Earthquake hits California

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/24/usgs-60-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-northern-california/

Northern California rocked by magnitude 6.0 earthquake
Published August 24, 2014FoxNews.comFacebook923 Twitter306
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit northern California’s San Francisco Bay area Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Leslie Gordon of the USGS says the tremor struck just before 3:30 a.m. Sunday about 10 miles northwest of American Canyon, which is about 6 miles southwest of Napa. The USGS says it's the largest tremor to shake the Bay Area since the 1989 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake, which reportedly led to 63 deaths.

Officials say widespread power outages have been reported in Sonoma County, but there have been no immediate report of injuries.

Jennifer Jones Lee, who lives in the earthquake area, told Fox News the tremor “felt like someone just picked up the house, shook it for a while, then dropped it. It was incredibly violent.”

Arik Housley, who owns two grocery stores in the area, said he was awakened at about 3:30 a.m. by the shaking. “It was very jolting and probably went for 20 seconds . . . it was shaking pretty good,” said Housley, whose brother is Fox News senior correspondent Adam Housley.

Arik Housley said he passed a mobile home park where multiple fires could be seen as he drove to one of his stores to assess the damage. Housley said the shelving in his store had moved 2 feet to 3 feet from the wall, and much of his inventory had fallen to the floor, including $200 bottles of wine. Many merchants in the area forgo earthquake insurance because it’s too expensive, he said. A quake about 14 years ago resulted in about $30,000 in damage, he told Fox News.

The tremor set off car alarms and had residents of neighboring Sonoma County running out of their houses in the middle of night.

The USGS says the depth of the earthquake was just less than 7 miles, and numerous small aftershocks have occurred in the Napa wine country.

A member of Napa County dispatch tells The Associated Press that there has been one report of structural damage, but additional details were not available.

“There’s fires, debris all over the streets, everywhere,” Napa resident Karen Hunt told “Fox & Friends.”

Hunt said her husband, who is an engineer, shut off the gas line to their home to guard against explosions, then went to neighbors’ homes to do the same.

“Right now we’re just waiting for the aftershocks,” she said. She said she had not felt any, but reportedly there has been two, one at magnitude 2.5.

Hunt has said she has felt other earthquakes, but “this is way on top of anything I’ve ever felt.”

Hunt, who has lived in Napa since 1996, owns a winery. She said she heard from her partner that her 2011 and 2012 vintages had been destroyed.

“That’s pretty devastating if that’s the case,” she said.

News is still coming in.

That is a big one. I remember that last one and seeing traffic on a bridge whose road was swaying....so terrible for people.

There seems to have been a lot of property damage, but thankfully, no loss of life?

This is a good article on events. I believe that there are no reports of death, so far, Bonny.

The US has incredible earthquake building codes for certain areas, glad to say, but areas like historic parts might have been built pre-such stringent practices that we now have.

http://homment.com/earthquake22

Photos from the scene, sample:



That looks like an older building, Lily? And the drinks display at the supermarket is a bit of a mess...

It is indeed an older building and as you can see has a brick facade. We don't do that anymore for obvious reasons which is why homes are generally built with wooden frames and plasterboard interior walls etc. and tied to the foundation with earthquake ties. The buildings can roll and flex as necessary.

This link can explain things if anyone is interested.

http://imaginationstationtoledo.org/content/2011/03/can-you-build-an-earthquake-proof-building/

Thanks, Lily.

I watched a documentary about this a while back - quake-proofing the few buildings which survived the 1906 quake, and the Golden Gate bridge, etc. It was an enormous project, as I recall.

Yes, Bonny. It was. Also, there were no buildings allowed to be built over a few stories high but now there are so many high rise ones that I do wonder sometimes what would happen if........

I saw Earthquake. I know what happens, oh yes. And it would be even worse now, with Charlton Heston being dead.

I saw it too Bonny. Good old Charlton brought to you by Jennings Lang.