BOISE, Idaho — Idaho had its biggest earthquake since the Borah Peak earthquake of 1983, it occurred around 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, we all felt the ground rumble and it ended up being a 6.5 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter located northwest of Stanley.
Even though we felt it in the Treasure Valley because the epicenter was in a remote area the earthquake didn't do very much damage, still it caused quite the reaction surprising us all.
"I thought it was just the wind outside the house so I got up and raised the blind and it was sunny outside," said Boise resident Chris Wadner. "I didn’t have any pictures fall off the wall or mirrors or anything like that, I don’t think there was any damage.”
There was some damage as a cross a top St. John's Cathedral in Boise was cracked, but there were no reported injuries because of the earthquake.
Idaho Power found no damage to the 17 dams they manage, the Idaho Transportation Department has been clearing debris off the highways and ITD also closed down avalanche alley blocking the route from Stanley to Lowman, however, they did that before the earthquake happened.
We also made a trip to Idaho City and residents there told from a distance (COVID-19 Social Distancing) there was only minor damage, but the quake shook their house pretty intensely.
So far there have been dozens of aftershocks and seismologist Jim Zollweg told us we can expect more in the coming days.
“Probably the biggest aftershock will be somewhere in the range of five to five and a half that kind of magnitude of Earthquake would only be lightly felt in the Boise area," said Zollweg. "If the earthquake would have been in a populated area there would have been significant property damage."
So for now it looks like we were are able to come through the latest curveball 2020 has thrown at us as Idaho recorded the fifth largest earthquake in the world this year.
"Some years are like this, some years are calm you, just never know," said Wadner.
Experts tell us the quake has no connection to super volcano in the Yellowstone National Park area, but people felt the earthquake in the states surrounding Idaho including in Bozeman, Montana where I grew up. People there say they felt it and Bozeman is located 90 miles north of Yellowstone.
