AP’s San Francisco Valerie Starkey thought her car had broken down while traveling through Northern California to visit family when she felt a tremendous tremor. Later, she discovered that it was an earthquake so strong that it caused a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles along the U.S. West Coast.
Because California is the meeting point of three tectonic plates, it is known as earthquake country. This is where Thursday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake happened. Since Ridgecrest was struck by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in 2019, this was the strongest earthquake to shake the state.
For approximately an hour, 5.3 million people along the 500-mile (805-kilometer) California and Oregon beaches were under a tsunami warning, and Starkey and many others were taken aback by its severity. When there were no significant waves, it was raised.
Starkey, a Del Norte County supervisor for Crescent City, a town of less than 6,000 people close to the Oregon border, stated, “I thought my axles had fallen apart.” That’s what I felt like. Now my axles are damaged. I was unaware that there had been an earthquake.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake occurred at 10:44 a.m. west of Ferndale, a tiny city in coastal Humboldt County, approximately 130 miles (209 km) from the Oregon border. Children were rushing beneath classroom tables as a result of the shaking, which also toppled products off grocery store shelves.
Residents of San Francisco, which is around 270 miles (435 km) to the south, reported feeling a rolling motion for a few seconds. Several minor earthquakes followed it. Reports of significant damage or injuries from the earthquake were not immediately available.
Soon after the earthquake, a tsunami warning was issued that covered the area from the northern coast of Oregon to the edge of California’s Monterey Bay.
It was a powerful earthquake. Our structure trembled. “We’re fine, but I have a mess to clean up right now,” said Julie Kreitzer, proprietor of Golden Gait Mercantile, a popular Ferndale destination that sells food, goods, and souvenirs.
I must leave. Kreitzer hung up after saying, “I have to try and salvage something for the holidays because it’s going to be a tough year.”
In 2022, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked the area, which is famous for its redwood forests, picturesque mountains, and the three-county Emerald Triangle’s renowned marijuana production. The earthquake left thousands of residents without water and electricity. According to seismologist Lucy Jones on the social networking site BlueSky, the northwest region of California is the most seismically active area of the state since it is the meeting point of three tectonic plates.
The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning shortly after the earthquake, causing phones in Northern California to buzz: A series of large waves and strong currents may hit coasts near you. You’re in danger. Avoid the seas. Now go inland or to high ground. Until local authorities declare it safe to return, stay away from the coast.
As a precaution, several cities advised residents to move to higher ground.
Authorities in Santa Cruz taped up gates and cleaned the main beach. In the Half Moon Bay neighborhood south of San Francisco, California highways 1 and 92 were clogged with cars as they headed for higher ground, according to aerial imagery.
The Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce’s executive director, Cindy Vosburg, reported hearing sirens just before the city’s downtown cultural center began to groan and the shaking started.
According to Vosburg, the building would roll again just as it was beginning to slow down.
According to White House spokeswoman Jeremy Edwards, FEMA personnel are in communication with their state and local colleagues in California and Oregon, and President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake.
To expedite the deployment of state resources to affected coastal districts, Governor Gavin Newsom approved the creation of a state of emergency. According to Newsom, state officials were worried about damage in the state’s northern region.
In Eureka, the region’s largest city, crews were determining whether any damage had been sustained. Kim Bergel, the mayor of Eureka and a middle school teacher, reported that everyone huddled behind desks while the lights wavered.
The children were both amazing and afraid. She claimed that it seemed to oscillate for a considerable amount of time. “Is it possible for me to call my mom?” some kids questioned.
Later, the pupils were sent home.
According to Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, neighbors reported some window and glass breakage and foundation fissures, but nothing serious.
According to Honsal, he felt the earthquake as he was in his office at the 75-year-old courthouse in downtown Eureka.
We’re accustomed to it. He referred to this area as “earthquake country.” It wasn’t a sudden shock. It was a sluggish roller coaster, but it was important.
Visitors to the San Francisco Zoo were evacuated, and transportation in all directions was halted by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, or BART, through the underwater tunnel connecting San Francisco and Oakland.
According to Corina Allen, the tsunami program manager for the National Weather Service in Washington state, this earthquake was a strike-slip type, which shifts more horizontally and is less likely to produce tsunamis than the more vertical forms.
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From Los Angeles, Dazio provided reporting. This report was written by Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.; Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California; Sophie Austin and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, California; Christopher Weber, Jaimie Ding, and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles.
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