RIO DELL, Calif. At least two people were dead, nearly a dozen were injured and scores were displaced on Tuesday as the North Coast of California rugged and remote stretch of redwood country overlooking the Pacific Ocean worked to recover from a 6.4-magnitude earthquake.
The powerful jolt, in the frigid dark at 2:34 AM, Pacific time, damaged bridges and roads, toppled walls and chimneys, and cut power to more than 70,000 utility customers in Humboldt County. By evening, electricity was restored for about half of those customers, but some 34,000 were still without power, according to Pacific Gas and Electric, and some parts of the county were left without running water and major transportation routes, The quake was centered just offshore, about 12 miles west of the community of Fern dale and more than 200 miles north of San Francisco, in a seismically active region. Exactly one year ago, the same area was rocked by a 6.2 temblor. More than 50 aftershocks followed Tuesday’s earthquake, including a large one about five minutes after with a magnitude of 4.6, according to the US, Geological Survey. William F. Horsey, the sheriff and emergency service's director of Humboldt County, said that at least two people, ages 72 and 83, died because they had suffered medical crises around the time of the earthquake and could not be reached by emergency personnel soon enough. Among the damaged roads is the one that crosses Fernbridge, a historic multiple-arched bridge across the Eel River that is the primary route for Fern dale residents to Eureka, the county’s largest city. The bridge was closed early Tuesday, and photos showed that a billowing crack had formed in the road nearby. In Rio Dell, an old logging community about 10 miles southeast of Fern dale that the sheriff called ground zero for the earthquake’s impact, the city manager, Kyle Knopf, said that 15 homes were already deemed uninhabitable because of earthquake damage, and that inspectors were continuing to examine structures, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and Humboldt County officials declared a state of emergency to expedite aid. Knopf, who estimated that as many as 150 of the community’s 3,300 residents would be displaced by the time inspections were completed, also said the city might be unable to supply tap water until Wednesday at the earliest.
This was a tough day, said Greg Allen, the Rio Dell police chief. That jolt hit us pretty hard.
Witnesses, many of whom had been through significant earthquakes before, said that Tuesday’s quake felt unusually strong, leading to terrifying moments as they were shaken from their sleep.
In Rio Dell, Kirstin Collins, 32, said she awoke to a violent rattling and thought immediately of her 8-year-old son, Liam, who slept on the opposite side of the house. Her husband, Johnnie Collins, 30, ran to retrieve Liam in the pitch darkness, and cut his feet on broken items on the floor, she said.
A dresser toppled onto her bed, and a fallen mirror nearly barricaded her in the room, she said. The house’s water heater broke, and a broken pipe flooded the laundry room where the family’s dog slept. I honestly didn’t think I was going to get out of the house, Collins said hours later, assessing the quake’s aftermath in the rain. Once there was daylight, she said, she found more damage both inside and outside the house, and wondered how she would feed her son, charge her phone or find shelter. We have nothing, she said. Everything is broken in our house completely, and we don’t know where to go and what to do. Another Rio Dell resident, Joe Filyau, 59, said that he had been through other earthquakes, but never felt one that hard.
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