wfn.org | Presbyterians shake, rattle and roll

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Note #6415 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

7-March-2001
01087

Presbyterians shake, rattle and roll, but report only minor Quake damage

Pacific Northwest presbyteries, churches were "blessed," officials say

by Evan Silverstein
 
LOUISVILLE -- There was a whole lot of shaking going on, but Presbyterian
congregations reported no significant damage from the powerful earthquake
that shook the Pacific Northwest one week ago.

Although assessments are still being made, it appears that Presbyterians
were largely spared. Aside from a collapsed chimney at one church in Seattle
and minor cracks and fallen plaster in a few others, it's business as usual
for Presbyterians in the pews, according to presbytery and congregational
officials.

"We were very blessed," said Susie Zych, a staff member at the Presbytery of
Olympia in Lacey, WA, a suburb of Olympia, the state capital and one of the
areas hit hardest by the magnitude-6.8 earthquake on Wednesday, Feb. 28. "We
have had no damage to our offices. A couple of our churches have sustained
some damage."

A crack in a stained-glass window at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tacoma
was discovered after the earthquake, but an official there said it may not
have been caused by the earthquake. Zych said engineers are expected to
check for possible structural damage at Little Church on the Prairie in
suburban Tacoma.

The quake struck western Washington at 10:54 a.m., buckling some roads and
damaging an airport control tower, disrupting highway and air travel.
Thousands of Seattle buildings went dark briefly when circuit breakers cut
electrical power. The temblor shattered windows, caused skyscrapers to sway,
frightened residents and rattled buildings up to 200 miles away.

"I watched the floor move," said Zych, whose presbytery includes about 50
churches in southwestern Washington. "It was very scary. It was rolling and
shaking. When it first started to shake, it sounded loud. Then I looked at
the floor and the floor was moving. Even afterwards it rocked."

It was the strongest earthquake to hit the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia area in
more than 50 years. Officials said it caused more than 400 injuries, most of
them minor. Property-damage estimates have topped $2 billion.

The last comparable earthquake hit the Puget Sound region in 1965; it had a
magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale. Seven people were killed in that
quake. Eight people had been killed in a 1949 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

Presbyterians in the area, including some congregations near the quake's
epicenter, 11 miles north of Olympia, acknowledged their good fortune.

"We in Seattle Presbytery were just really blessed," said Michelle
Perry-Amos, an executive assistant at the Presbytery of Seattle, which
reported little damage to its 60 congregations. "We were just blessed that
it wasn't more of a surface earthquake, or it would have really been bad. We
just got under a doorway and started praying."

After the quake and two sizable aftershocks the following day, officials of 
Olympia and Seattle presbyteries sent out emails and phoned churches for
injury and damage reports.

"Except for one, most of them have turned out pretty good, so far,"
Perry-Amos said. "I'm still getting emails back."

Perry-Amos said a brick chimney at Madrona Presbyterian Church in Seattle
collapsed, and small cracks appeared in some walls there. She said it was
too early to know the full extent of damage at Madrona or elsewhere.

"A lot of places are still evaluating, and getting structural engineers to
find out if it's just a crack or if it's real damage," she said. "I'd say
they probably won't know exactly what's going on until the end of this
month."

Representatives from Madrona Presbyterian did not return phone calls to the
church seeking information.

Other than minor falling objects, such as books shaken from shelves, "our
church came through the quake very well," said Steve Cedergreen, a trustee
at First Presbyterian Church of Seattle. "Basically, we have only cosmetic
damage that was done to the building. Portions of one of our pipe organs
have been removed to repair some of the pipes themselves, but I don't know
the extent of that."

It was a close call, however, said Shirley Daniel, an elder at First
Presbyterian and a former PC(USA) missionary. She said congregations from
other denominations nearby sustained much more damage.

"The damage just two blocks away to Trinity Episcopal (Church) is just
beyond belief," she said. "We really fared very well."

Dawn Whitaker, office administrator at Magnolia Presbyterian Church of
Seattle, had no damage to report.

"We had absolutely nothing," the San Diego, CA, native said. "No falling
plaster, nothing. We just came through beautifully."

The quake's destruction does not appear severe enough to prompt a response
from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA).

"Don't plan on it right now," said Stan Hankins, PDA's associate for U.S.
disaster response, who had been in contact with officials from the
Seattle-based Synod of Alaska-Northwest. "They've been checking with their
presbyteries, and so far the damage reports that they've been getting
indicate that the damage is within available resources and insurance
coverage."

The quake was centered in the Nisqually River Valley, about 35 miles
southwest of Seattle, near Olympia. Washington's Capitol building suffered
some structural damage, as did the governor's mansion.

However, right across the street from the Capitol campus, United Churches of
Olympia sustained very little damage.

"We're fine," said the Rev. Mark Dowdy, pastor of the joint congregation of
Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Church of Christ (UCC) members. "I
think there was just a lot of emotional drain. The sensation in this
building was that somebody just took it and shook it from side to side."

The 450-member church is just 11 miles from the epicenter and 500 yards from
the Capitol building, whose heavy sandstone dome and supporting columns were
seriously damaged. At United Churches, only two organ pipes were slightly
bent when a door fell against them, said Dowdy, and some plaster came loose
from the chancellery ceiling.

"We feel very fortunate that there was no more damage," Dowdy said, adding
that the church staff reacted well: "Our people here in the church knew
exactly what to do. We stood under the door jambs and held on."

Damage was mitigated by the depth of the earthquake, 33 miles below the
Earth's surface, and by earthquake-ready engineering of buildings in the
area.

"I don't know of any newer buildings that sustained any damage," said the
Rev. Barbara Schacht, interim pastor at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, a
new church development housed in an elementary school in western Olympia,
about 15 miles south of the epicenter. "Actually, it's astonishing how
little damage there was here. Everybody feels so blessed. It could have been
so much worse." Schacht, who lives nearby, said her personal residence was
not damaged either.

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Olympia reported no major problems.

"As far as the church is concerned, there's very little effect," said the
Rev. Dwight Whipple, pastor of the 500-member congregation, about 10 miles
from the epicenter. "We're pretty much normal here."

He said most of those at the church scattered under tables to wait out the
quake, which witnesses say lasted for about 45 seconds. A file cabinet
tipped over, books fell from shelves and a few "cosmetic cracks" appeared.
Whipple said church programming was not affected.

"There's some picking up to do," he said, "but no damage, which is really
pretty fortunate for all of us, because the size and magnitude of the
earthquake was enough to do a lot of damage"

A crew videotaping a meeting of juvenile justice groups captured the swaying
sanctuary. The clip was featured on national and local television reports.

The earthquake also caused few problems in the Presbytery of North Puget
Sound, which includes 34 congregations, said the Rev. Terry Nelson, the
executive presbyter.

"In a few instances, maybe a book or two fell off the shelf. … Within our
presbytery, no damage was sustained either by congregations or by the homes
of pastors."

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