Anchorage in Tsunami-Free Zone

Alaska is testing its tsunami warning system this week, and officials say they’re using the event to remind Anchorage residents they don’t have to worry.

Kattaryna Stiles is acting director of the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management. She says it’s important to know that a tsunami is not a threat to Anchorage.

The city’s location keeps it safe from the devastating sea surges that destroyed several communities in southcentral Alaska during the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, she indicated.

The 1964 quake registered at magnitude 9.2, the second-largest earthquake ever recorded in the world.

City officials say it did not generate a tsunami in Anchorage because of natural geographic boundaries in Cook Inlet.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters