Quake measuring 7.5 strikes off Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Sat Jan 5, 2013 6:38am EST

(Reuters) - An earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck in the Pacific Ocean off southeastern Alaska on Saturday.

The quake occurred about 60 miles southwest of Port Alexander at a depth of about 6 miles at 0858 GMT, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which downgraded the magnitude from an initial 7.7.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas of southeast Alaska and Canada's British Columbia, but this was later cancelled.

So far there had been no reports of damage from the earthquake, tsunami warning center scientist Bill Knight said.

Officials in Sitka, southern Alaska, were urging evacuations in low-lying areas, local radio station KCAW reported.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck British Columbia on October 27. A tsunami warning was issued but no damage ensued.

Alaska braces for "epic" storm; evacuations begin

By Yereth Rosen

An "epic" storm was bearing down on western Alaska on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, warning that it could be one of the worst on record for the state.

The storm, moving inland from the Aleutian Islands, was expected to bring hurricane-force winds with gusts up to 100 miles per hour, heavy snowfall, widespread coastal flooding and severe erosion to most of Alaska's west coast, the National Weather Service said.

"This will be an extremely dangerous and life threatening storm of an epic magnitude rarely experienced," the service said in a special warning message.

Nome and the rest of the Seward Peninsula, a section of land that juts out toward Siberia, were expected to be the hardest-hit areas, said Andy Brown, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Anchorage.

Powerful storms in the North Pacific and Bering Sea are common this time of year, but this event is unusual because of its trajectory, Brown said.

"It's going very far north," he said.

Officials in Nome issued an evacuation order late on Tuesday for people living along Front Street, a beachside avenue that serves as the finish line for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and for other low-lying areas in town.