Communities along the peninsula and Kodiak Island were put on a tsunami warning just at 12:37 p.m. local time after the National Weather Service reported a magnitude 7.3 earthquake about 50 miles south of Sand Point. The quake was reported at a depth of about 12 miles.
Tsunami warning sirens in Kodiak started going off intermittently about 30 minutes after NWS issued warnings to cell phones.
The all clear was signaled by NWS and the Kodiak Emergency Operation Center at 2:45 p.m.
Many Kodiak residents made their way to the town’s sole high school and other areas 100 feet above sea level, which are out of the tsunami inundation zone. The Alaska Earthquake Center has recorded more than 40 aftershocks near Sand Point since the initial earthquake, the largest being a magnitude 5.2 on the Richter scale.
The service downgraded that warning to an advisory shortly before 2 p.m., however the first waves detected by the U.S. Coast Guard measured about 6 inches and were forecasted for about 2:40 p.m.
This warning was issued on the two year anniversary of the last tsunami warning for the same area.
No injuries or damage have been reported.
