A large stretch of the Alaska coast was on watch for a tsunami for several hours Wednesday afternoon after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake off the Aleutian Islands, officials said.
The warning was later changed to an advisory, which was allowed to expire, with no immediate reports of damage.
The earthquake struck at 12:38 p.m. local time (4:38 p.m. ET), and its epicenter was 55 miles south of Sand Point, a community on Popof Island, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center. It had a depth of 12 miles.
Widespread inundation had not been expected, the center said, but strong currents or waves that are dangerous to people very near the water were.
The advisory covered a stretch of coast from Unimak Pass in the Aleutians to the Kennedy Entrance, which is 40 miles south of Homer.
Emergency officials in Kodiak, a city of around 5,500 on Kodiak Island, around 250 miles south of Anchorage, announced that shelters would be opened and sirens would sound before the warning was downgraded.
The authorities issued an all-clear at 2:45 p.m.
There was no threat to Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, emergency officials said after the earthquake.
The city administrator for Sand Point, Debi Schmidt, told NBC affiliate KTUU of Anchorage that the earthquake was the most powerful she has ever felt.
“I was at home for lunch, and the house was shaking, and things were falling, and cupboard doors were coming open,” she told the station. “No damage, though.”
