How to Fix an Earthquake in Four Days: Cooperation is crucial for disaster recovery.

• Author: Joyal, Brad
• Position: RECOVERY

At 8:30 a.m. on November 30, Alaskans were shaken by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit about eight miles north of Anchorage. The quake shook buildings, rattled road systems, and even prompted a tsunami warning that was later canceled. While Anchorage was most severely impacted by the damage, the earthquake was felt throughout the Interior up to Fairbanks.

Just minutes after the earth stopped rumbling, photos and videos started circulating on social media depicting the damage in and around Anchorage. There were videos of children hiding under their desks inside schools and photos illustrating massive cracks that formed in roadways around the state's largest city. What shocked the world, though, was how quickly life seemed to return to normal. Days after the earthquake, more photos started making the rounds, now showing side-by-side comparisons between impacted infrastructure and roads and repairs already made.

How did things improve so quickly?

No one person or one agency was responsible for the recovery efforts. It required widespread cooperation and hours upon hours of planning, focus, and labor. Although the effects are still seen and felt around Anchorage and the surrounding areas months later, the immediate response by state officials and agencies, as well as private contractors, was nothing short of miraculous.

Preparation

Natural disasters can't be predicted. In fact, it is in part the spontaneity of earthquakes that can make them so deadly. Nobody knows when they are coming, where they will be, or how much damage they will inflict. But that doesn't mean state officials haven't been preparing for a major emergency incident to occur. In 2014, Alaska celebrated the 50th anniversary of a massive earthquake that struck about 15 miles below Prince William Sound between Anchorage and Valdez. That quake--widely known as the Good Friday Earthquake--had a 9.2 magnitude, which still ranks as the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded. The anniversary of the 1964 earthquake got state officials thinking about what they would do should another natural disaster strike the 49th state.

"We had actually been planning for an incident like this for quite some time," says Shannon McCarthy, administrations operations manager for the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF), alluding to the recent earthquake in Anchorage. "Four years ago, there was a big anniversary for the 1964 earthquake, so the state emergency management had really done a push to get people prepared and for the department to be prepared. In March 2018, we had an oversized truck hit one of our bridges that crosses the Glenn Highway, and we had to shut down the highway for, I think, four and a half days. That reminded us to take a look at some of our...