A powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California Tuesday morning, waking residents as it shattered glass, shook homes’ foundations, damaged roads and left nearly 60,000 rural homes and businesses without power and many without water. At least 12 people were injured.
“It seemed like my ceiling was coming down,” Cassondra Stoner said. “When I woke up, all I could think about was looking for the damn kids.” When the ground stopped moving, Stoner’s family was fine, even a daughter slept through the ruckus. But when she reported to work at Dollar General, she discovered that tiles had fallen from the ceiling, shelves had collapsed and the contents of the discount store were scattered on the floor.
George Schauer cleans inside an auto parts store after an earthquake in Rio Dell, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)
The magnitude 6.4 quake struck at 2:34 a.m. near Ferndale, a small community about 210 miles (345 kilometers) northwest of San Francisco and near the Pacific coast. The epicenter was near the coast at a depth of about 10 miles (16 kilometers). Numerous aftershocks followed.
Residents in the area known for its redwood forests, scenic mountains and the legendary marijuana grow of the tri-county Emerald Triangle are used to earthquakes. But many said this was more violent and unnerving than the usual rolling motion they experience.
“You could see the floor and the walls shaking,” said Araceli Huerta, who was still shaking some 10 hours later. “It sounded like a freight train was passing my house.” Damage to buildings and infrastructure was still being assessed. Two Humboldt County hospitals lost power and were running on generators, but the magnitude of the damage appeared to be minimal compared to the force of the quake, according to Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Building inspector Kevin Caldwell places red tags on a home in Rio Dell, Calif., that lost an awning and a deck after an earthquake struck Humboldt County on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via PA)
Approximately 12 people were reported to have sustained injuries, including a broken hip and a head wound, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said at a news conference interrupted by a jarring aftershock. Two people died, an 83-year-old and a 72-year-old, because they were unable to receive timely care for “medical emergencies” during or just after the earthquake.
The damage was mainly centered in the small communities of Rio Dell, Ferndale and Fortuna, Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said during a news conference in Sacramento.
In Rio Dell, a village of about 3,000 people where the destruction was worst, at least 15 houses were severely damaged and deemed uninhabitable and another 18 were moderately damaged, authorities said after a partial assessment.
Kenny Ransbottom walks through the rubble inside his auto parts store after an earthquake in Rio Dell, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)
The city’s water system was shut down for repairs for two days due to leaks. Portable toilets were installed at City Hall and water was distributed at the fire station.
A bridge over the River Eel built in 1911 that is the main route into Ferndale was damaged and closed to traffic, requiring a longer detour through the mountains to reach the quaint Victorian town, where all of Main Street is in the National Register of Historic Places. .
Caroline Titus, former owner of the Ferndale Enterprise newspaper, said the quake only broke a few windows in storefronts. In her 140-year-old home, plants toppled over, her coffee bar crashed to the floor, pictures fell off the wall and books fell off the shelves.
“It’s all a butt hurt type of damage,” Titus said.
Since a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the area in 1992 injured hundreds, started fires and destroyed many homes, building codes have required modifications to make structures much more resistant to tremors, Titus said.
David Wrisley and his wife Andrea look at the damage in their kitchen after a strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the Northern California coast, in Rio Dell, California, U.S., December 20, 2022. REUTERS /Fred Greaves
Still, he said, every strong quake evokes the same fear: “Is this it? Is this the nine points? “So you’re thinking, I’ll just put up with it” until it stops, she said. “Then the adrenaline hits you and there’s a lot of swearing.” The power outage involved the main transmission line serving the region and restoration work by Pacific Gas & Electric was delayed because rain prevented the use of a helicopter to assess the damage, said state Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents the area.
The utility company said it expected power to be restored within 24 hours, but 57,000 customers remained without power by midafternoon.
Humboldt County has about 136,000 residents and is in a part of the state that has a long history of major earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 in 1980 and a magnitude 6.8 in 2014, according to the California Earthquake Authority.
The city of Eureka, population 26,000, said on its website that “no significant damage was reported” immediately.
Eureka resident Dan Dixon said he and his wife were sleeping when they woke up with a start and shook everything, throwing pictures in their house to the ground.
“It was probably the most violent earthquake we’ve felt in the 15 years I’ve lived here,” he said. “He physically moved our bed.” Larkin O’Leary, 41, of Santa Rosa, traveled to spend her anniversary with her husband in Ferndale, where they were hit by an earthquake last year. They decided to try again and booked the romance package at a historic inn, the same place as a year ago.
O’Leary said she woke up at 2:30 a.m. with a strange feeling and tried to go back to sleep.
“I lay down again and it was almost like someone jumped on the bed,” he said. “It was so scary. …She trembled in a way that he had never experienced. It was up, down, everywhere.” The couple quickly left Ferndale and returned to their home.
“Never again,” O’Leary said.
The earthquake occurred in an area known as the Mendocino Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates meet.
“We are at this point in geologic time where the most exciting and dynamic area in California is Humboldt County and the adjacent offshore area,” said Lori Dengler, professor emeritus of geology at Cal Poly Humboldt.
The quake triggered a massive response from the West Coast Alert System that detects the start of a quake and sends alerts to cell phones in the affected region that can prompt people to take safety precautions in the seconds before it hits. a strong jolt comes to them.
The system sent alerts to about 3 million people in Northern California early Tuesday, officials said.
The quake came just days after a small 3.6 magnitude earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area, waking thousands of people before 4 a.m. Saturday and causing minor damage.
