The Lynn Building in Whitehorse and the Ross River School will remain closed until an engineer gives the OK for occupancy.

Cracks were noticed at both buildings following Monday morning’s earthquakes, Yukon government officials explained Monday afternoon at a briefing held to explain the emergency response following the shakers.

Elijah Smith Elementary School reopened today. Its library was to remain closed because of cracked windows, Aisha Montgomery, the government’s lead information officer on the emergency response, told reporters.

She said personnel with the Department of Highways and Public Works were continuing to check highways and infrastructure for any damage.

Clint Ireland is the director of transportation maintenance. He said an engineer from the transportation department and a representative from the Yukon Geological Survey were in the air Monday afternoon flying the backcountry areas along three main highways – the South Klondike Highway, the Haines Road and the North Alaska Highway.

He said they want to see if the quakes caused any significant slides in the mountainous regions which may have blocked natural stream courses and such that could back up water and let go in the future.

“We just want to make sure there is nothing we can deal with now that won’t cost us a bunch of money later,” Ireland explained.

He said there was a fair amount of shaking at the Blanchard highway camp – not far from the epicentre – with some minor damage to the staff residence like broken pipes and a little more damage to the equipment shop.

Shannon Trott of the Department of Education said an engineer will be sent to the Ross River School to see if cracks in the structure were new and related to the earthquakes or associated with the issue of permafrost shifting back in 2015.

The southwest Yukon was shaken awake at 5:31 a.m. Monday by an earthquake measuring 6.2, with the epicentre located south of Haines Junction, in the mountainous region between the South Klondike Highway and the Haines Highway.

The seismic activity recorded by the Geological Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks puts the epicentre near the Yukon-B.C. border, or 68 kilometres northwest of Klukwan, Alaska, located along Haines Highway to Haines.

Another significant quake measuring 6.3 rocked the southwest again at 7:18, its epicentre pegged at 66 kilometres northwest of Klukwan.

Emergency measures personnel were on the operations centre next to the airport by 5:45, reaching out to partner agencies for status and assessment updates, Montgomery explained.

Other than the issue with the schools and the 1960s-era Lynn Building, there were no reports of injuries or significant damage.

Local shops in Whitehorse posted news on social media of goods falling off shelves (see Monday’s Star), but no structural damage.

Richard Graham of the City of Whitehorse explained Monday morning, staff had checked critical infrastructure like pumphouses and the Robert Campbell and Millennium bridges, but did not find any problems.

Similarly, the Department of Highways and Public Works did not report any damage to highways or bridges.

Department information officer Alicia Debreceni said this morning the aerial survey back country along the highway routes and the area around the Kusawa Lake Campground did not detect any terrain hazards that could impact the highways or the campground.

Information officer Chris Madden of the Department of Education said this morning an engineer will be in Ross River Wednesday to assess the school.

In the meantime, steps are being taken to make arrangements to provide alternate classroom space in the community if need be, he said.

Montgomery said today the staff with the Department of Community Services who occupy the Lynn Building have been relocated to satellite offices pending the outcome of the engineer’s assessment.

Stanley Noel of the Yukon Indian Development Corp., one of four owners of the building, said this morning the structural engineer has gone through the building and is preparing the report. He hopes to have it later today or tomorrow.

Noel said he expects the cracking seen on the building is superficial and related to the many makeovers involving paint and plaster the building has gone through in the several decades since it was built.

“That said, erring on the side of caution, we want to make sure there is no structural damage, and if there is, obviously we want to fix things right away,” he said.

Records show southwest Yukon is no stranger to seismic activity, but in the 30 hours following Monday’s first major quake, there has been nonstop activity.

The seismic activity recorded by the Geological Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks shows that since the first major earthquake at 5:31 a.m. Monday, there have been dozens of smaller aftershocks – along with the other big one at 7:18 – in the same region northwest of Klukwan.