Earthquake On West Side Felt From Canada To Oregon

A moderate earthquake jolted Pacific Northwest residents from the Canadian border to Salem, Ore., and as far east as Yakima on Saturday evening.

Paul Whitmore, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist at the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, said the tremor registered a preliminary magnitude of 4.7 at 7:11 p.m. PST and was centered 20 miles southwest of Seattle.

Staffers at the Washington state Department of Emergency Services said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake was felt more than 200 miles to the south in Salem, about 100 miles to the north in Blaine, on the Canadian border, and more than 110 miles to the southeast in Yakima.

Drew Graham, a staffer at KGMI Radio in Bellingham, said the tremor “just made a couple things in here swing around, things that were hanging,” but drew calls from as far as Blaine, just south of the Canadian border.

“It was a long one, not a sharp one but kind of rolling,” said Dick Sybert of KEDO Radio in Longview.

It was “a nice little jolt,” said Nancy Greenfield of Seattle, “but I’ve been in lots of big, big ones. They just scare me.”

She said nothing was damaged at her house.

Washington has had major quakes this century. In 1949 a quake centered near Olympia registered 7.1, about the size of the quake that hit San Francisco in October of 1989. In 1965, a quake measuring 6.5 hit the Seattle-Tacoma area.