HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. — Aftershocks are expected rattle the Humboldt County area for days after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck early Tuesday morning.
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey said there's been at least 58 aftershocks in the area.
According to the USGS aftershock forecast, more aftershocks are expected in the coming days with up to 13 magnitude 3 or higher.
Authorities said there is a 6% chance of one or more aftershocks that are larger than a magnitude 5 within the next week and a 46% chance of magnitude 4 and above aftershocks.
So far, there have been 14 magnitude 3 and above aftershocks and three magnitude 4 and above.
The main earthquake hit near Ferndale, a small community about 210 miles northwest of San Francisco and close to the Pacific coast. The epicenter was just offshore at a depth of about 10 miles.
Damage to buildings and infrastructure was still being assessed. Two Humboldt County hospitals lost power and were running on generators, but the scale of the damage appeared to be minimal compared to the strength of the quake, according to Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Humboldt County on Tuesday evening.
Approximately 12 people were reported as suffering injuries, including a broken hip and head wound, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office said at a news conference interrupted by a jarring aftershock. Two people died — an 83-year-old and a 72-year-old — because they couldn't get timely care for "medical emergencies” during or just after the quake.
Damage was mostly focused on the small communities of Rio Dell, Ferndale and Fortuna, Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said during a news conference in Sacramento.
In Rio Dell, a hamlet of about 3,000 people where destruction was worst, at least 15 homes were severely damaged and deemed uninhabitable and 18 others were moderately damaged, officials said after a partial assessment. They estimated that 30 people were displaced and said that number could rise to 150 after a full tally of damage.
As far as power outages, PG&E was able to restore power to around 40,000 customers Tuesday night, more than half of those who were initially impacted by outages. The utility said it expected electricity to be restored within 24 hours.
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