The last time the ground shook in a big way in Washington was 20 years ago, and here are a few things that happened:
The tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport twisted and buckled, shattering windows as an air traffic controller warned off approaching planes.
In Seattle's Pioneer Square, brick walls and parapets peeled away from centuries-old buildings, flattening cars and clogging roads with tons of debris.
State workers cowered under tables as massive light fixtures crashed down and the Capitol dome twisted on its base.
A churning mass of mud and trees roared off a hillside south of Seattle, bulldozing a house and briefly blocking the Cedar River.
With a magnitude of 6.8, the Nisqually earthquake of Feb. 28, 2001, was the most powerful quake to strike the state in a generation.