A 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked California's scenic Napa Valley wine country on Sunday, the strongest to hit the region in a quarter of a century, seriously injuring three and jolting thousands from their sleep.
Juan Becerra cleans up broken glass at a vacant store formely occupied by Merrill's drug store in Napa. Officials in the city of Napa say 15 to 16 buildings are no longer inhabitable after Sunday's magnitude-6.0 earthquake, and there is only limited
Power remained knocked out to around 20,000 customers in the area, home to California's most celebrated wine-producing regions, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Brown said 69,000 people lost power in all.
Dorothy Roberts, Napa city clerk, told AFP multiple reports of structural damage had come in and that brick buildings in particular had been hard-hit.
"You can't put a price on a 65-year-old African elk skull," owner Donavan Kinyon said.
At the Golden Owl Tattoo shop, the shaking took an unexpected toll on a personal collection of paintings, skulls and taxidermy pieces.
As the dust cleared, merchants were covering broken windows with plywood and cleaning glass shards and rubble from sidewalks.
A handful of small aftershocks had already been recorded by USGS. "Any time we have an earthquake, whether it's magnitude 6.0 or smaller, they serve as a good reminder that we do live in earthquake country and need to be prepared," said USGS
The earthquake jolted people from sound sleep as far away as San Francisco, and was felt as far east as Sacramento and as far south as Santa Cruz. USGS expert Jessica Turner told KCBS radio that aftershocks of up to 5.0 are likely in the next week.
The Napa city official said 60 water-main breaks occurred following the quake, which struck near American Canyon some 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, according to USGS.
As inspectors hustled from building to building to check safety and risk of further collapse, Napa city officials said they had received more than 100 phone calls from people reporting gas leaks.
The video was published by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. (Photo: Twitter)
Napa officials scrambled to flag 16 buildings, including a senior center, as too damaged for occupancy, as portions of the city's downtown were cordoned off with yellow tape.
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The US Geological Service said the temblor was the most powerful to hit the San Francisco Bay area since the 1989 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake. Many Napa residents and the surrounding area were roused from sleep when the ground started
No deaths were reported. But authorities said more than 120 people sought minor medical care and that a child was in critical condition after being crushed by a fireplace. California's governor declared a state of emergency in the wake of the 3:20