By Abhirup Roy and Andrew Hay for Reuters
Photo: USGS/Supplied
A large magnitude 7 earthquake hit off a sparsely populated stretch of northern California coast on Thursday, prompting coastal towns to evacuate low-lying areas amid a tsunami warning that was later cancelled.
No deaths or injuries were reported.
The National Weather Service said that the tsunami warning that extended along 800km of the California and Oregon coasts was called off about 90 minutes after the earthquake struck.
The Zoo has closed due to national weather emergency and tsunami warning. Guests have been evacuated, animals secured and staff have moved to higher ground.
— San Francisco Zoo & Gardens (@sfzoo) December 5, 2024
The quake, which hit at a shallow depth of 10km was centred about 63km west of the town of Ferndale, a sparsely populated portion of the northern California coast, the US Geological Survey said.
In Ferndale, a town of about 1400 people, residents and business owners were cleaning up broken crockery and merchandise after the quake struck.
“It was a big quake, it made you evacuate the building as fast as you could,” said Troy Land, a member of the Ferndale’s Volunteer Fire Department, who also owns a hardware store and said lumber and cans of paint went tumbling across the shop’s floor.
In San Francisco, where the quake was not felt, hospitality worker Nicole Steinberg, 25, said she was grabbing a coffee when an alert about the possible tsunami was sent to her phone, along with all the other patrons around her.
“I got a call from dad asking me to find higher ground immediately,” Steinberg said. “But no one else was freaking out too much. I took a while to decide whether to go back to the office or not. I decided to go to the Salesforce Park, which is higher up, and I waited there for an update.”
Some 4.7 million residents of California and Oregon had been under the tsunami warning before it was cancelled, the National Weather Service said.
The City of Berkeley Police Department issued an evacuation order for parts of the city on the San Francisco Bay, but later sent an alert to residents saying that “no tsunami danger presently exists.”
In northern California, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office downgraded its evacuation warning for a tsunami to “situational awareness” in low lying areas.
About 19,000 clients were without power in Humboldt County – up from near zero before the earthquake struck, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on social media that the governor “is now meeting with state emergency officials and working to ensure Californians are safe”.
– Reuters
