A powerful earthquake rocked the northwestern US, shattering windows, showering bricks onto sidewalks and sending terrified crowds running into the streets in cities including Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
Despite the 6.8 magnitude, damage and injuries from Wednesday's temblor were relatively minor, which experts attributed to the quake's depth. About 250 people were reported injured in Seattle and Olympia, officials said. At least three of them were in serious condition, but none of the injuries were considered critical, officials said.
The earthquake temporarily shut down the Seattle airport, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people, cracked the dome atop the Capitol in Olympia and briefly trapped about 30 people atop the swaying landmark Space Needle, 180m above the city.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"It was a very long, very rough quake," said Betty Emanual, who was trapped in her law firm's 39th-floor office in downtown Seattle.
Paulette DeRooy, who scrambled onto a fire escape in a Seattle office building, said, "Everyone was panicked."
The quake hit at 10:54am and was centered 56km southwest of Seattle, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado. It was the strongest to hit Washington state in 52 years.
Experts said its depth -- in a fault about 53km underground -- spared the Northwest catastrophic damage. Officials said millions of dollars spent to remodel buildings and highways to protect against earthquakes had paid off: Damage could run into the billions, but that was considered light in a highly developed area with more than 3 million residents.
In contrast, the magnitude-6.7 quake in Los Angeles in 1994 struck just 18km underground. It caused an estimated US$15.3 billion in damage and killed 72 people.
The Northwest quake was felt as far away as British Columbia and southern Oregon, 480km away. Buildings in downtown Portland, 225km from the epicenter, swayed for nearly a half-minute and crowds gathered on street corners to talk about the quake.
A woman in her 60s died of a heart attack in suburban Seattle at about the time of the quake, however officials said they couldn't attribute her death to the earthquake with certainty.
President George W. Bush asked the director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, Joe Allbaugh, to travel to Seattle to offer help.
"Our prayers are with those who were injured and their families and with the many thousands of people whose lives have been disrupted," Bush said.
Governor Gary Locke declared a state of emergency, freeing state resources and clearing the way for federal aid. After surveying the quake damage by helicopter, he estimated it at more than US$1 billion in western Washington alone.
Screams erupted at a Seattle hotel where Microsoft founder Bill Gates was addressing an education and technology conference. He was whisked away as his audience bolted for the exits. Some people were knocked down by others trying to get out. Overhead lights crashed to the floor.
There was damage to a number of other buildings, mostly minor cracks and broken glass. Bricks fell from the top of the headquarters of the coffee chain Starbucks onto cars parked below and piled up on sidewalks in the popular Pioneer Square neighborhood, the scene of Mardi Gras celebrations the night before.
The Space Needle -- a landmark dating from the 1962 World's Fair that was built to sway during an earthquake or strong winds -- was closed for 2 1/2 hours. No one was hurt.
"You couldn't walk," Daryl Stevens said, describing when the quake hit. "It was like a rolling ship in the ocean."
A major highway buckled in places northwest of Olympia, and another road nearby was closed by a mudslide.
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was closed for more than three hours, stranding thousands of people.
The Federal Aviation Administration at one point halted all flights in and out of the Northwest's biggest city and crews were building a temporary control tower because the main building was damaged too severely to use.
The air traffic center for Washington and Oregon, near Auburn, Washington, was operating on backup power. Puget Sound Energy said 200,000 customers in western Washington lost service, but power was expected to be restored by nightfall.
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