6.5 earthquake near Eureka, Calif., snaps power lines and topples televisions [Updated]

A strong earthquake, estimated magnitude 6.5, rocked the Eureka, Calif., area this afternoon, snapping power lines, toppling televisions, disrupting power throughout the region and forcing the evacuation of at least one mall. 

The earthquake was centered under the Pacific Ocean, about 25 miles southwest of Eureka, at 4:27 p.m. A tsunami was not expected, according to the National Weather Service.

[Updated 5:57 p.m.: The California Highway Patrol in Eureka reported no major damage to roads and bridges and highways and said roads are open. 

"Right now it's very preliminary but there does not seem to be any damage that is overly significant." said Capt. Dale Cannon. "We've got some minor glass breakage, some gas mains affected and some power lines down."

He said he has not heard of reports of any injuries.]

[Updated: 6:27 p.m.: The California Emergency Management Agency said there has been no call from the Eureka area for emergency assistance  because only minimal damage has been reported.

"We've had some reports of minor damage, cosmetic damage, windows broken," said  Kelly Huston, assistant secretary of the agency. "But so far, it's all very minor, and no damage as far as we can tell to roadways and thoroughfares."

The last major earthquake in the area was a magnitude 7.2 tremor on April 25, 1992, which caused some injuries, Huston said. That quake occurred in roughly the same area offshore and triggered a small tsunami, followed by two strong aftershocks.]

“It was a monstrous one,” said Phil Burns, owner of Mity Nice Bakery Cafe Restaurant in Eureka, which suffered no major damage. “I’ve been through a lot of these and usually they’re sharp but this one was very wiggly; it was rolling in all directions.” 

Burns said it took his mother half an hour to be evacuated from the Bayshore Mall. 

William Bowman, 60, was at home in the south Eureka fishing village of King Salmon — about 10 miles from the epicenter — when the quake hit, shattering heirloom dishware and toppling a television.

“I hit the floor,” he said. “It was a long one. I thought the house was coming down.”

The shaking lasted about 10 seconds, snapping power lines and knocking out power throughout the isolated seaside community of about 750. When it stopped, people gathered in the street. Some were visibly panic-stricken. Others yelled, "You all right?" in the direction of neighbor’s homes.

The next sounds Bowman heard was that of engines revving as people began to stream out of the village on its only access road, racing toward what he described as “the closest higher ground, 150-foot high Bell Hill.”

Bowman and his wife, however, drove to their restaurant in the nearby community of Cutten. “We lost a few nice bottles of wine,” he said.

A newly installed tsunami warning system was not activated.

Some neighborhoods appeared to be calm. Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass said of her neighborhood, "I don't see smoke. I don't hear sirens all over the place. My phones are working and the power is on." 

Sandra Hall, owner of Antiques and Goodies in Eureka, said the quake moved her shop in all directions.

Her store was littered with broken lamps, dishes and wardrobe items. She said there were at least four people in her store when the quake struck.  A couple managed to run out of the store’s main entrance, while two women took shelter under a table.   

“We’ve been through a lot of earthquakes but I can’t recall there ever being any this bad,” Hall said.

Richard Allen, a UC Berkeley seismologist, said the area where the earthquake occurred was in the Mendocino Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates collide, one of the most seismically active regions of the San Andreas transform system. 

Several aftershocks have been recorded.

Did you feel it?  Report your experience to the U.S. Geological Survey.

-- Ruben Vives, Louis Sahagun, Patrick McDonnell, Cara Mia Dimassa and Rong-Gong Lin II

Comments

[scanner]

live scanner link for eureka,
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=194

[Joshua]

I am an employee at the bayshore mall in Eureka. It was the worst Ive felt in humboldt yet, ceiling tiles were coming down around our heads, and the floor tiles broke up in places around out feet. Security at the mall was the worst, they themselves were paniced, telling people to run...it was crazy, power went out, everyones stores were open...it was a mess

[Jake]

While no earthquake is ever "good", we are fortunate that it did not strike in the middle of the night when people would be sleeping, and things would fall on them and injure them.

[Shelby Shapiro]

I was in the mall when the quake hit. Everybody was running and screaming and being ushered out the door. Ceiling panels were falling down everywhere and it was extremely loud. there was a rumbling sound and then the clattering of tiles and things falling. i took cover under a table but was told to get out very quickly. It was a very scary event, by far the worst earthquake I've ever felt.

[ike]

- Will Alaska and California be next in the chain of Massive Quakes around the Ring of Fire?... Strong earthquakes may weaken distant fault lines (Reuters, Sep 30,2009)...
- National Geographic (November 19, 2008): "High-energy electrons captured over Antarctica could reveal the presence of a nearby but MYSTERIOUS ASTROPHYSICAL OBJECT that's bombarding Earth with cosmic rays, researchers say"...
- "Planet X confirmed" - cosmonaut and pilot Marina Popovich... Russian Television Reports on Nibiru:
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2009/10/major-quakes-and-planet-x-will-alaska.html

[Tanya]

This earthquake is all over the news down here in SoCal! I hope everyone is getting along well.

[Kevin Ratzlaff]

I used to live in Eureka and I was in the middle of the 7.2 earthquake and that one had the telephone poles moving back and forth. Ferndale had plenty of damage and had fires and brick buildings falling all over.

Eureka will have aftershocks so I don't think people will sleep well tonight.

[Jason]

I was in Kohl's at the Bayshore Mall in Eureka. The shaking was so violent that I was sure the entire place was going to collapse. Luckily I, along with my mom and my boyfriend, were able to utilize a wood pants-rack for shelter. I was near the epicenter of a 7.2 quake about 40 miles south of Eureka back in 1991 and this smaller 6.5 seemed far worse, likely due to the mall being basically built on swamp land.

Thank God we didn't have a tsunami because it seemed like nobody was seeking higher ground.

[nick]

i was there it seemed biger than 6.5

[nick]

it was the bigest earth quake i have ben in.

[Rick]

I live in Vermont, we have had a few minor quakes in the past few years, the last one about 5 years ago, was all sound and no shakel.. It was so strange you could hear this rumbling every where. and seemed to come from nowhere.

[A. Jones]

Born and raised in the Eureka area, I laughed out loud for some time when I saw King Salmon referred to as a "fishing village". The Fields Landing/ King Salmon area is not exactly a village and, as far as I'm concerned, is just an outlying part of Eureka. Reports from out-of-the-area news sources have made it sound like the entire Humboldt County area is an island where all residents are subsistence farmers who excel at basket weaving and have never seen one of those amazing new "auto-mobile" machines. Words like "isolated" and "remote" are being thrown about, which I find very amusing.

It was one of the biggest earthquakes I can recall, and at my house in Eureka all I could hear during the quake was the sound of breaking glass from every room in the house. Cupboards were thrown open, books flew off the shelves, vases were smashed into a million tiny pieces and poor kitty refused to come out of hiding for about a half hour after the shaking stopped. The real pain of it was that cell phones stopped working, and people all felt it necessary to get in their cars and drive around making it difficult for emergency vehicles to get around. It was also dark enough when it happened that cleaning up broken glass and such became almost impossible,

[lily]

i was there at bounce a rama i was scared to death the ride started to shake i fell off .

[Linda Wright]

I used to be always checking out the world wide earthequakes for a year or so.
Then I heard about yours on the philly news channel. I had to see it for myself.
You people have almost 700 small quakes a day! You are used to it but if I were
there, I'd be alarmed by that. Is'nt any scientist there telling you guys if its safe
or not to stay there. I just watched a hollywood movie that all of California drops into the sea the other day. I know its fiction but...is it? I would have a plan to get out of there if it goes to 1,000 equakes in a week. It just makes sense. If you check out the rest of the worlds equakes. Your little state has more equakes then the whole world put together!! Be safe all of you and pray!!Jah bless you.

[Alex]

i was there it seemed biger than 6.5..

[kew]

I hope everyone is OK. I live in Klamath county Oregon I did not feel That one but my dogs did they were driving me nuts exactly at that time, and they did the same thing the last earthquake only I did feel that one.