prepared as california in. It is. There are strong seismic requirements in place. This is an area that has a lot of earthquakes. They have about 40,000 earthquakes. Thats more than every other state in the country combined. This is an area thats used to these massive earthquakes. The largest was a 9. 2 in the 1960s. That was reported out of anchorage area. It sees tremors and seismic activity. Not this size. 7. 0 is massive. This is a scary situation. Residents in fairbanks which is 350 miles away say they felt some of the shaking over there. All of these warnings have been cancelled. They have been cancelled. No more tsunami warnings for alaska. Everybody is on high alert. They dont want to be caught off guard for this sort of thing. The good news is the tsunami warning has been cancelled. Talk to us about the topography and concerns. The concerns will be right along the immediate water line. Theres an inlet right at the epicenter but the elevation does go up fairly sharply especially for those who live on the east coast. Were not used to sharp elevation changes. The good news for that is people can get out of the relative danger zone fairly easy and effectively. We have been talking about needing to seek Higher Ground now that the tsunami warnings have been cancelled. Theres no longer a threat for dangerous, impactful tsunamis but that doesnt mean the water wont come happening up on the shoreline. You need to be cognizant of that. The bigger struggle moving forward will be the potential damage for homes and to the s r infrastructure. We have seen pictures of roadways that have been split by the shaking. We have also heard about fires. I believe miguel was telling us about several fires have erupted. I think thats probably because of broken gas lines. Anyone who has gas power for anything in their home or business might have that line ruptured. All gas needs to be turned off in homes or buildings that have gas power. Look at these roads that have been heavily damaged. We dont know where these roads are that have been damaged but its possible that the roadway you would take has been damaged. These are things people will have to think about in the immediate aftermath of this. Theres still the potential for aftershocks even in the coming hours and days after this first earthquake. When you say that, i was going to add that even though the tsunami warning has been cancelled, even though the earthquake is over, there is the potential for aftershocks. That can last hours after an earthquake. It can last days after an earthquake. There was already one that was felt 5. 8 in magnitude which is a significant earthquake as well. 7. 0 is major earthquake with major shaking, major rumbling. 5. 8 for anybody who has felt an earthqua earthquake above a five is still a lot of shaking. What fault line was this . There are so many faults in that area. I was mentioned earlier that the second largest earthquake we had ever membered is a 9. 2 in that general area. For alaska, this is still a significant earthquake but small time compared to their relatively recent history. 7. 0. When you say 7. 0 being small time. Somebody who grew up in los angeles which felt the north ridge quake which wasnt a 7. 0. 6. 7. That was scary. I cant imagine the 7. 0. That was a relative statement of mine when i said for them its moderaeratmoderate. I dont mean to imply its small. You look a at the roadways, we see a lot of filter where the earth has been stacked up to build a road and the earth is weak and you see its sliding and failing. The interesting things about the earthquakes be it this 7. 0 here or the 6. 7 in north ridge back in 1994, its not the earthquake itself thats the problem. Its our built structures. Roads. We see the buildings. Its the way we build things. We dont build them well enough to with stand the energy that Mother Nature unleashes. The Building Codes were updated pretty significantly L Los Angeles archdiocese the north ridge quake. How do you build a road that can with stand Something Like this . Thats one of the problems. One of the things about earthquake is we learn. We change the Building Code and try to improve things so we dont repeat a lot of same mistakes. For alaska today this is kind of a test and for Something Like a road, relatively speaking, it piled up, bulldozed a lot compacted it down. The road wouldnt be considered as high a priority as an office Tower Building that people are working in or an Elementary School that people are attending. You tend to direct more resources toward the buildings or the bridges. The things that can fall and collapse and kill people is the biggest concern. This happened at 8 29 a. M. Local time. 12 30 p. M. Eastern standard time. When youre looking ahead, theres been a lot of talk about how the west coast is overdue for that once every hundred years earthquake. That big one. They mean big one that will cause devastation. Wi widespread devastation. I know its hard to predict. I know you cant say when an earthquake will happen but when you see this, what is your immediate next thought . You know, interesting thing about this is we know a heck of a lot about earthquakes. We look at radio carbon dates to see what the prehistoric earthquake record is. We have a good idea of what will happen and why. Were missing that one big piece and were not close to it. Thats the short term prediction about when it will happen. For california we go back to that. The last really big earthquake was 1906, San Francisco. That was a magnitude 7. 8. We anticipate, this is just looking at the historic record, we anticipate a magnitude 7. 8 on the southern san andreas fault. That hadnt moved since around 1690. Its not going to be pleasant. Its going to be an ugly event. A lot of things will be spared because of those increased Building Codes since north ridge and other earthquakes. Theres still Old Buildings around. Its so expensive to retro fit buildings. Its hard to tell somebody you mu fix your building and the fixing costs more than the building is worth because an earthquake is coming and then the earthquake might not come for 50 years. Its easy to control new construction but its hard to g ba go back and retrofit the old. A will the of structures are built on sand. Santa monica is mostly sand. Its up with of the reasons you cant build a subway all across los angeles because of sand. Many of the structures crumbled because they were not built on a solid foundation. If theres a major quake along the west coast, the Building Codes have been sured up. What about the evacuation plans. The we need to get people out of here because theres a tsunami coming plans. Are those up to standard . The evacuation plans, yes. We work on the evacuation plans a lot. Those are a matter of trying to get peoples attention. We have been working here in california and in Southern California spread around the world now. This drop, cover and hold on that in the first world, the best thing you can do with buildings that are improved is to protect yourself is to just not let somebody fall on you, shelter in place. You dont have time to go anywhere. The then the evacuations that come later are almost secondary in the sense that number one item is protect yourself. Dont go running around. Dont go worrying about everybody else. Theres not much you can do. Save yourself then come out and start looking at other people and trying to figure out where you can best be of help. How can you be a First Responder to help them. Evacuations are difficult. When you talk about areas like los angeles, for example, you have the water supply comes across the san andreas fault. Were not going to see the kinds of problems. That earthquake in 2010 that hit portauprince haiti that killed 240,000 people, that particularly earthquake was almost identical to what happened to San Francisco area in 1987 during the baseball world series. Were looking at live pictures of the news room in anchorage, alaska. You can see how many damage there is just there alone. Lights from the studio that are now on the floor. Lots of desks toppled over. Books from those desks toppled over. Is this the sort of damage you would expect . Absolutely. Every time im in a tv studio, were talking about this topic. Im always saying look up over head. You have all kinds of things hanging around. They wouldnt pass hardly any codes. Nobody comes around to see how you hung this up or did you fasten that to the wall. When you look there in the tv studio, we were discussing this thing about drop, cover and hold on. I hope everybody dove underneath a desk. Then it doesnt matter how much of that kind of stuff fell, it wouldnt hurt them. Then you come out and tend to business and see where youre needed. Theres video of news anchors doing that when they fell tremors in california. They immediately go under the desk. People make fun of it but thats what you do in california. You dont really do this on the east coast because people arent used to earthquakes. You dont generally put picture frames or books above your bed because they could fall on your head. All bookshelves are nailed to the wall. Not because you might have tods h toddler running around but those bookshelves can come down. Its not as if the Fire Department is coming in and che checking everybodys home. Its a personal responsibility you have to take when on the west coast. Is there a worry there might be a massive tsunami along the west coast. When i got the first call here about this earthquake, it was the first thing i wanted to s see. First offer, 7. 0. I use this a a rule of thumb. Where did the fault, where did the earth mover. If it moves underneath the land, that doesnt put that much energy in the water. If its the sea floor thats where you create this huge tsunami. That was more than a hundred mile rupture of the ocean floor. For the 50 states of the United States, we have three states that where a stsunami general ra general ra generating earthquake can occur. Thats over 300 years ago. Thats a lot more time to load the rocks with energy. We dont know where the next one will come. The next one tsunami generating event would be the ones seattle, portland, oregon, washington. For that size tsunami those radiate out and go across the ocean. That will prevent threats to hawaii, for example. Are there evacuation plans in place . They have been working on those a lot in the puget sound, seattle, tacoma area and portland, oregon. That would be for anybody near the coast go to Higher Ground. You can stand up to tsunami waves. Its not just a wave like youre used to. Its not like a wave where they show a big towering wave that would make a surfers heart twitter with anticipation. Its really a sheet of water. When we talk about the tsunami wave, its the leading edge of a whole uplifted shelf of water and the real danger is not the height of the water coming in, its the fact that it keeps coming in. Go back to that 2011 japan when that helicopter footage, theres the one in the city where saw the tsunami come over the coastal area and went through the International Airport and went six miles inland. The biggest threat is simply that the massive water doesnt just stop on the beach. It can go miles inland. The trick is to get elevation. Anything thats low lying. Low lying land will be flooded. Theres the evacuation thing. You dont want to wait for anybody to call. If you know theres a big earthquake you want to get to as high as ground as possible. Dont wait for anybody else. Hang on with us for a second. This was a 7. 0 magnitude earthquake that happened at 8 30 a. M. Local time just seven miles tor to the north of anchorage, alaska. Theres no sue tsunami warning effect for alaska. This was a big earthquake. 7. 0 is classified as major on the richter scale. It was felt as far as 350 miles away in fairbanks, alaska. Come roads have collapsed. Buildings have experienced some damage. Lights down, desks turned over. Books on the floor. Theres some gas line issues that they are worried about. Electricity might be down in a few areas. The phones were down. Russell, i hear you have been driving around and assessing the dang on your ow damage on your own. What are you seeing . Everything is very close in perspective to the tristate area of new york metropolitan area. Getting from West Anchorage to midtown normally takes about seven minutes. We have been in traffic for 40 minutes. They become four way stops. The temperatures are probably in the high 20s, low 30s. Theres structural damage to roads. The gate vs been closed. They are probably at a higher level of alert. That would be for Public Affairs to specifically define to you. People in the out lying areas south of us are all experiencing damage bridges, roads that have slit. Rock silides. Some buildings that were built years ago that have built on peak structure and now have water main issue, electrical issues and things of that. It was significant tumbler and one that i have not felt in the 40 some odds years ive been in anchorage here. That was a big one. I see some emergency vehicles up ahead kind of moving around. The tall areas are still intact. The biggest thing is our port. Theres been structural issues with corrosion and like many pieces of infrastructure in the United States needs immediate repair. Theres lots of reasons why that hasnt happened. That is our lifeline to alaska. The only other option we have is to have a Navy Operation come in and do a pass pass to ground. What did the earthquake feel like . It was a very sharp, abrupt rattling. You could hear everything shaking and the whole house just moving. It was very abrupt. It was like something taking you and shaking you. You knew you had significant event your hand. What were you doing when it happened . I was in bed. We were just contemplating kind of getting up. Were four hours behind you. 8 00 in anchorage is 12 00 noon in new york. We were taking an easy morning out. Didnt have any work requirements at that time. What did you do . We jumped out of bed. Things were toppling off the bed side table. We heard this crashing in the kitchen. We ran down the hallway to our living room area. I grabbed this old 17th century standing clock that i had to make sure it wasnt going to topple over. We just looked into the kitchen and it was broken glass and bottles of beet juice and canned goods and just glass everywhere. We were just contemplating Walking Around and we went into the bathroom areas and all those cabinets had come unglued. We started to reach out to people right away. Our daughters, our sons and our employees that we have to make sure they were okay and safe. We keep land line on our home all the time for this reason. Its very smart. Sounds like youre one of those west coasters who understands what could happen at any in a moment. I hope you didnt have any rugs in your kitchen with all that beet juice breaking. We always keep a large rug in the kitchen just for traction. That wasnt too bad. Its more of a utility thing. A nice utility rug but it served its purpose today. We cleaned up and our wood floors are durable and holding up. Were so gridlocked here in traffic. Racing to school to get to kids and races to work and home. 8 30 in the morning, a lot of kids would be in school and a lot of folks out there would already be at work. Just trying to get to your loved ones or maybe get back home will be difficult. Wish you good luck if traffin t. Thank you for joining us. Now joining us by the phone is the mayor of anchorage. Mayor, thank you for joining us. What can you tell us . I think things are pretty well in hand here. Delay light has come which is fortunate. Its a balmy 31 degrees. Our Damage Assessment is fair l minimal. People should not think of a tsunami coming here. That warning has been cancelled. When you say its positioned well, do you mean its naturally elevated . Theres a large mud flap around the city. Its shallow. Its not susceptible to tsunamis. Have you heard about any injuries so far . Weve not. Im here at the Emergency Operation center. People seem safe. Theres some infrastructure damage on both roads in and out of town. Theres one of the north and the south. The one to the south is blocked by rock collislide. The road has fallen. Its currently blocked. Were looking right now on screen at video that was taken by somebody on twitter driving down the highway in alaska. There seems to be significant structure fire. How many fires have been reported . We have three fires reported currently. Fire department has them fairly well under control. This is in anchorage. Its good to here they are under control. Theres 300,000 people who live here. Our community is the side of delaware from the municipality to the other. Were a large place. Most of us are concentrated in what we call the anchorage ball. Because of that, we are able to assess where things are. How prepared are folks in anchorage for an earthquake . People in anchorage were used to things being difficult. We always get ready for the wintertime. This was a big one. Theres no question about it. It got every ones attention. Knocked over a lot of euros and that caused damage. By in large anchorage people are strong and resilient. We have a Great Community here. People are looking out after one another and the mood is fairly calm. Are you worried about aftershocks . We have been having a series of aftershocks. We have a nice reminder that we live in a techtonic zone. What were you doing when it happened . I was working out at the time and immediately ran for my car and drove down to the Emergency Operation center. I stopped at home to get something to eat first. I just talked to a gentleman a smoke ago who told me it didnt feel like a rolling earthquake. Some people describe it as a rolling centuriation. He said this felt much more like a jerking. It was very sharp. Im not sure what happened. It was close to anchorage. This is one of the benefits of living in the north. Theres always Something Interesting happening. What do you have to tell people who might be trying to get to a school to pick up kids . I imagine they were just dropped off. Stay koocalm. Were sheltering in place. Theres procedures to get kids home. 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Buildings and a number of roads collapsed. Its causing a lot of problems for folks who are trying to get from point a to point b. Yes the highway behind that road is moving smoothly but if you have to get off that road to get on this road to go to your house, supermarket, get your kids, to work or away from work thats going to be a problem. Joining us by phone is Steve Thompson who was boarding a flight to seattle. We were getting ready to board the plane and you could feel it shake. The power went out and everything from the ceiling started to fall and people were screaming and running and hiding under desks. Were you told to evacuate the airport . Yeah, eventually we ended up walking out to the tarmac. We all were waiting outside. They were bringing coats to everybody because it was pretty cold outside. Any damage on the runways that you know of . Not that i know. Inside its the ceiling tile thats fallen out and mostly the structural damage to the roof but nothing too bad on the runway. Your plane has been delayed one hour. You expect to get out to seattle with no problem after that . Should be. I havent heard otherwise. As of now were supposed to depart at 11 30. What did it feel like . Kind of felt like, if youve been on the subway before, that constant rattling underneath you. Turbulence in an aircraft, that gust that shakes the side of the plane. It was consistent rattling and a huge jerk and the whole building would start to sway. Thats when people started to panic. The power went out and the sirens started going off and people started screaming and running. Did you know immediately it was an earthquake . Yeah. Growing up in alaska youre pretty used to these. I was kind of excited for it. I was noting everything shaking in the ceiling and didnt expect it to be as bad as it has been. You take it forgranted how powerful these can be. Whats the strongest quake you felt before this . Probably one about two or three years ago that was pretty comparable. Usually they are just pretty subtle. Maybe youll see the chandeliers shake. I admire your excitement in a moment that it happened. I was in los angeles during the north ridge quake. I think i was nine or ten and i got to tell you it was so scary for me. I was woken up out of sleep. I didnt sleep for a year after that. Its still the single scariest thing that i can think of in my life. Oh, man. Maybe i should be that way. I was more excited. I was tlilike this is awesome. You realize how intense it was getting and think about 1964 and you start to wonder is today the day. Exactly. You never know when they will hit and you never know how strong they will be until youre in the middle of it and you have to just hope youre in a structure that is strong nuenou to with stand it and you can find somewhere within the structure to keep yourself safe. A desk to get under, a doorway to stand in the middle of. I dont know if those are still the safest places to be. I think there was a study done on that. Getting away from the windows is always a big one. I think typically the tsunami does the damage. Im usually not afraid of the buildings collapsing but getting away from the water afterward is the trouble. I admire your excitement but i totally understand the feeling that you quickly realized. Its exciting as long as its okay. I hope that nobody is hurt in all this mess. If eaveryone is okay by it, jus enjoy the roiide. The mayor said theres been no reports of injuries. Theres been damage reports across town. We are looking at some of them now. It looks like the majority of the damage that we can see so far from the photos is that things were knocked off shelves or lights have fallen from the ceiling. I think one ap reporter saw a crack in a structure. We havent heard of any bil buildings that have collapsed. The mayor said the fires are under control. It was a really big earthquake. 7. 0 is major on the richter scale. Not just strong but major. If this is the extent of it, you guys got away lucky. Were pretty grateful up here. Engineers do a good job. Feel like the earthquake preparation is fantastic. We understand being on the ring of fire and the risks we have and i think every one did a pretty good job. No more tsunami warning either. Thats good as well. Thank you so much for joining us and good luck with your flight, steve. Thanks for having me. Joining us now is nbc news correspondent kathy park. Any update on the news ank ang any update on the news ank ale this . They are working with daylight. Emergency responders are going through the area to get a better sense of the extent of damage and lot of folks in the area of anchorage. About 300,000 people are taking to social media posting various image, videos of what they experience at the height of this earthquake. We saw a lot of damage as far as in grocery stores. We saw the shelves bar republican with a lot of barren items on the ground. The folks crouched underneath their desk unsure of what was going on. This was something that caught a lot of folks off guard. You mentioned theres some promising news as far as the tsunami warning that has been cancelled at this hour. Folks in the area are still feeling those aftershocks. Hundreds of miles away but some good news. Governor bill walker mentioned theres no reports of any deaths at this hour. The office going through the area reporting no injuries. This is still very much a fluid situation. There are pockets of outages. 37nnot only will you get boo an the ground, broken glass, but it feels like anything thats not bolted to wall is going to come down as well. Its also why folks on the west coast know if you put up a large bookcase, bolt it to the wall. If you put up a picture frame make sure its secured. If youre going to have fan over your bed, youll make sure its extra secured into the ceiling. Youre probably not going to hang any pictures over your bed or put any bookshelves over your bed for fear youll be in bed when an earthquake happens and they could fall on you. The building structures, the Building Codes have been updated as time has gone on across the west coast. Those Building Codes get stronger and stronger but thats for new structures. Thats for new construction. A lot of time, as we were talking about earlier, the older buildings get grandfathered in. Theres a hope that when that earthquake, when the next earthquake comes, when the next earthquake strikes those buildings are still standing. Obviously theres concern if you are in one of those older buildings. We are still monitoring this. The tsunami warning has been cancelled. Roads have collapsed in some places. Theres been reports of fire. Theres damage and structures but so far the mayor of anchorage has said he has no reports of any injuries. Lets go to tom costello. We have been watching the roads. Looking at the damage we have seen. We talked to a gentleman who said he was stuck in quite a lot of traffic which would be in line with the damage were seeing. Were seeing highways that are totally fine. What are you gathering so far . Just got off the phone with the faa headquarters to give you a sense of whats happening there in alaska. The faa tells me now that the air Traffic Control tower has been evacuated. The tray con is the koorcoording air Traffic Control for take offs and ones. That remains open. The Enroute Center remains open. On the ground right now in anchorage at the airport, departures are continuing. However, without a control tower. That means pilots are koor coordinating by radio. Theres nobody in tower watching all of that. Runway 7 right at anchorage is open for departures. They are coordinating via radio with each other. Anchorage is no longer accepting any arrivals. Ten flights were in bound to anchorage. They have now been diverted either to air force base or fairbanks. The Damage Assessment continuing there on the ground to check out the runway, ramps, the buildings and the air Traffic Control tower. All of that has to go through a thorough assessment. They are hoping to have all ten in bound flights on the ground within a few hours. One or two of them were told is an international flight. At the moment, thats where we stand. In bound, no arrivals allowed. Only a few outbound allowed. That is runway 7 right coordinating via radio with another pilots and controllers. Good news, no injuries that we know of right now at the anchorage airport. Back to you. That is good news. We heard from someone expecting to be back in the air in one hour. He does not see any damage at least on the runway right now. In terms of the roads and the highways, what are you hearing there . I honestly have not had time. But it is awfully early for them to have any sense of the scope of the damage. Obviously, there is significant highway damage and that will have to go through a real thorough appraisal, not only by the state authorities but also in the case of interstates, federal highways, that will all have to be thoroughly examined by bridge engineers and Road Construction engineers. In some cases, they will have to be closed for a period of time as they have to ve build them. Obviously, as you are looking right now. That kind of damage to that highway will close that for a considerable people. Then you have to done assessment of all of the surrounding structures. Were any of them compromised as a result of this quake . Not just the damage thats obvious and we see with the gaping hole on the highway. Do the cracks extend further down the cement structures, further down any metal structures, down the sell. A the cement. Obviously, you are dealing with very cold temperatures there. That also aggravates as you know crack on raised and highways. They will have to do a lot of the assessment throughout the entire quick zone. Somebody on twitter asked an important question. There are a number of Oil Pipelines in alaska. There are questions of what this has done to those ill pipelines. From what we can gather so far. The Alaska Pipeline that carries crude from the arctic coast to the Marine Terminal in valdez has been shut down as a precaution. So far, though, to reports of any damage at that oil pipeline. But it could certainly cause some disruption in the delivery of oil across the country. Yeah. Nbc news tom costello. Reporter hey, katie. I got a bit of news as when speaking from the faa. They have now just as of this minute reopened the average rnc control tower. As that one guest requested, he wanted to be up in an hour or so. Now controllers are apparently now returning to the control tower and so that will help facilitate departures and he hopefully landings, once they know 91 of the runways have been compromised. That is good news, flights resuming. That means they were prepared for this sort of thing and there was a plan in place. Tom costello, thank you very much. You bet. Meteorologist erica grow is back with us. How can the weather impact things up there . It could have an impact over the next 24 hours or so. The epicenter of the earthquake just about 7 miles north of the city of anchorage, as its been pointed out. Anchorage is by far the largest city in alaska with 300,000 person population. Again the epicenter across a waterway, thankfully a tsunami is not anticipated at this point. So tsunami warnings have been cancelled. But there the a lot of loose debris now. A lot of building and infrastructure damage. So there are going to be items that could act as missiles if they are picked up by any water and we have more water on the way. Heres a look at a future weather model. The european model, specifically, showing the threat for rain moving in again. And rain, not snow, in this case as we head from tonight into saturday and that could cause landslides. Any loose debris can be picked up very easily by water. Water is a very powerful weapon in this case. It could lift objects as large as cars if there is enough water present. So thats something that people are going to have to look out for heading forward, katie. We are also very concerned about those road closures. There could be not only downed power lines but also broken gas lines, if anyone has gas for heat or type of power source. That could have ruptured in this earthquake. That can cause fires as well. Hopefully people, if they do have gas power, were able to turn it off shortly after this earthquake ended. Thank you. Lets go to brothers don and kj johnson, they host a morning show in lavenlth lets go to them now. You guys were on the radio when this earthquake hit. What happened . Caller yes, yes, we were, we were in the middle of a story a bit. Out of nowhere, it kind of seemed like you know you start at an Amusement Park ride, it starts to bump, bump, bump. Initially the bump itself were slow to go, slow to start. We looked at each other, two, three seconds later, it was total pandemonium. It started shaking like the most possible ride. The building felt it was on a bowl of jello. It was crazy. Mmhmm. Do you have any callers calling in, describing what was happening . Caller well, what happened initially is the magnitude of the earthquake was so great, it knocked us off the air immediately. All the lights went out. All of the television went out. We immediately came back on from our backup generator only to discover pictures had been thrown from the walls, computers had been turned upsidedown. People were calling me in, mark they were safe or find out if certain schools. We had maybe two or three different schools that had the roof collapse. A couple schools caught an on fire. A lot of flooding downtown right after that. A tsunami warning hit and evacuations started for downtown. But no traffic signals, nothing to kind of direct people. So it was immediate gridlock and just craziness. And i dont know if you guys realize, alaska, around this time of year, there is not much sunlight. So a lot of darkness has gone on. A lot of confusion. 57d like literally, it was kind of like a little beirut, like you could look out of the window and see transformers, exploding. Caller like fireworks throughout the city. It was harrowing. Caller it was like a scene out of a movie. Guy, were looking at video inside a courtroom. This was shot by our local affiliate ktva. Can you see a girl a woman doing exactly what you are supposed to do. Im sorry, cbs. Not nbcs. A woman doing what you are supposed to do during an earthquake. She is getting under the desk until the shaking is over. It was a violent shaking. Its still going on. It looks like its lasting, god, at least 30 seconds. How long do you think it lasted . What did it feel to you, at least . Caller 30, 45 seconds. It felt like it lasted about five minutes. Like literally, it was the longest 45 seconds of shaking. I mean, the shaking was so violent that the mortar, concrete, sheet rock separated like literally have lines throughout the building where the sheet rock and the mortar was separated from the shaking being so violent. Wow c. Gosh. Its just the image right there, its still shaking of the beginning of this video where it looked like the camera jerked around immediately. The flags almost fell down, panels on the ceiling fell down. Gentleman, where are you right now . Caller right now, were in a vehicle helded o headed out of. With the tsunami warning. Where the Radio Station is located in cook inlet literally in downtown. We were literally on the edge of the tsunami warning perimeter where they were basically telling everyone to get, move no Higher Ground so we basically sacked everything up, headed up into our suv to the mountains. Caller with there being no traffic lights, you can imagine the gridlock that has us in a hold, looking in our rear view mirror with water looking at us from behind. So its a crazy moment in life for sure. Don and kj johnson, glad you are safe. Im glad that tsunami was cancelled. Again a 7. 0 magnitude earthquake hitting seven miles north of anchorage alaska. The governor of alaska, Bill Whitaker said after a major earthquake, i have issued a declaration of desert. I have been in contact with the white house. Major lori hummel and i are working with Emergency Responders to make sure alaskans are safe. From the incident k3457center established in richardson, we are closely monitoring reports of aftershocks and assessing damage to roads, bridges, and buildings. My family is praying for yours. God bless alaska. That is Governor Bill Walker saying that. That will wrap things up for me this hour. Christensen picks things up e christensen picks things chris jansen picks things up. Juneau is the capital. Thank you so much. Breaking news, if thats the worse that happens, we are okay. Okay, i am chris jansen. We continue this major earthquake. It happened twoandahalf hours ago. But significant aftershocks are still happening. The 7. 0 quake caused major