The Salt Lake City was shaken by an earthquake that prompted it to shut down a major air traffic hub, caused damage to a spire on top of a temple and inflicted fear on millions of people who are already shaken from the coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday.
At around 7 in the morning, Utah was woken up by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that damaged the statue on top of the Salt Lake Temple causing broken bricks on sidewalks and releasing plume of chemicals outside the city.
The epicenter of the quake was pointed just southwest of the city between the Great Salt Lake and the airport. The tremors were felt by more than 2.8 million people, most of them in their homes and not going out due to fears of COVID-19 transmission. The shaking lasted for about 15 seconds and caused many people to run outside in panic.
After the quake, the city was still shaken by dozens of aftershocks. According to the director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, Keith Koper, hundreds of aftershocks are still to be expected in the coming days. He referred to the earthquake as moderately sized and that it only hits the state roughly every 10 years. He also added that the temblors of such magnitude are capable of causing considerable amount damage.
Rumors of another big quake
After the quake, rumors about another major earthquake that would hit soon were fast to spread. However, those were immediately debunked by the Utah Emergency Management who said that there is no way to predict earthquakes and that 95% of the time was felt on Wednesday was the largest one in the sequence.
According the United States Geological Survey (USGS) forecast, they cannot predict that another major earthquake is going to hit soon but said that in the coming days the chance of a magnitude 7 earthquake to hit the city is 1 out of 300.
Damage reports
Aside from power outages, there were reports of damages to homes and businesses. Some buildings she off bricks including buildings near downtown mission that serves homeless Utahns. The construction site just beside the mission appears to have sustained damage.
In the town of Magna near the earthquake's epicenter, 100 people were evacuated and 14 buildings were damaged, according to Matthew McFarland, spokesman of Unified Fire. Among the residents who were at the scene to look at the damage was Homer Condor who said that was drinking his coffee when the quake happened. Conder said that he was nearly hit in the head with a falling piece of pottery.
Also not far from the epicenter is Salt Lake City International Airport that was immediately shut down after the quake. The airport only re-opened after a water line inside was fixed at around 1:15 in the afternoon. According to the airport spokesperson, Nancy Volmer, about 60 to 70 flights were diverted due to the incident.
Fortunately, there were no reported injuries caused by the earthquake according to Salt Lake City authorities.
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