February 2001 World Headlines

Friday, March 2, 2001 - Web posted at 12:06:25 PM GMT

Strong quake shakes Seattle

SEATTLE, Washington - Downtown Seattle was in shambles after a 6,8 magnitude quake struck the northwestern corner of Washington state on Wednesday leaving one person dead and scores injured.

Washington state Governor Gary Locke declared a state of emergency and said losses could run into billions of dollars, in the biggest quake to hit the area since 1949 when a 7,1 magnitude temblor left eight dead.

Building facades had crumbled throughout the city, with the 19th-century structures downtown hit hardest.

Seattle's corporate pride - Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks were also damaged.

Microsoft head Bill Gates, giving a product demonstration to employees when the quake hit, was forced to leave the stage as chunks of ceiling crashed to the floor.

Some 30 people were stuck in the Space Needle, Seattle's 185-meter-tall landmark, for more than two hours before being rescued.

The quake measuring 6,8 on the Richter scale struck on Wednesday at 10:54am and had its epicentre 100 kilometres south of Seattle near the state capital of Olympia and at a depth of some 50 kilometres.

A man died of a heart attack at Edmonds Community College north of Seattle as a result of the quake, Locke said.

Twenty-five people were injured in the Seattle area, five seriously, according to Jim Mullen, Seattle Director of Emergency Services.

Across the state, 163 injuries were reported, three of them serious, CNN said.

Locke was in a meeting in the state capital of Olympia when he heard what sounded like heavy construction."

"I thought, no wait, that is more than construction.

I had everybody get under the desks and tables," the governor told reporters later, noting thankfully that very few people were injured."

"The floor seemed to slide back and forth.... it was pretty harrowing," he said.

After the quake struck, authorities in Seattle and Olympia immediately evacuated all public buildings.

"The building felt like rolling jelly," said lawyer Gail Draper who was in Seattle's Downtown Columbia Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the city.

"We got the hell out of there."

"Alona Breaux, 32, a laundry worker said the temblor lasted some 15 seconds and the building "was dancing and swinging all around us."

"John Bellini, a geophysicist for the US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, said lives may have been spared by the depth of the quake."

"The quake was a bit deeper than a typical quake around that area which means that the earthquake would have been felt more widely but would probably do less damage than a shallower one," he said.

The Seattle-Tacoma international airport was closed by the Federal Aviation Administration to check for damage, but later reopened for limited flights.

Seattle's state ferry system was shut down and the Alaska Way Viaduct, a highway through downtown Seattle, was closed for inspection after the quake. - Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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