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Yes that quake was a monster. First time I came to Anchorage was early 1980's. There was still visible damage, including abandoned buildings that were not yet demolished.
I read once that the quake rippled the water in 150 ft deep water wells in South Africa.
One of the most notable things about it is how long it lasted, near 5 minutes. An eternity under those conditions. Had a couple of work comrades who lived through it and remembered it well, even though they were probably 7 to maybe 10 yrs old at the time. They both commented on how long it lasted. Anchorage was sparsely populated at the time, compared to today. Both also noted that in the views in front of their homes the ground looked like an ocean, with wave after wave rippling through. And they were huge swells, you could not see over the crests. Hard to imagine.
Back in the day of that quake I don't think there were many if any standards that had to be met, with respect to seismic engineering. Today it is quite different in that regard. Afa I know all commercial structures have to meet seismic criteria. It was a pretty decent deal where I worked, all of us in engineering had to take classes on the subject, even if we were only marginally involved.
Anchorage had a 7.1 shaker in 2018. Quite a bit of general damage, I don't recall any fatalities. I went down on business about a week after. What I noted most was road damage, including a few collapsed over passes per recollection. Lots of over passes these days.
I live in the interior, we get quakes as well. Most are from deep quakes, in the Alaskan range south of here. My house is two floors, with a partial third floor. My office is on the 3rd floor. My home is well built, 2 X 6 walls, sheathed with 3/4 inch plywood. But even a small quake shakes my desk, given it is on the 3rd floor. Never had anything fall to the floor here, just some shaking, once in a while a bit concerning. First one I ever felt was at night, woke me up, the bedroom door was shaking/squeaking. What the hell I thot, then I remembered I now lived in an active seismic area.
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I have spent a lot of time in Valdez. In the '64 quake it got wiped out by a tsunami. They wound up rebuilding the town at a different location. They say it is now safer, not sure I would want to be there, to test it out, under a '64 type tsunami. Plus lot of folk have moved back o the old townsite.
A while back I was poking around, reading more about the '64 quake. I came across this old video, quality not the best but very interesting. Looks like there was just a massive wall of water.
