- Title: USA: REPAIR WORK BEGINS AFTER POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE THAT CLAIMED ONE LIFE
- Date: 3rd March 2001
- Summary: SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (MARCH 1, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PAN BUILDINGS AND STREET; LAS ZOOM OUT DAMAGED BUILDING; MV VEHICLE COVERED BY FALLEN DEBRIS; SLV STREET DAMAGED BY TREMOUR (3 SHOTS) 0.27 2. MV REPAIR WORKERS STANDING AROUND DAMAGED AREAS (4 SHOTS) 0.55 3. [SOUNDBITE](English)UNIDENTIFIED SEATTLE RESIDENT, SAYING: "I was up on the sixth floor of this building and heard a little bit of rattling and then got under my desk instantly, and we have these packs that they give us, you know, the supplies, and that was under there for me and I was just hoping I'd live through it. I was very scary. It shook me around, slammed me against the desk and then, the filing cabinets watching those open and close. Very strange." ASKED WHEN HE GOT A CHANCE TO LOOK OUTSIDE? "Ah, I expected to see a lot more damage than I did. But I did see dust coming out of some of these older buildings and that, so you can tell that something had happened to them." 1.31 4. MV VECHICLE PARTIALLY COVERED BY DEBRIS 1.38 5. SLV CITY STREET 1.43 6. SU NEWSPAPER HEADLINES 1.52 7. HAS CLOSED CITY TUNNEL; SCU TUNNEL CLOSED SIGN (2 SHOTS) 2.05 8. LV SEATLE SKYLINE AND SPACE NEEDLE 2.13 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 18th March 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA77FL609Z9XYFYRG9L27MCO728
- Story Text: Repair work has begun in Seattle, Washington, after a
powerful earthquake shook the city on Wednesday, causing at
least 1 billion U.S. dollar in damage but miraculously only
one death.
Repair efforts were underway on Thursday (March 1), as
an aftershock rattled western Washington state early on
Thursday, following a powerful earthquake which shook the
Seattle area on Wednesday
The quake caused at least a billion United States dollars
(USD) in damage but miraculously only one death.
A spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey said the
aftershock was felt at 1.10 a.m. Pacific Time/4.10 EST (0910
GMT) about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Tacoma, along the
same fault line as Wednesday's major quake.
Wednesday's quake had a magnitude of 6.8, considered
strong enough to cause extensive damage and injuries.
A 66-year-old woman from Burien, a Seattle suburb near the
airport, died of a heart attack after the quake, marking the
first confirmed fatality after the temblor, local officials
said.
Seattle officials said about 25 people were being treated
in local hospitals for injuries and that four were in serious
condition after being crushed by debris. In addition,
hospitals in Olympia were treating 35 people.
Seattle Mayor Paul Schell said the city was open for
business on Thursday, adding that given the size of the quake
it was a miracle that there were not more injuries or deaths.
One resident said described how he was on the sixth floor
of a building when he "heard a little bit of rattling". He hid
under his desk in fear.
"I was just hoping I'd live through it. I was very scary.
It shook me around, slammed me against the desk and then, the
filing cabinets watching those open and close. Very strange."
he said.
Wednesday's quake cracked the dome of the state Capitol in
Olympia, sent bricks tumbling from historic buildings in
Pioneer Square, the nation's first skid row, trapped people at
the top of Seattle's landmark World's Fair Space Needle,
triggered landslides that plugged the river that delivers the
city's water and led to the temporary closure of the
Seattle-Tacoma airport.
The quake also cracked the famous Boeing field where the
aerospace giant tests its planes, cut power to 200,000 in the
western part of the state, damaged windows at the corporate
campus of software giant Microsoft Corp. and jolted the
headquarters of coffee giant Starbucks.
Geophysicists at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden,
Colorado, put the quake's epicenter some 30 miles (50 km)
southwest of Seattle, and 10 miles (16 km) northeast of
Olympia along the coast of Puget Sound.
Washington state Gov. Gary Locke declared a state of
emergency, estimating the damage to roads and buildings in the
billions of dollars. President George W. Bush vowed to provide
as much help as he could.
Seattle sits on a fault caused by the Juan de Fuca plate
sliding under the continental United States.
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