'It made death a little more real,' eyewitness says

In this story: House windows 'looked like waves of water' People flood out of state Capitol RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

SEATTLE, Washington -- Wednesday's earthquake in the U.S. Pacific Northwest started a stampede in a packed conference room, stranded people at the top of Seattle's Space Needle and rattled nerves for at least 100 miles.

Everyone was panicked," said Paulette DeRooy, who was in an elevator descending from the 15th floor of a Seattle building when the earthquake struck. She and several others scrambled out and onto a fire escape.

VIDEO See the earthquake hit during a speech by Bill Gates at a Seattle hotel Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Watch the earthquake hit the Capitol building during a state Senate session Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Watch the quake rattle walls and see video of the damage Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   AUDIO Rick Harris rode out Wednesday's earthquake in Seattle's Space Needle 328K/30 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     GALLERY Quake damage in Seattle     ALSO Quake leaves 17,000 without power in U.S. Northwest   MAGNITUDE GUIDE Below is an interactive guide to earthquake magnitude and severity: Magnitude: Less than 3.5 3.5 - 5.4 Under 6.0 6.1 - 6.9 7.0 - 7.9 8 or greater CNN WEBCAM: Seattle webcam   MESSAGE BOARD Seattle shake-up

"It made death become a little more real -- the possibility," said another woman who fled a Seattle building. "There was plaster coming off walls, dust all through the air."

Screams erupted at a nearby hotel, where Microsoft founder Bill Gates was addressing an education and technology conference. He was whisked away as his audience bolted for the exits. Some people were knocked down by others trying to get out and overhead lights fell to the floor. (Play video)

Day-care workers at one center in Seattle focused on protecting their young charges.

"I picked up the baby I was changing and made sure that all the other kids were picked up," said one woman. "What we did was walked them into the doorway and we were all kind of huddled around.

"When we realized we were going to have to evacuate the building, we grabbed a crib and put all the babies in the crib because there were more babies than there were people," the day-care worker continued. "So we put them in the crib and tried to get out as fast as we could after it stopped shaking."

Maria Ackley, 62, a resident of Mercer Island, a quiet community east of Seattle, was in the kitchen of her home with her husband when the quake struck.

House windows 'looked like waves of water'

"When it first happened, there was a thundering sound. The doors in the house were rattling and the windows in the kitchen were rippling, literally," Ackley said. "It looked like they were waves of water. Everything was shaking. You felt like you were at sea.

"All the drawers opened up, and any container that had something in it emptied out," Ackley added. "And we ran out of the house and our car was in motion."

When the temblor was over, Ackley's husband found a "major fracture" in the home's foundation.

"I thought a car had hit my building," said Sam Song, who owns a restaurant in Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle. "Then the ground started moving around."

People flood out of state Capitol

In Olympia, about 10 miles from the epicenter, a crack was visible in a column at the state Capitol. A state Senate session was interrupted as legislators, government workers and visiting school children flooded out of the Capitol and other buildings. (Play video)

"The chandelier started going and the floor started shaking," Sen Bob Morton said. "Someone yelled get under the table and so we did. The sudden violence let us know that this was a bad one."

Officials were particularly afraid the Capitol dome would collapse and people linked hands as they walked down the marble stairs under the heavy dome.

"If that rascal had tumbled down, it would have been all over," Morton said.

The quake was also felt in Portland, Oregon.

"We definitely felt it right here in our precinct," said Brooke Brown of the Portland Police.

"This stainless steel desk area we have was really moving ... quite freaky."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Moderate quake hits Southern California
February 10, 2001
Earthquake shakes southern California
December 24, 2000
Desert earthquake rattles Southwest
October 16, 1999
Moderate earthquake shakes Northern California
September 3, 2000

West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
  • WC&ATWC Most Recent Event Message
  • Location Map
  • Close-up Map
Puget Sound Earthquake Origin and Occurrence
U.S. Geological Survey
The World-Wide Earthquake Locator
Understanding Earthquakes
USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Global Earthquake Response Center
Berkeley Seismology Lab

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.