Yuma native living in Alaska safe after 7.0 earthquake

A Yuma native and her husband who moved to Alaska this year are safe after waking up to the massive 7.0 earthquake that struck parts of Alaska early Friday morning.

Over the past couple of weeks, Crystal Reyes said there have been minor earthquakes throughout Anchorage. What she thought was a minor earthquake this morning around 8:30 got worse.

“You could start to hear the walls squeak and that’s when we realized that no, this is not a little normal earthquake,” said Crystal Reyes, a Yuma native living in Alaska. We could feel ourselves swaying side to side. You can hear cars honking, cars sliding on the road, it was really insane.”

What was a matter of minutes felt like forever, she said.

Reyes lives in a three-story complex on the first level. “That was even more terrifying,” she said. The earthquake left her with cracks in her walls and items to pick up that fell from the vibration.

Moments after the earthquake began, her area lost power. It wasn’t restored for almost five hours. Meanwhile, other parts of Anchorage still remain powerless, Reyes said.

The last time Yuma had an earthquake relative to the size of the one in Alaska was eight years ago on Easter Sunday in 2010. A 7.2 earthquake in Calexico shook up parts of Yuma. Reyes said she recalls that incident as well.