Anchorage, Alaska • A powerful undersea earthquake sent Alaskans fumbling for suitcases and racing to evacuation centers in the middle of the night after a cellphone alert early Tuesday warned that a tsunami could smash into the state’s southern coast and western Canada.
The killer wave never materialized, but people endured several tense hours in shelters, waiting for a potential catastrophe that they feared could wipe away their communities at any moment.
The magnitude 7.9 quake in the Gulf of Alaska triggered the jarring alert that awoke people shortly after midnight. Fleeing motorists sometimes clogged the only highway out of their towns in the rush to get to higher ground.