A magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook Northern California on Wednesday morning, knocking out power to thousands in Mendocino County and sending items plunging off store shelves. Officials said some injuries were reported.
A ShakeAlert notification went off on many people’s phones, alerting them to a magnitude 6.0 tremor reported near Willits at 8:10 a.m. As of 8:16 a.m., USGS downgraded the strength of the shake to 5.6, about 6.8 miles north of Redwood Valley. According to USGS, the quake had a depth of about 5 miles.
The Mendocino County Executive Office said some injuries were reported, but no deaths. The office also said there are no known major damages.
PG&E said 10,000 utility customers lost power in Mendocino County. Power had been restored to about half of the customers by 4 p.m.
The utility said there was no damage reported to any of its facilities, gas system or generating assets.
KCRA 3 obtained videos that showed items being knocked of the shelves at stores in Willits, Redwood Valley, and Upper Lake.
Another video showed damage inside a home in Willits, where items were knocked out of cabinets.
Videos also showed cars being shaken in the community.
Mendocino County officials encouraged people to stay off major roadways to allow for Caltrans, PG&E and county workers to perform damage inspection and repairs.
The city of Willits said it has not received any reports of injuries or damage to city infrastructure. However, emergency crews worked to address downed lines, investigate possible gas leaks and respond to reports of water line breaks.
This was the biggest earthquake in nearly nine decades in the region, which is not on a major fault, said Lucy Jones, a veteran California seismologist.
“The area is not without earthquakes, but they’re usually smaller than this,” Jones said. She added that aftershocks are likely, but they’ll “probably stay on the low side.”
In the KCRA 3 studio, some monitors could be seen slightly shaking from the quake.
A handful of smaller aftershocks were reported after the initial temblor.
| VIDEO BELOW | KCRA 3 anchors react to earthquake
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office announced it was aware of the earthquake and was closely coordinating with emergency officials and assessing potential impacts and damage. The agency said nearly 657,000 earthquake alerts were sent through the MyShake app.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office is assessing any damage. Cal Fire’s Howard Forest Emergency Command Center had not received any reports of damage so far.
See an earthquake tracker from the San Francisco Chronicle below.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google
-The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
Hearst Television participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.
Leave a Reply