SF Bay area earthquake

[REWahoo]

I've been seeing news reports on the early morning quake in CA. I haven't seen any comments from our membership who live in the area. FIREd, Rich_by_the_Bay, M Paquette, + many others, how goes it out there?

 

[explanade]

Didn't feel it at all in the South Bay.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Shaken, not stirred.

 

[FIREd]

Earthquake? What earthquake? I slept through it. It woke DW up though.

 

[W2R]

That's a relief to know. Thanks for the reports. I was concerned as well.

 

[Rosie]

I'm near the southeast corner of the SF Bay, pretty far from the epicenter in Napa. This one was unusual because it actually woke me up, and, the shaking & rolling lasted for a good 20 seconds or so -- I figured someplace a distance away was hit very hard. The bulk of the damage (which, fortunately, doesn't appear too severe overall, compared to Loma Prieta) seems to have been confined mainly to the Napa/Vallejo area in the north bay.

A very brief moment of silence for all the bottles of wine that were destroyed ...

 

[Lakewood90712]

6.0 From the USGS website The "South Napa Earthquake"Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake in California | Science Features don't know how long this link will be active.

 

[FireBug]

About 40 miles from epicenter. Have lived in SF and bay area all my life. My friends and I even have a joking agreement that if it's 4.0 or less, we're not allowed to talk about it (ie..it's no big deal). But this one got a bit dicey..... long and a lot of movement. MIL's picture fell off the wall (omen?)

 

[Bestwifeever]

Looks like there was some damage in Napa (I am moving a visit to Napa to the top of our bucket list):

 

[Another Reader]

Lots of damage in the Napa area. There was a fire in a mobile home park, with a broken water main. Four homes were totally destroyed. Pictures of a fire in a Victorian are on SFGate. Downtown Napa suffered a lot of damage - lots of brick buildings and facades. Highway 37 was closed because an overpass bridge shifted. 90 people injured, two critically.

Woke me up in the South Bay, maybe 15 or 20 seconds of rocking motion.

Plate glass contractors are going to be VERY busy.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I've been seeing news reports on the early morning quake in CA. I haven't seen any comments from our membership who live in the area. FIREd, Rich_by_the_Bay, M Paquette, + many others, how goes it out there?

Thanks for your concern. We're OK.

I'm on the "Peninsula" side and we felt a 20 second snapping feeling (think of shaking out a sheet rather than a smooth rolling like the Loma Prieta quake, say the locals) which threw us around the bed for a while. A few heavy objects moved around on the their shelves. Our home is built to modern standards and held up very well with not so much as a hairline crack. This was a 6.0 event but very shallow leading to the "feels like" of a 6.9 event - big.

Quite the topic of discussion today. No injuries in our area, but it sure got our attention. We have lived in hurricane territory for years but the abruptness of a quake leaves you with quite the feeling of vulnerability. I guess we are now full-fledged Californians.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

The corner of that building houses a restaurant with outdoor seating right beneath the pile of brick rubble. Fortunately at 3 am it was closed.

 

[REWahoo]

Glad to hear you (and all others who posted) are OK.

I guess we are now full-fledged Californians.

Be sure to get your certificate of accomplishment (or optional official T-shirt) to prove you've been there and done that.

An earthquake is one of two remaining big natural phenomenons I've not personally witnessed/experienced (tsunami is the other). Fine with me

 

[Another Reader]

USGS says the depth was 6.7 miles. That's not that shallow. I don't watch TV, but the pictures on the Chronicle's website, SFGate, show a lot of the damage. The epicenter was near American Canyon, which is between Napa and Vallejo. There was damage in Vallejo as well.

If this had happened at lunchtime, many more people would have been hurt or killed. A similar earthquake down in Paso Robles killed two people when a wall collapsed.

 

[M Paquette]

No damage at our place, 13 miles from the epicenter. We're on rock, though. The quake woke us all up. No power disruptions or emergencies beyond the usual paniced 911 calls in town. ("No ma'am. The earthquake isn't trying to break into your home.")

A lot of folks who live on built-up Napa River and Carquinez Straits flood plains and shorelines felt it much stronger than we did, with bookcases and picture frames falling. A few brick structures in Vallejo had damage. The affected highways (29, 37, 121) are all open now.

Downtown Napa, being on the silty floodplain soil and having lots of old brick structures seems to have gotten the most damage.

 

[audreyh1]

I'm near the southeast corner of the SF Bay, pretty far from the epicenter in Napa. This one was unusual because it actually woke me up, and, the shaking & rolling lasted for a good 20 seconds or so -- I figured someplace a distance away was hit very hard. The bulk of the damage (which, fortunately, doesn't appear too severe overall, compared to Loma Prieta) seems to have been confined mainly to the Napa/Vallejo area in the north bay.

A very brief moment of silence for all the bottles of wine that were destroyed ...

Ouch!

 

[Walt34]

A very brief moment of silence for all the bottles of wine that were destroyed ...

What an awful tragedy!

An earthquake is one of two remaining big natural phenomenons I've not personally witnessed/experienced (tsunami is the other).

We did have a bit of an earthquake (the one centered in VA a couple of years ago) but I'm one of the people who didn't notice it. Other people did. Wonder if that counts?

 

[Gumby]

We did have a bit of an earthquake (the one centered in VA a couple of years ago) but I'm one of the people who didn't notice it. Other people did. Wonder if that counts?

I felt that one all the way up in Hartford, CT. So I count it.

 

[Rosie]

First earthquake I ever felt was when I was living in a suburb of Boston -- the epicenter was in southern Maine. I guess no place is immune.

By & large, I suppose I'd rather live in an area where earthquakes are fairly common because due to the more stringent building codes, (modern) buildings & roads & bridges would be more likely to withstand them. Of course, then a really big one comes along and I start to question that preference ...

 

[M Paquette]

I was down in Redwood City, in an office building by the marina, for the 1989 earthquake out at Loma Prieta, about 60 miles south of San Francisco. The land was old fill, and buildings were on driven pilings. That one shook more. A LOT more. Ceiling tiles dropping, doors popping out of hinges, etc. The stairs, a floating steel and concrete architectural element hung from the second floor, moved back and forth about 6 inches over the first floor. Nobody could really stand up or walk. The shaking sheared off underground power and water lines into the building (which led to a really interesting change in structure design). That was the quake that dropped a section of the old San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge.

This one didn't feel anywhere near as strong. I suspect our being in a structure on solid rock was a big factor there.

All the damage reports I've heard today coming through the local Emargency Operations Center appear to be related to older structures, primarily brickwork and brick facades. The Vallejo Fire Department and building inspectors are being kept busy with tall brick chimneys today. (Vallejo is a large older city about 4-5 miles from the epicenter.)

 

[FIREd]

I live in a high rise built on "bay mud". I am surprised we didn't feel more of the shaking as it is supposed to be amplified greatly by this type of soil (we are about 30 miles away from the epicenter). All those metal piles they bury under buildings around here must be doing their job.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I lived in Sunnyvale for Loma Prieta. Was actually off that day. Got out of our apartment pool and was on the balcony when it hit. Fell down and we crawled inside to the nearest inside door jamb. It was like a bucking bronco. A friend in Santa Cruz said he saw a semi bouncing down the street. The pool emptied about 1/3 in 15 seconds.

I got dressed and went to the hospital to volunteer in the ER, suturing minor wounds. All the ER rooms were full--the local plastic surgeons had shown up in force for suturing duty. One if the scariest experiences for all concerned. One of my partner's wives developed PTSD and moved home to hurricane country.

I've experienced many minor earthquakes in my 40 years in CA. They're merely interesting.

A serious earthquake is a different experience entirely. The following week I was on vacation and showed up at a local Salvation Army. Volunteers by the hundreds were out in the rain loading trucks full of water, food, blankets and clothing into trucks as fast as they could, serving Watsonville which was devastated. Historic downtown Santa Cruz was leveled.

A 6.0 can be locally serious but fortunately the damage is limited. I hope all who were injured, especially the boy, are going to be OK.


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[Ronstar]

Having lived my entire life in Illinois, I've never experienced an earthquake greater than 4. I've seen the damage on the news. Stay safe everyone. Hopefully things get back to normal as soon as possible.


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[scrabbler1]

My cousin lives in Menlo Park (between SF and San Jose) and he got awakened by the minor shaking. No damage or injuries to him or his wife and 2 kids.

The earthquakes I have experienced were one northwest of San Diego in the high desert when I was visiting other cousins in SD in 1984. It was only in the low 4s but we felt and heard the shockwaves go through the house. It sounded like a fat squirrel was running across the roof. I was near a piano at the time and it made some noise. My cousin was sleeping on her waterbed so it felt very strange when the shockwave went through that LOL!

And on August 23, 2011, the strong quake in Virginia was felt all up and down the east coast, including Long Island where I live. I was eating some pizza at my local pizza joint when the hanging lamps began to shake. Everyone ran outside but I finished up the last few bites of my pizza slices before going outside and walked back to my apartment where I spoke to some neighbors and put on the news to learn more about what had happened.

 

[pixelville]

The shaking woke me up this morning. No damage.
I wasn't sure if it was a dream or I imagined the bed shaking but then saw on Twitter that it was an earthquake.
Need to be better prepared for the big one.