(AP) — The largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area in 25
years sent scores of people to hospitals, ignited fires, damaged
multiple historic buildings and knocked out power to tens of thousands
on Sunday.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck just before 3:30 a.m. miles
from Napa in California wine country was felt widely, breaking water
mains, causing more than 100 gas leaks, leaving two adults and a child
critically injured, damaging some of Napa Valley’s famed wineries, and
sending residents running out of their homes in the darkness.
Dazed residents too fearful of aftershocks to go back to bed wandered
through Napa’s historic downtown, where the quake had shorn a 10-foot
chunk of bricks and concrete from the corner of an old county
courthouse. Bolder-sized pieces of rubble littered the lawn and street
in front of the building and the hole left behind allowed a view of the
offices inside.
College student Eduardo Rivera, 20, said the home he shares with six
relatives shook so violently that he kept getting knocked back into his
bed as he tried to flee
.
“When I woke up, my mom was screaming and the sounds from the earthquake was greater than my mom’s screams,” Rivera said.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the earthquake, the White House
said. Federal officials also have been in touch with state and local
emergency responders. Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement that his
emergency services office was working closely with state and local
emergency managers to respond to residents and critical infrastructure
that were affected.
The earthquake sent at least 87 people to Queen of the Valley
hospital. Most patients had cuts, bumps, bruises, said Vanessa DeGier,
spokeswoman for the Napa hospital. She says the facility has treated a
hip fracture and heart attack, but it’s unclear if it was related to the
quake. The hospital has set up a triage tent and many people are still
coming in, DeGier said.
Six significant fires, including at a mobile home park, Napa Division
Fire Chief Darren Drake said. Four mobile homes have been destroyed and
two others damaged, the city said. Several other smaller fires have
been reported and firefighting efforts have been complicated by broken
water mains.
The earthquake is the largest to shake the Bay Area since the
6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake in 1989, the USGS said. That temblor
struck the area on Oct. 17, 1989, during a World Series game between the
San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, collapsing part of the
Bay Bridge roadway and killing more than 60 people, most when an Oakland
freeway fell.
In Napa, three historic buildings have been damaged, including the
county courthouse, and at least two downtown commercial buildings have
been severely damaged. A Red Cross evacuation center has been set up at a
high school and crews are assessing damage to homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment