{ANCHORAGE|CHUCK} -- The Alaskans, roused by a major earthquake and threatened by the specter of a tsunami, moved {in the middle of the night|during nighttime}.
They shuffled into schools that {had|experienced|got} become evacuation centers. {They|These people|They will} parked their cars on higher ground at Safeway and Walmart stores. {They|These people|They will} rushed up Pillar {Mountain|Hill|Huge batch}. Then, mercifully, the big waves never came, and within four hours, the authorities lifted the tsunami advisories that had once stretched from Alaska to the American border with Mexico.
"Everybody had to evacuate, " Fran Latham, who runs a bed-and-breakfast in Yakutat, said of her town between {Anchorage|Chuck} and Glacier Bay {National|Nationwide|Countrywide} Park. "It looked like {everyone|every person} was at {the school|the college} and the police {department|division|section}. {"|inch|inches}
The overnight {panic|stress|anxiety} {along the|across the|over the} Pacific {started|started out|commenced} after a magnitude 7. {9|nine|being unfaithful} quake was reported at 12: 31 a. {m|meters|mirielle}. local {time in|amount of time in} the {Gulf|Gulf of mexico} of Alaska, {based on the|in line with the} {United|Usa|Combined} States Geological Survey. {There|Presently there|Right now there} were no immediate {reports|reviews|information} of damage or {fatalities|deaths}, the authorities said, but the {United States|Usa|United states of america} National Tsunami Warning Center said {a little|a tiny} tsunami, with a {wave|influx|trend} height of less than eight inches, {had been|have been|was} {observed|noticed|seen} in a handful of Alaska cities, including Kodiak and Seward.