Big outpouring helped our shaken region rebuild

Five years ago today, the earth shook for 45 long seconds.

When it stopped, the 6.8 Nisqually earthquake had crumpled buildings, closed roads and schools and left many in the Pacific Northwest with a sense of their vulnerability.

In the five years that followed, their generosity also was revealed.

Statewide damage was estimated as high as $4 billion, and government agencies provided hundreds of millions in rebuilding funds. Puget Sound-area residents, and folks from across the nation, also contributed in dramatic fashion.

Here's an update on some of the people, and some of the structures, affected by the 2001 quake:

One family's struggles

Paula Vandorssen bolted from her Renton-area home that day, seconds ahead of a roaring mudslide that destroyed the house. She and her husband, Robert, and their family moved into a rental home, courtesy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Some 40,000 people — the most in state history — applied for help from the agency.

Robert, an electrical engineer, says the earthquake profoundly changed the couple's life. He filed for bankruptcy, and the bank that held the mortgage has a lien on the house. He can't rebuild because it's considered too dangerous. He lives in Renton in a home he purchased with a low-interest government loan.

Vandorssen said the couple are divorcing, and that stress from the earthquake played a part.

"I don't want to think about it too much. It's very emotional," he said. "Things have never been the same ever since. It contributed to the divorce, but it's hard to prove."

As bad as the earthquake was, it pales in comparison to another fight he waged: helping his 13-year-old daughter survive kidney cancer. "That was way worse."

Seattle Hebrew Academy

At the Seattle Hebrew Academy on Capitol Hill, Bayla Friedman Treiger was preparing her preschoolers for a fire drill when the room started to shake at 10:54 a.m.

"It was rocking like a boat; things hanging from the ceiling were swaying," she said. She gathered the children and scooted them under a table.

The academy was severely damaged and its 170 students were separated into two campuses: a synagogue in Seward Park and portable classrooms on the academy soccer fields. Officials at the academy, built in 1909, considered selling the property.

But instead they launched a fund-raising effort and brought in $7.5 million in individual and corporate donations. The four-story brick building reopened in September 2004, its students again housed under one roof.

"The school has come a long ways, but because of the earthquake the school came out better," said Treiger, who is amazed at the generosity that helped her school rebuild.

"Schools across the country collected money and helped us out," she said. "There was a total outpouring of our community and people everywhere. It was the support we got from people and knowing people care."

St. Mark's Cathedral

Seventy-year-old St. Mark's Cathedral on Capitol Hill came through the earthquake in good shape, but its world-famous Flentrop organ was extensively damaged. The organ was bolted to the wall, but the earthquake caused it to rip away from the bolts and slam back into the wall several times.

The 36-year-old organ, the largest of its kind on the West Coast, has 4,000 pipes and stands about 50 feet tall.

When word of the damage spread, people started mailing in checks, said Mel Butler, canon organist and choirmaster. By September, with $120,000 in donations, the organ was repaired and again leading music at the cathedral.

"People from all over the country contributed," Butler said, and today the organ sounds as good as it ever did.

Cadillac Hotel

Many buildings, particularly those in Pioneer Square, were red-tagged after the quake, meaning no one was allowed inside. Even a year later, 14 buildings in Seattle remained off-limits because of damage. None remain red-tagged today.

The hotel at Second Avenue South and South Jackson Street, built in 1889, was one of the oldest buildings in Pioneer Square and housed the Fenix Underground nightclub on its lower floors. It was severely damaged and red-tagged; the owners asked to demolish it. But instead it was sold to the nonprofit Historic Seattle, and reopened last September as the new home for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park Museum.

SeaTac control tower

"All right, we have an earthquake. Everyone hold on tight ... the tower is collapsing. The tower is falling apart."

Veteran air traffic controller Brian Schimpf captured the scene on tape and it was widely broadcast. Air traffic at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport came to a halt.

The tower reopened the following year with a new roof, windows and equipment, a $5 million repair project. In 2004, a new $30 million, 223-foot tower was dedicated.

Schimpf today said he was certain he was going to die when the tower collapsed.

"It had a significant impact on how I view my life," said Schimpf, who still works at the airport control tower.

"Sometimes you don't control your destiny. I think I'm going to die and I don't, I live through it. It was a life-changing experience."

He said will give more to his community, working with children, especially when he retires in five years.

"The important part is having the opportunity to say, hey, I'm not dead. I'm thankful for the experience and wouldn't change anything."

State Capitol

When the earthquake struck, the noise was so loud and the building shook so much those inside the state Capitol were certain they would die, said Steve Valandra, with the state Department of General Administration.

The marble pillars that held up the dome shifted and there was fear the entire building could collapse.

The Capitol was immediately shut down and remained closed for 3 ½ years. The Legislature moved to modular buildings. A $120 million earthquake renovation was completed in November 2004, and the building reopened.

The Capitol, built in 1928, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has one of the tallest masonry domes in the world.

Trinity Episcopal Church

The earthquake nearly shook apart the fragile, century-old church on Seattle's First Hill. Huge stones crashed off the bell tower and through the roof, just missing the fleeing priest. The high walls separated from the ceiling.

When it was over, the congregation of 350 was faced with the decision of whether to sell, demolish or rehabilitate the 1903 church.

Members contributed $2.6 million, FEMA gave $2.2 million and the congregation raised the rest, to a total of $7 million. The church reopened last Christmas Eve.

Across the state, FEMA paid out a total of $156 million, and the Small Business Administration loaned $84 million. About $94 million came from the Federal Highway Administration for damaged roads.

Alaskan Way Viaduct

The 2.2-mile bridge sustained major damage in the earthquake and was closed intermittently throughout the following months when cracks threatened its stability.

The state is now trying to decide how to replace the road used by 110,000 vehicles daily. With $2 billion from the 9.5-cent-a-gallon gas-tax increase passed by the Legislature last April, the roadway will either be rebuilt or buried in a tunnel.

Compass Center

Rick Friedhoff was standing in his Compass Center when the building began to groan. Dust and plaster fell from the walls. He fled, not realizing it would be 4 ½ years before he'd return.

The five-story brick building, on South Washington Street in Pioneer Square, was built in 1941 as a haven for the homeless.

After it was closed, FEMA gave $1.6 million and the city $2 million; the community raised the rest of the $16 million to rehabilitate it. It reopened last June with a new hygiene center.

Friedhoff never dreamed there would be such an outpouring of support. "When you ask the people in this community for money for a specific purpose, they are very generous," he said. "We certainly did not expect we could do this."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com