California, December 21
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Northern California’s Eureka area early Tuesday (local time), the US Geological Survey said, injuring at least two people, cutting off power, and damaging some buildings and a roadway, officials said, reported CNN.
The jolt shook residents off their sleep and left tens of thousands without electricity. The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 2:34 a.m. PT, was in the Pacific about 15 miles from Fortuna, a city of about 12,000 people in Humboldt County, part of California’s forested Redwood Coast. Fortuna is near Eureka and about a 280-mile drive northwest of Sacramento, reported CNN.
More than three dozen smaller quakes — of a 4.6 magnitude — struck the area afterward, the survey reported. Tuesday’s temblor comes a year after a 6.2 magnitude quake struck just off Humboldt County’s Cape Mendocino on December 20, 2021, and caused minor damage to buildings in the area.
Most homes and businesses in Humboldt County were without power early Tuesday. More than 71,000 outages were reported shortly after 7:15 a.m. PT – out of 99,000 customers tracked in the county – according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
“Widespread damages to roads and homes” were being reported throughout Humboldt County, the county sheriff’s office said Tuesday morning on Twitter. At least two people were injured, the sheriff’s office said, reported CNN.
In downtown Fortuna, some storefront windows were shattered, and people were putting up boards to fill the gaps on a rainy Tuesday morning, video from KRCR shows, reported CNN.
The main quake produced at least some shaking from coastal Oregon to south of San Jose, California, public reports collected by the survey show. It poses no tsunami threat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
