Rio Dell Mayor Debra Garnes was jolted awake by the Humboldt County earthquake Tuesday.
“It was probably the most intense earthquake that I’ve felt,” the mayor of the small Northern California city told The Times. “It was a long-duration earthquake, so it was not only significant in size at 6.4, it was also long.”
She then needed to get to work, coordinating with Rio Dell’s constructing department and volunteer fire department to examine on structural integrity of homes in addition to the handfuls of emergency calls that were flooding in from residents.
Garnes said that about 60 emergency calls got here through within the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. A lot of the injuries in Rio Dell were minor, she said. There was one fatality through the earthquake, however it is unclear whether or the way it could have been related to the tremors.
The mayor said a call got here in after the earthquake about someone who was having difficulty respiratory. The person went into cardiac arrest, and emergency medical personnel performed CPR.
The person was taken to a hospital but didn’t survive.
“The hearth chief can’t say yet that it was brought on by the earthquake,” Garnes said, “however it was through the earthquake.”
On Tuesday at midmorning, constructing inspectors were moving through Rio Dell checking on the structural integrity of homes and other structures, Garnes said.
City officials expect about 50 to 150 people to be displaced by the earthquake. Those who’re displaced will probably be taken in at Monument Middle School, if the college is structurally sound.
Otherwise, people will probably be housed on the Fire Hall, she said. Like the remaining of Humboldt County, Rio Dell currently has no power, but the town also has no water, Garnes said.
“Our biggest issues are not any electricity and no water. Structural damage is the subsequent thing on the list,” she said. “Our water system got really wrecked. So many leaks.”
The quake was reported at 2:34 a.m. about 7½ miles southwest of Ferndale, Calif. It caused damage to structures in areas south of Eureka and a number of other injuries. Greater than 70,000 customers are without power.
Arcata residents Amy Uyeki, 65, and Reese Hughes, 69, were asleep once they first felt the earthquake.
The facility had gone off immediately. “Afterwards, you’re feeling kind of dizzy, and physically such as you’ve been through something,” Uyeki said. “When it was happening, I believed it was the massive one, because we haven’t felt anything this strong.”
The couple got down on the ground through the earthquake, which Uyeki said lasted about 15 seconds or so.
“This was very disconcerting,” Hughes said, “since it happened at nighttime, and you may’t see how much has gone down until you go around along with your flashlight.”
Shelves got here off partitions and a few home items broke, she said, but structurally the home seemed to be undamaged.
This wasn’t a typical shaker for Northern California, residents noted.
“It is a region that’s used to earthquakes,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents Humboldt County. Still, he added, “this was an enormous one. It’s being described as an extended, violent shake. … The adjective of violent has been used persistently this morning.”
Individual residents reported that entire bookshelves and kitchen cabinets were emptied by the shaking.
McGuire said local and state officials were working to evaluate damages in the realm but that the communities of Rio Dell and Ferndale “took the brunt” of the damage.
The earthquake compromised multiple structures, McGuire said, “businesses in addition to residential homes.”
There was one confirmed structure fire in Rio Dell related to the earthquake that has since been put out, McGuire said. The earthquake caused some damage to Fernbridge, a Humboldt County landmark inbuilt 1911 on State Route 211 that has survived past earthquakes and floods.
“It’s beautiful. It’s a historic bridge,” McGuire said, “iconic Humboldt County.”
