In the early hours of Tuesday December 20, 2022 at least two people died and 12 were injured after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked Northern California, local authorities said. The temblor, which is the strongest earthquake the area has seen in years, also damaged infrastructure and cut off power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses around Humboldt County, about 250 miles north of San Francisco.
"died as a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following the earthquake." The Humboldt County Sheriff's office said two people.
The first deaths stemming from an earthquake in California since one person died in 2019 during a 7.1 magnitude quake that rocked the city of Ridgecrest in California's Northern Mojave Desert region. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 2:34 a.m. PT in Pacific Ocean waters about 7½ miles west of Ferndale at a depth of just over 16 miles. The city is about 19 miles south of Eureka, near the California and Oregon state line. State officials said they closed one bridge into Ferndale that was damaged. The USGS warned of "many" aftershocks, including some that could reach magnitude 4. More than two dozen aftershocks were recorded on the USGS website, most of which were less than magnitude 4.
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Preliminary data placed the center of the quake along the Pacific Coast about 7.5 miles away from Ferndale, California, USGS said. The quake was recorded at about 2:34 a.m. local time. "Power is out across the county," officials said on Twitter, adding in all-caps: "Do not call 911 unless you are experiencing an immediate emergency." The sheriff's office also said there was "widespread" damage to roads and homes throughout Humboldt County, including the Fernbridge in Ferndale. There were at least two injuries in the county, both from falls, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office said. State Route 211 was closed at Fernbridge after the roadways and a bridge suffered possible seismic damage, according to the California Department of Transportation.
Significant damage was also recorded in Fortuna, where stores were seen with broken windows due to the tremors. The quake was large enough to trigger a "ShakeAlert" that was sent to cellphones by FEMA's Wireless Emergency Alert System, officials said. "We hope everyone is safe and if you felt shaking or got an alert you took a protective action like Drop, Cover, and Hold On," USGS said. A tsunami wasn't expected, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center, which reported the quake at a preliminary magnitude of 6.1.
