5.7 magnitude earthquake rocks northern Utah

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Salt Lake City and surrounding counties around 7 a.m. this morning. Power was cut off for thousands of residents, shutting down the airport and disrupting government communication with COVID-19 hotlines.

This earthquake is the largest to hit Utah since a 5.9 magnitude quake hit the state in 1992. Several large aftershocks followed, according to the University of Utah’s seismograph stations.

“I was sleeping when I felt everything start to move around me,” Logan resident Kaylyn Patenaude said. “I got up to shut off my alarm and my dresser kept moving. I thought it was a dream.”

Both Logan and North Logan issued statements indicating that there was no infrastructure damage done to their respective cities.

At 1:38 p.m. Rocky Mountain Power posted an update on their Twitter account, saying that about 10,000 customers were still without power, but they hoped to have all power restored by evening.

During a press conference this morning, Bill Wyatt, the executive director for the Department of Airports in Salt Lake City, said damage was still being assessed and an investigation was underway.

“We are evaluating any structural issues,” Wyatt said. “We have also established an airport recovery team.”

According to Wyatt, there was a significant waterline break in concourse D and a few ceiling tiles broke apart. For the airport to reopen, Wyatt said there were multiple tasks that had to be completed.

“The airport is currently in what we would characterize as a non-secure state,” Wyatt said.

Despite the difficulty of the situation, Wyatt told reporters that, oddly enough, the coronavirus helped them out today.

“On a normal day for us, without the coronavirus, we would have 22 or 24,000 people showing up at the front door,” he said. “Because there were fewer people, it was much easier to evacuate.”

Structural integrity of the airport had to be evaluated by structural engineers before anyone could re-enter the building. According to a statement on SLC Airport’s Twitter account, the first flight was able to depart from SLC at 2:54 p.m.

“I think the biggest lesson for us is that we need a new airport,” Wyatt said as he laughed. “We are doing that, and in 179 days it will be open.”

Gov. Herbert also held a press conference this morning.

“This is extremely bad timing,” Herbert said. “The coronavirus is already causing a lot of anxiety.”

Herbert said they have prepared for this for years, however.  Be Ready Utah, a program that started in 2006, allows the state to run drills on earthquakes and other hazardous events every year.

“This morning, those protocols went into place very smoothly,” Herbert said.

Despite the reassuring words, some residents of the Salt Lake area are still recovering from the shock.

“It woke me up, my entire building was shaking,” Ogden resident Bethany Lovelady said. “I tried to call my parents and was having trouble getting a hold of them, so that was stressful.”

Lovelady added she grew up in Utah hearing about “the big one,” a large-scale earthquake that is expected to hit Utah at some point.

“After over 20 years of hearing rumors, you just don’t think it’s ever going to happen,” she said.

“This is scary,” Miriam Scheelke, a Salt Lake County resident, said. “I have been in earthquakes before, but this one was stronger and lasted a lot longer.”

Scheelke, who works on the 10th floor of her building, was not at work when the initial earthquake happened, but said her co-workers were “pretty shaken up.”

“We are up so high that the building moves a lot,” she said. “You could definitely feel it during the aftershocks.”

—taylorcripe@gmail.com

@cripe_taylor