Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Aklavik (Nov 11/02) - A major earthquake in Alaska created tremors felt in Aklavik Nov. 3.

Gladys Edwards was in church that day when she felt herself get dizzy.

"We were just singing our last hymn and all of a sudden I thought I was going to faint," Edwards says.

"I blinked my eyes and I just sat down. I looked up and the lights were moving. We thought it was the Holy Spirit hitting the church after our service!"

Troy Engdahl, 19, was riding his bike by the town pond when he felt the Earth move. "The tremor made the water move and it made the ice sound like it was cracking -- you could hear it," Engdahl says. "I didn't know what was going on. The ice was pretty thick too and I seen it move, just like when the ice first freezes and when people go on it and they're riding the ice. That's what it was like."

The tremor was felt around 3:15 p.m. in Aklavik, after the quake hit Alaska, about 120 kilometres south of Fairbanks. The quake registered 7.9 on the Richter scale, and was felt across Alaska and the Yukon.

No injuries or property damage was reported locally.