The biggest Bay Area earthquake in a quarter-century rattled the region early Sunday morning, with a 6.0 shaker destroying buildings in Napa County, causing dozens of injuries, knocking out power to tens of thousands of buildings and tossing items from shelves in homes and stores.
The quake woke up nervous locals when it was reported at 3:20 a.m., with an epicenter between Napa and American Canyon about 6.7 miles below the surface, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Joni and Jeff Enos were jolted awake Sunday morning at their home on Stonebridge Drive in Browns Valley -- near the quake's suspected origin.
A screenshot of the epicenter of Sunday morning's 6.1 quake, centered near American Canyon. (USGS image)
"We're OK, but it felt like somebody lifted our house up and shook it," Joni Enos said. "The neighbor's chimney's on the lawn, our pool's half empty. It did weird stuff, uprooted little trees, pots broken. Our fountain toppled over."
Bay Area residents from Santa Cruz area to the Wine Country were affected by the so-called South Napa Earthquake, with more than 10,000 people across more than 200 miles quickly reporting that they had felt the rumble, the USGS reported.
More than 30 aftershocks were reported, topping out at magnitude 3.6, and it was unclear if a bigger quake was coming.
At least three people suffered serious injuries. There were no early reports of fatalities or anyone missing.
Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in the region after Napa city and county officials exhausted their available emergency resources. The declaration gives access to a battery of personnel and equipment through the state Office of Emergency Services.
The last time an earthquake of this size hit the Bay Area was in 1989, when the infamous Loma Prieta quake at magnitude 6.9 caused severe damage. The largest on record was the historic 7.8 earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906.
Steve Becker of the Napa City Fire Department looks over the damage at a mobile home park on Orchard Ave. following a 6.0 earthquake in Napa, Calif. on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. Four homes were destroyed by fire in this complex. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group) ( Gary Reyes )
At Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, an outdoor triage area outside the emergency room was set up to handle an anticipated influx. About 89 patients had been treated for earthquake-related injuries as of 7:45 a.m., hospital officials said, and about two-dozen ambulances were in service. Most of those injuries entailed cuts, bumps and bruises.
There were "lots of cut feet," hospital president Walt Mickens said.
At least three patients had critical injuries, including one child who was hurt by a collapsing chimney, according to Napa fire officials. One of the two adult critical patients suffered a heart attack and another underwent surgery after fracturing a hip. The child patient was later taken by helicopter to a trauma center.
"We had a pediatric patient who needed some care beyond the scope of what we can offer," Mickens said.
Reports of damage also began to pour in, with fires destroying four senior mobile homes on Orchard Avenue, as crews had to let it burn out because of a broken water main. Other structures in Napa were starting to crumble, with assorted windows shattering downtown. The Goodman Library, the Alexandria building and the historic county courthouse all were badly damaged, with brick facades crumbling into the street. Streetlights in downtown Napa were knocked out, as was a Nissan Sentra in a side parking lot, demolished by tumbling bricks.
NicolTurner, a wedding planner who owns Little Blue Box Weddings on Third Street, said the quake destroyed her business.
"Everything is on the ground. Broken. All our glass, crystal and porcelain. Mementos from weddings that are decades old are ruined," she said as she sat on the Third Street curb, as tears filled her eyes. "I'm glad everyone is OK but this just hurts."
People posted pictures on social media of a Walmart and grocery stores with bottles knocked over and shattered. Some residents posted pictures of their kitchens in disarray. One man posted a picture of his chimney knocked over. In Vallejo, the CHP closed some roadways because of damage, with some cracked and elevated. At least 100 gas leaks were reported, and at least 30 water mains broke. Countless bottles of the region's most famous product -- wine -- had shattered.
City Manager Mike Parness stressed that the gas leak reports are not all verified instances.
Jack LaRochelle, the city's public works director, said a lot of the main breaks centered on the Browns Valley area west of the city, which is the suspected epicenter. He declared that tap water is safe to drink, and that there was no "catastrophic failure of any bridges," though teams are inspecting the infrastructure through the day.
Steve Potter, operations captain for the Napa Police Department, said the 911 system was briefly "maxed out" in the moments right after the earthquake but that calls have leveled off. Stretches of popular Sosqol Avenue have been closed to traffic because of broken glass, and Potter says a "high police presence" will be on hand in the coming day to help keep some of the exposed businesses secure.
In spite of the circumstances, Potter said that visitors -- so vital to the tourism lifeblood of the area -- should keep their plans to come to the area, with key caveats.
"Come up and have a good time. A lot of it will be business as normal," Potter said. "We just ask they they stay out of dangerous areas."
A Red Cross evacuation center was set up at Crosswalk Community Church on First Street, though by noon only a handful of people had shown up.
Elsewhere, Diana Schipper lives about a block south of the mobile home park that burned and had planned a day of several tastings at local wineries for her birthday. Instead, she was woken up screaming in terror because two heavy pieces of 150-pound furniture fell onto her bed, missing her and her husband by inches. She had to crawl her way out from under them.
In addition to other damage, she found her extensive Waterford collection of crystal and Wedgewood china that she'd been collecting for 40 years smashed to bits in the dining room. But oddly enough, "we have a 2,500 bottles of wine cellar, and only one broke, so that's the good news."
"It certainly wasn't the way I planned to spend my birthday -- picking up the broken glasses of water, cleaning up, and crying, but luckily it wasn't a worse experience," she said. "But it's not one I want to go through again."
Penny D'Allaird, was similarly startled out of slumber at her Sonoma home.
"I woke up to a jolt. I remember looking at the clock. It was 3:20. The whole room was shaking and the bed was moving from side to side," she said. "It was insane."
After the rumbling stopped, an inspection of her home found every cabinet drawer in her kitchen had slid open. Wine glasses left outside on the patio after a dinner party had shattered. Throughout the house, a broken Tiffany lamp and various items had been knocked off shelves.
Adeze Dempsey, of Sacramento, was visiting friends in American Canyon when the earthquake hit. She said something in every room broke -- cabinets collapsed, antiques and art frames fell and crashed to the floor.
"It was so strong I've never been so scared in my life. I seriously thought this house was going to collapse. It was so hard it was like being in a car accident. It was so violent," Dempsey said. "It was shifting so hard, it was like a roar. Then it got louder.
She didn't know long it lasted but said "It seemed like forever. I woke up to it. Then when it got stronger it kept on going."
Dempsey, who lived in Vallejo during the Loma Prieta earthquake, said this one felt stronger: "It was so powerful I couldn't even move. I was paralyzed."
In nearby Vallejo, city officials reported "isolated structure damage" to buildings downtown area and on Mare Island, along with loss of water from main breaks, minor roadway damage, minor gas leaks, and power outages.
There was no major damage or injuries reported outside of the North Bay region, though the quake did knock out power to the shipping cranes at the Port of Oakland.
PG&E's online outage map showed more than 30,000 customers without power in Napa shortly before 5 a.m. Another 15,000 customers lost service in Sonoma, with more than 10,000 still in the dark in Santa Rosa. Outages of between 1,000 and 5,000 were reported in St. Helena, Vallejo and Pinole.
Seconds after the shaking, which lasted upward of 30 seconds in some parts, social media was flooded with witness accounts of the earthquake, including from law-enforcement and emergency personnel in the area. People reported swaying chandeliers, pictures falling off walls and bottles shattering on the floor.
There were no immediate reports of damage to Bay Area bridges, or to public transit infrastructure, as, police, firefighters, Caltrans and other officials continued to scour the region for damage.
Some moderate transportation impacts rippled southward, as Caltrain said riders heading from San Francisco to the 49ers' preseason football game at Levi's Stadium can expect minor delays due to track inspection, and a special game-centric ACE train was cancelled for the same reason.
Caltrain spokeswoman Jayme Ackemann said crews did not find any track damage.
According to initial USGS data, the quake was categorized as "severe" in how the shaking was perceived, though user-reported data deemed it on a lower degree, as "strong." The earthquake was initially reported as having a 6.1 magnitude before being quickly downgraded to 6.0.
An earthquake of Sunday's size, while large, is not uncommon to the area historically, said David Schwartz, an earthquake geologist with the USGS office in Menlo Park. He noted that since 1969, earthquakes in the range of a magnitude 6 pop up every few years: a pair of 5.7 and 5.8 quakes occurred in Santa Rosa in 1969, a 5.8 and 5.9 duo hit in Livermore in 1980, and a 6.2 happened in Morgan Hill in 1984.
"It's a fairly common-sized earthquake that we've seen historically. These are there sitting in the background," Schwartz said.
It is not, he added, in the range of the next "big one" anticipated by Bay Area residents since Loma Prieta.
"That's not the magnitude we're expecting. We're looking at a 6.7 or larger" for the next major seismic event, Schwartz said.
Whenever an earthquake is rated at 5 or higher, the USGS automatically sends out an alert that there's a 5 to 10 percent chance that an equal quake or larger could occur in the next 72 hours, based on historic activity in California.
"It doesn't mean a large earthquake will occur," Schwartz said. "We don't know if this is a foreshock or a main event followed by aftershocks, which is what seems to be happening here."
If an aftershock occurs, the USGS recommends that people who are indoors stay there, taking shelter under a piece of furniture, in a hallway or against an inside wall, away from windows, fireplaces and heavy objects.
If you are outdoors, get into the open away from buildings, power lines and other things that could fall. If driving, stop carefully and move out of traffic. Avoid bridges, trees and other falling objects. Stay in your car until the shaking stops.
Schwartz said based on the north-northwest trend of aftershocks, Sunday morning's quake was parallel to the West Napa fault, about two miles east, but it's not clear which fault was responsible. A USGS alert said the Browns Valley section of the West Napa fault is suspected.
"Nothing shows up on our maps as an active fault," he said. "This will be one of the things we'll be looking into, what the source was."
The USGS "ShakeMap" feature compares and contrasts both agency and user-reported data to rate how strong an earthquake was felt. The USGS system reported it as a "violent" quake with potential for "heavy" damage, while user reports deemed it "very strong" and "moderate" in those respective categories.
Schwartz said that damage cannot be directly predicted by a magnitude rating, noting an array of variables.
"There's a high water table along the Napa River, so you have poor soils. When you have saturated soils, it tends to amplify the shaking," he said. "You put the same earthquake in different locations, with different soils, sediments and rocks, you're going to get different kinds of damage."
A 5.2 earthquake rattled the wine country in September 2000, centered about three miles southwest of Yountville. During that quake, 25 people reported minor injuries, mostly from falling objects. Two others were hurt more seriously, including a 5-year-old boy.
The last major earthquake in the Bay Area was the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake -- a magnitude 6.9 quake that struck on Oct. 17, 1989, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It killed 62 people and caused $6 billion in damages. Before Sunday morning's quake, the largest Bay Area earthquake since Loma Prieta had been located near Alum Rock Park in 2007, with a magnitude 5.4 temblor.
California straddles the boundary between two of the Earth's tectonic plates -- as a result, it is broken by numerous earthquake faults. Literally thousands of small earthquakes occur in California each year, providing scientists with clear indications of places where faults cut the Earth's crust.
In 2007, a panel of experts estimated there is a 63 percent chance that in the next 30 years the San Francisco Bay Area will experience a catastrophic earthquake at least as powerful as the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake that rocked Southern California in 1994. There is a far greater chance -- 99 percent -- that an earthquake that size will strike somewhere in the state during that time.
Check back later for updates to this story.
Staff writers Cecily Burt, Joyce Tsai and Daniel Jimenez contributed to this report.
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