Wood Construction Saved Lives in Alaska Quake–Survey By APA & FPL Engineers

Earthquakes of similar intensity occurred in 1963 in Skopje, Yugoslavia, and in 1964 in Anchorage, Alaska. Skopje has a population of 200,000 and Anchorage a trading area population of 102,000. An estimated 1,050 lives were lost in Skopje and six in Anchorage with another seven missing 10 days after the quake. Engineers from APA and FPL who visited the Alaska quake area report that wood construction used extensively in Anchorage and very little in Skopje was a major factor in saving lives in Alaska. Nine photographs show that wooden houses in Anchorage remained essentially intact even when dropped in a fissure or cantilevered over a crevasse. All well constructed wood houses performed well. These included those sheathed with plywood, diagonally installed boards, or horizontally installed lumber with let-in braces in contrast, slab and block construction fell apart under the force of the quake. Two conclusions of the APA were that the Anchorage Building Code, which requires shear wall and diaphragm construction, saved many lives in the quake and that plywood applications in those construction systems held up extremely well.

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