Aftershocks continued to rattle the North Coast on Friday morning, more than a day after a 7.0 earthquake briefly resulted in a tsunami warning that prompted thousands of people to seek higher ground.
More than 120 aftershocks and quakes between magnitudes 2.5 and 4.7 have followed since the larger shaker struck at 10:44 a.m. Thursday off Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Dozens of smaller aftershocks have also been detected.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties that authorizes state agencies to enter into contracts to quickly assist any emergency response in the counties and allows fairgrounds and state property to be used for sheltering and other actions.
A tsunami warning issued Thursday by the National Weather Service was canceled just before noon. However, residents throughout the Mendocino coast were asked to evacuate their homes and businesses.
In Fort Bragg, people living in the Ocean Lake Adult Mobile Home Park, just north of Pudding Creek Bridge, were evacuated as a precaution.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office also initially issued an evacuation order for Noyo Harbor, but later deemed the situation safe for boats to return and modified the condition to “situational awareness,” meaning that residents needed to be aware of sea-level rise.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said in an update Thursday evening that damage assessments were ongoing throughout the county.
Broken glass, shaken foundations
Earthquake surveillance drones and helicopters flew over homes in Fort Bragg as soon as the quake struck. Damage has been reported from residents all over the North Coast, such as broken glass and possible structural damage to houses, although there have been no reports of serious injuries in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, according to authorities.
According to PG&E, 1,447 customers in Humboldt County had unplanned outages as of 3 p.m. Thursday, mainly in the towns of Fortuna and Ferndale, as well as in unincorporated areas.
Caltrans said that all bridges remained open and are currently safe in Mendocino and Humboldt counties.
Thursday’s quake heavily impacted Northern California because of three tectonic plates located near Cape Mendocino, called the Mendocino Triple Junction, where the Pacific, Gorda and North American plates meet. This region is known for constant earthquake activity because of how the plates interact.
According to the USGS, there is a 53% chance for one or more aftershocks larger than magnitude 5 within the next week.
“There will likely be smaller aftershocks within the next week, with up to 130 magnitude 3 or higher aftershocks,” according to the USGS website’s aftershock forecast page.
“The number of aftershocks will decrease over time, but a large aftershock can temporarily increase the number of aftershocks.”
Bay City News reporters Kathleen Kirkwood, Frank Hartzell and Sydney Fishman contributed to this story.
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