SnapShot By Caryn Smith

Alaska Gets All Shook Up N

orthwest Auto Parts, located in An- chorage, AK, experienced a bit of a seismic shake-up on Friday, Nov. 30th 2018, that came in the form of a 7.0 earthquake early that morning. It was so strong that the Anchorage Daily News reports estimated damage to be at least $76 million as the state prepares for a federal disaster declaration request. “It was a crazy experience .... a hum- bler!,” says Kris Ossenkop, CEO. He reports that the facility only incurred damages, “Fortunately, no one was hurt. We were lucky only our morning crew, 5 people, were on staff. The remaining 19 employee’s weren’t scheduled to ar- rive for 20 minutes.”

With an attention to safety, protocol was already in place at Northwest, for such a harrowing emergency, which only left the staff shaken up. “Our em- ployees followed procedure,” says Kris, “walking quickly to emergency exits and to a safe zone outside. The one thing everyone felt besides shaking was the adrenaline rush of ‘flight or fight’ due to the noise of glass shattering all at once. It happened fast and the noise was deafening.”

The facility damage included the loss of 6 of 20 axle racks (all were older ver- sions from years ago), lost or needed repair of 9 transmissions, lost or need- ed repair of 5 engines, 50+ units of glass were shattered, 38 doors were destroyed (another 30+ were re-evaluated for dam- age), 20+ wheels bent, 10 ceiling tiles and some wall cracks. “Glass was literal- ly everywhere, it took days to clean up. I don’t have a final total, but,” says Kris, “we estimate $80,000 in damages at our single location.”

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“The shaking started around 8:30 a.m.,” Kris describes, “then increased in intensity, then reached a level most peo- ple haven’t experienced since the 1964 quake (Black Friday). The old-timers around here compared the intensity to

January-February 2019 • AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING