ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Communities along a 700-mile stretch of Alaska’s southern coast ordered their residents to higher ground Wednesday after a powerful earthquake prompted a tsunami warning.
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The 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck at 12:37 p.m. local time, just south of Sand Point, a community of about 580 people on Popof Island, in the Aleutian chain, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. The first waves were projected to land there, but the state’s emergency management division said an hour after the quake that it had received no reports of damage.
“We have seen other earthquakes in the area that have not generated significant tsunami waves, but we’re treating it seriously and going through our procedures, making sure communities are notified so they can activate their evacuation procedures,” spokesman Jeremy Zidek said.
The U.S. Tsunami Center said the warning was in effect from about 40 miles southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass, a distance of about 700 miles. Among the larger communities in the area is Kodiak, population 5,200.
In Unalaska, a fishing community of about 4,100, officials also urged people to move at least 50 feet above sea level, 1 mile inland. In King Cove, which has about 870 residents on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, officials sent an alert calling on those in the coastal area to move to higher ground.
The earthquake prompted Washington officials to analyze whether there was any danger to the state, but data from tsunami buoys showed there was not, the Washington Emergency Management Division said on X Wednesday afternoon.
