Hope all my California friends, their families, and property are safe.
My son lives in that area and we have not been able to contact him. He lives about 25 miles from the epicenter.
Norm
It was a 6. earthquake sending 70 people to the hospital. Earthquake was centered in American Canyon. Napa took a severe hit.
We felt it here in Hayward. It woke us up about 3:30 AM. Very slight movement, but for about 5 seconds.
American Canyon is about one or two miles north of Vallejo, at the north east end of the bay.
My Daughter lives in SF downtown. She told me the shaking was strong but not destructive in San Francisco proper. The shaking lasted about 30 seconds and she is not aware of any property damage or injuries in San Francisco.
I hope the guys near that area come out ok. CNN is showing some substantial damage to older buildings and some homes. It's not clear if the fire at a mobile home park was caused by the quake though. Funny that they are reporting "no looting taking place". Is that something that's normal after a quake?
Live in Saint Helena 20 miles north of Napa. Strongest shake I have ever felt. Fortunately no damage here.
Thanks for the report, Brian.
I was waiting for takeoff from Long Beach in my old Bellanca in 1989 when the tower went silent for about a minute. They got shook by the Loma Prieta quake some 400 miles to the northwest.
As America becomes more accepting of hip hop, the Kardashians, and other ghetto behavior, looting is a natural response to pretty much anything.
Probably slow to catch on in Montana, if you know what I mean.
Get with the times, guys !
Party on.
Ken, The damage after a quake is usually isolated to small pockets which are locked down quickly.
I just spoke to an old friend who lives in downtown Napa who lost everything in his house but his house itself is fine. The damage in Napa is mainly in the older downtown area, old brick buildings etc., according to him.
The fire in the mobile home park was the result of a water heater falling over ripping the gas line loose, my friend was told. He thinks two or three mobile homes were damaged or destroyed.
I experienced the Loma Prieta and San Simeon quakes and the reports coming from Napa area sound fairly typical.
The News vultures usually focus on small areas of damage after a quake, leaving the impression that damage is more widespread.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the folks who were affected by this quake.
Brian Streblow,
Glad you are okay!
I used to do quite a bit of work in the American Canyon , Vallejo, and Napa areas. Also had a few antique car friends around there. So I am curious about damage and people from this quake. I hope you can give us some more "up close and personal" reports.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
We heard from our son this afternoon. They were camping in a Corvair Ultravan at Lawson's Landing. This is at Bodega Bay. They thought a cow was scratching itself on the van, but was too strong for that. Three people and 3 dogs were there. No damage there, just woke up early. There are tsunami area postings around there, but fortunately no tsunami happened. They got home to Suisun City this afternoon and everything at home was OK.
It might not be over yet; reports are coming of a 7.0 near Lima, Peru.
Tomorrow is the New Moon, meaning it is aligned with the sun to exert greatest pull on the earth.
Seismologists discount it publicly, but there is real correlation between major earthquakes and full and new moons.
Check moon phase for any date: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.php
The biggest difference between this one and the '89 Loma Prieta is that the epicenter of this one is very close to small cities and major highways whereas the '89 Loma Prieta epicenter was in the midst of the Santa Cruz mountains nearly 20 miles from a major town. Interesting to watch the continuing news reports here.
Ah, memories. I am sort of joking. In '89 I got to see a street burning. The street itself aflame due to a downed and still dancing power line. In '89, my sister's life was probably saved by a very short phone call. She was headed to where the Cypress Freeway collapsed and missed it by just about the amount of time of the phone call. So yes, I do take earthquakes a little bit seriously.
It was an interesting couple of days.
Drive carefully, and be safe, W2
Wayne, Lived here my entire life and have never felt a quake like that. It was a very violent and noisy wake up. No damage in St. Helena, just a power outage. Napa on the other hand had a lot of heavy damage to some old historic buildings in the downtown area.
Wide spread damage was in the form of broken glass, overturned furniture, buckled roads, broken water mains etc.... Some wineries in the valley have been hit hard. Wine barrels are stacked on their side one on top of each other so when the ground shakes these stacks collapse. Have seen photos of large stainless steel wine tanks that also failed. Pretty crazy...
Equakes are part of living in California.
Been here 70 years.
As a kid, it was a question of "Is it a bus, or a quake"?
It is not a matter of how close to the epicenter, but how is the ground underneath you. 1989, <10 mi. from epicenter, lotta shakin, but no damage.
Hey, when your number is up, it is up!
That is why we don't question the viability of driving a Model T on our modern roads.
I will take a EQ any day 2 a Tornado. No anticipation, it just happens.
Well, if it happens while drivin' my T, I might not even notice.
Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things beyond our control, but at least this is one that is not a result of our politicians actions
I have been in about four since 1966.
Never lost a thing or had any damage. I've always been 25 or more miles from the epicenter., except for some real small quakes.
I was in Berkeley during the '89 Loma Prieta.
The lights went out so we quit for the day.
I drove down by the fallen Cyprus structure.
Ever smell families burning in GM diesel station wagons?
I can still hear the screams. The smoke and smell was awful. A few were saved by the locals who lived in the geto the freeway ran through, but most of them were stopped by the police and firemen before they could do any help.
The firemen didn't do sheet. I was there, I saw what they did and didn't do.
A San Jose cement cutting contractor brought his equipment and workers to the scene, they were first sent to the next street to wait, finally to a big empty lot a few blocks away.
Then they were told they weren't needed.
A class action suit was started a few months later but I never heard what happened with it.
A boozed-up diabetic was trapped in his car a week before anybody found him. he died the next day.
When I lived in Livingston, Montana 50 miles north of Yellowstone Park, we had more quakes in one year than northern California does in a life time.
Yellowstone usually has about two thousand a year.
There were fifty people killed in a mudslide today in Japan. My wife's immediate family lived through a 6.9 quake today in Peru.
The news media loves an earthquake, they don't have to report what the political criminals did or how many more GI's were killed in Afstinkastan.
So they make it sound like it destroyed half the state.
I totally agree with Carl. I would take an Earthquake over tornadoes any day. When they hit? You may as well go for the ride. I think I have experienced four at 5 or higher. I was working on a system repair, working underneath a mobile home when a 5.5 hit. Truly a memorable experience.
How severe an Earthquake feels and its Richter number along with a number of other perceptions? Is a fascinating thing to study. A good friend of mine always likes to tell that the worst shaking he ever felt was a 2.3 quake. The official epicenter was 200 feet from his house and shallow. The amount of damage depends as much upon the type of soil and rock as it does the magnitude. Even the speed at which an Earthquake travels varies a lot on the type of ground and which side of the fault you are looking at.
Brian S, It is the loss of historic structures and items of artistic value that bother me a lot. Most of the rest of the damage is transient in nature. I would hope Napa can save that Post Office building. But it does not look good.
Aaron G, You may have been near enough to my sister to have said "Hello"!
Be safe! W2
We had a small rumble in Torrance, California last night while I was eating dinner. Lasted about 3 seconds.
I have experienced at least 3 which were over 7. But never at the epicenter. In each case I was over 100 miles from the center, but the shaking was very severe. In those large ones it is not unusual to feel it for about 300 miles distance.
The farther you get from the center the less shaking. It can feel much worse if you are at the epicenter of a smaller earthquake than at a distance from a larger one. They all feel different. Some just feel like a sudden jolt. Others roll back and forth for what seems like an eternity and others move up and down. The ones we usually get here originate to the east of us and usually we feel a side to side movement followed by up and down motion, then side to side.
Interestingly one day my wife was on the phone talking to her mother who lived about 1 1/2 miles away and my wife said earthquake, then a few seconds later her mother felt it. That indicates that the wave is moving like a ripple when you throw a pebble in a calm lake.
Another thing about earthquakes is your location. At ground level it might not feel very big but 20 stories up it can move about 6' back and forth!
Norm
The big quake in the Missouri/Mississippi River area rang church bells 1,100 miles away in Boston.
I live two blocks from the Hayward Fault.
In 1868 there was a 7.0 quake that left every building in Hayward damaged. Most were flattened.
It left a crack in the earth more than 20 miles long.
It caused a lot of damage in Oakland and San Francisco.
Most buildings in Oakland were 2 or 3 stories at the highest so it didn't make spectacular news like the San Francisco '06 quake.
Also, in 1906 everybody went nuts with cameras, they were very popular because of new camera tech.
They became popular and everybody had one, like cell phones 10 years ago, or smartphones today.
There fore a lot of pictures were taken of the '06 quake's damage.