The quake hit shortly after 12 p.m., centered roughly 50 miles south of Sand Point, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shaking was reported as far away as Anchorage, Homer, and Kodiak.
Nadine Kochuten, the Aleutian Bering Sea Initiative coordinator based in Anchorage, was visiting family in King Cove at the time. She says the quake hit while she was on a Zoom call.
“My day started off with a couple of Zoom meetings. I was at my parents' house, and the table started shaking, and the whole house started shaking,” Kochuten said. “It was a pretty long shake. You expect them to stop sometimes, but that one wasn’t stopping. I was standing up, telling my mom to open the door—she was running a little bit. It was a long earthquake.”
In the moments that followed, more than a dozen aftershocks were recorded, the strongest registering at magnitude 5.2. Kochuten said the community acted quickly.
“Well, everybody gets a little busy and makes sure people have rides, especially those closer to the bay or shore. We make sure everybody gets to higher ground and inland. We race around a little bit and make sure everyone is safe,” she said.
Moses Brown, from Chugiak, was also in King Cove working for Delta Backhaul as a driver, equipment operator, and heavy-duty mechanic. He and his crew were having lunch at a local Chinese restaurant when the quake struck.
“We had just gotten our food, and it started shaking a little bit. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s an earthquake,’ and then it started shaking even harder,” Brown said. “One of my crew members is from Arizona, he had never felt an earthquake before. He asked, ‘What do we do?’ I said, ‘Let’s go outside.’”
While the shaking itself was startling, Brown said the tsunami alert was what really set nerves on edge.
“What actually really freaked me out was when the tsunami warnings were going off. We got our food in to-go boxes, hopped in our tow truck, and started following the tsunami evacuation routes,” he said. “At one point, everyone started splitting off on a road, and I got confused. I pulled over and asked a woman, ‘Is this the right way?’, she was literally shaking in her boots. She pointed and said, ‘You guys need to get over there right now.’”
The National Tsunami Warning Center issued the alert shortly after the quake, prompting evacuations from Kennedy Entrance to Unimak Pass. The warning was later downgraded to an advisory, then fully canceled just before 3 p.m.
While no large waves were reported, tsunami sensors detected a small rise, just a few inches—off the coast near Sand Point and Kodiak. Coast Guard personnel were temporarily evacuated from some locations as a precaution, but no injuries or major damage have been reported so far.
Brown, who is scheduled to travel to Sand Point on Saturday, said he’s grateful their current job had them based in King Cove.
“I’m like, man, I’m glad we had our job in King Cove first, and not Sand Point,” he said. “I’ve seen some videos, and I really feel for Sand Point. It looked a lot scarier over there, it shook harder for sure.”
Kochuten said she’s thankful for the calm, coordinated response from the community and emergency officials.
“We had the sirens going off, the loudspeakers, and radio stations running the warnings,” she said. “They were predicting where the tsunami might hit. We parked at high ground and kept an eye on the shoreline to see if any waves or surges came in. Thankfully, nothing did, and that was good. ”
According to the USGS, the last major earthquake near Sand Point was in October 2020, registering at magnitude 7.6.
Emergency crews and geologists continue to monitor the area for aftershocks.
