Tsunami Warning Canceled After Strong Alaska Quake

Communities in areas along a 700-mile stretch of Alaska's southern coast ordered residents to higher ground after a powerful earthquake Wednesday, but officials quickly downgraded a tsunami warning for the region. There were no immediate reports of significant damage. The Alaska Earthquake Center said the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, struck at 12:37pm local time south of Sand Point, a community of about 600 people on Popof Island in the Aleutian chain, the AP reports.

• The US Tsunami Warning Center said the warning was in effect from about 40 miles southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass. Among the larger communities in the area is Kodiak, population 5,200. The warning was downgraded to an advisory about an hour later, and canceled just before 2:45pm.

• Debi Schmidt, the city administrator for Sand Point, tells KTUU the quake was the "biggest one" she's ever felt. "I was at home for lunch and the house was shaking and things were falling, and cupboard doors were coming open," she says. "No damage, though."
• The National Weather Service said in posts on social media that there was no tsunami threat for other US and Canadian Pacific coasts in North America, including Washington, Oregon, and California.
• Alaska's southern coast is earthquake-prone, and Wednesday's was the fifth in roughly the same area since 2020 exceeding magnitude 7, state seismologist Michael West says. "Something's moving in this area," he tells the AP. "I would not call this an isolated earthquake. It appears to be part of a larger sequence spanning the last several years."

This story has been updated with new developments.