Jonathon and Vi Norbo's story

Jonathon Norbo drove from work at the Evan Jones Coal Company in Sutton to his home nine miles away in Palmer. As he wound his way over the familiar road he suddenly felt something wrong with his truck. “Oh, I have a flat tire on the left,” he thought. Moments passed. “No, it’s on the right!” Eventually, he approached a straightaway and pulled over. Not until Norbo stopped did he feel the earth rocking and realize what was happening. Telephone poles swayed from side to side; the lines grew taut, then slack. When the shaking ended, he continued home.

Once there Norbo discovered that his wife, Vi, had been talking on the phone with her mom when she felt the quake. The phone went dead, but shaking continued. Vi kept thinking, “It’s gonna stop. It’s gonna stop.” She called her two young children aged two and four to the back step and made them sit under the doorway for protection.

They could see the slide on Pioneer Peak from their house. The power stayed out for a day and neighbors came by to ask for water; the result from their well was very brown. The Norbo home experienced little damage. He found gas cans knocked about in the garage and wondered, “Now how did the kids do that?!”