A deep earthquake near the Nisqually Delta northwest of Olympia in 2001 startles the Puget Sound region and causes millions in damage. The 6.8 quake injures an estimated 200 people and is cited as the cause of a fatal heart attack in Burien. Damage includes the Capitol in Olympia, buildings in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Windows in the control tower at Sea-Tac Airport shatter, and one of the airport’s two runways cracks. The quake is the strongest since 1949.
Several cars were smashed by falling bricks in Seattle, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001 during an earthquake. The strongest quake to hit Washington state in 52 years temporarily shut down the Seattle airport, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people, cracked the dome atop the state Capitol in Olympia and briefly trapped about 30 people atop a swaying Space Needle. (AP Photo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Renee C. Byer)