“On Bainbridge Island, Wednesday’s earthquake was more like an amusement-park thrill ride than anything else – scary while it was happening, but with little long-term impact.Island prize for the scariest ride may go to Paul Roy, music director at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. He was some 30 feet up in the church’s bell tower when the quake hit.It was Ash Wednesday, and I was up there hanging a banner for Lent, Roy said. When it started rumbling, I thought a truck was going by. As it grew more intense, it seemed unbelievable to me because the tower was shaking back and forth. I thought it might collapse.Roy fell back against the wall and held onto ropes tied to a dowel that he was using to hang the banner. I could see the tower moving, so I focused outside, and the big trees were shaking like they were being pushed from below, he said.Both Roy and the church came through unscathed.Everyone on the island felt the sharp temblor that jolted the Pacific Northwest for half a minute at 10:55 a.m. Wednesday. But problems were measured in terms of inconvenience and moderate damage at worst, not in terms of catastrophic losses.Perhaps the most serious damage was to the Commodore Center, where the cafeteria and small gymnasium both sustained structural damage. Both of those facilities are out of use pending a more complete inspection by structural engineers.At Bainbridge High School, some ceiling tiles crumbled and some loose plaster fell from the ceiling, maintenance chief Joe Rudy said. Some cracks appeared in the new gymnasium walls and in the 300 and 500 buildings.No damage was reported at any of the other schools. Classes remained in session, although Sakai Intermediate School cancelled its after-school activities. The Bainbridge library sustained a few broken widows in the older portion of the building, and closed Wednesday as a precaution. It reopened Thursday and operated normally after inspections from the police department and John Rudolph, the architect for the original building.Local insurance agents, who might have expected to be flooded with inquiries, had a relatively quiet Thursday morning.I’ve had a couple of calls about minor damage – cracks in walls, said Barbara Hall of the Bainbridge Insurance Agency. There’s not much damage on Bainbridge. That assessment was echoed by Rick Kossen of the Independent Insurance Group and Trina Morgan of Thornburgh Insurance Agency.Bill and Alice Beifuss of South Beach Drive reported wall cracks throughout their home, and missing chimney bricks. Wing Point resident Jeff Brein said some of the bricks popped out of the chimney at his pre-1920 home, showering the patio with mortar. Brein estimated the damage at several thousand dollars.Most other damage related to items thrown from shelves and walls, such as broken china; an Eagledale resident reported losing her liquor cabinet, and its contents.Earthquake damage is not covered by a standard homeowners insurance policy, and like most islanders, neither the Beifusses nor Brein had earthquake insurance.Local agents estimated that only 10 to 15 percent of the clients who buy homeowners insurance add an earthquake policy, which can cost as much as a homeowners policy. The deductibles are relatively high – commonly 5-10 percent of the structure’s total value. The insurance is really for situations where your house is totally destroyed, Brein said, adding that he was looking into the possibility of a federal disaster loan to repair his chimney.Local officials activated the emergency operations center at the Phelps Road fire hall, but fire crews reported no quake-related calls. Members of the Bainbridge Amateur Radio Club reported to the EOC and six other locations in Kitsap County to transmit emergency messages by short-wave radio. But because telephone communication remained in working order, although heavily burdened, that service was not necessary.Ferry operations were disrupted Wednesday afternoon when the city of Seattle yellow-tagged the Colman Dock terminal as potentially unsafe. For three hours, Bainbridge-bound passengers walked onto the auto deck instead of loading through the terminal. But there was an advantage – no fares were collected during that period.At 4:30 p.m., the city replaced the yellow tag with a green tag meaning all clear, and normal service resumed – at the normal fare.Vehicle loading operations on the Seattle side were slowed by a large crack that developed in the northerly auto loading area of Coleman Dock, between the terminal building and the fire station, on what is normally the Bainbridge side.Ferry officials opened up a larger portion of the south loading area – normally the Bremerton side – and loaded the boats from there, according to WSF spokesperson Susan Harris.To simplify Wednesday’s homebound commute, the WSF asked workers to leave their cars in Seattle overnight Wednesday, and walk on the ferry.A lot of them took that advice and left their vehicles on this side, Harris said.By Thursday, ferry service was back to normal.The Tariff Policy Committee’s public meeting scheduled at the Bainbridge Ferry Terminal was cancelled because WSF officials had other problems to address, according to TPC chair Alice Tawresey. The meeting, seeking public comment on the TPC’s fare-increase proposal, will be rescheduled.Not surprisingly, the ferry officials had more urgent matters to attend to Wednesday night than listening to people talk about fares, Tawresey said. “