On March 27 , 1964 , the magnitude 9.2 Good Friday earthquake hit Anchorage , killing 115 people and causing $ 116 million in damages ( $ billion in dollars ) . The earth-shaking event lasted nearly five minutes ; most structures that failed remained intact for the first few minutes then failed with repeated flexing . It was the world 's second-largest earthquake in recorded history . Rebuilding dominated the remainder of the 1960s
Good Friday earthquake
1964 Alaska earthquake
Anchorage, Alaska