Posts Tagged ‘earthquake’

Blackout Backtrack: PG&E Fine-Tunes Outage Plans

Arcata Eye – Responding to concerns about economic and public safety impacts expressed by Arcata business and government, PG&E has modified its plans for this weekend’s planned power outage. Tuesday morning, City officials and PG&E personnel gathered at City Hall to exchange details on areas affected, the outage’s expected duration and to coordinate response.

Tags: Arcata, ca, California, city council, downtown, earthquake, Ferndale, fire department, Humboldt, Humboldt State University, Kevin L. Hoover, KHUM, Mad River, Mad River Community Hospital, McKinleyville, meth, Northern California, Old Arcata Road, PG&E, pot, Samoa, San Francisco, UPD
Posted in Humboldt County News | Comments Off

Eureka doctors work to build prosthetics lab in Haiti to treat earthquake victims

About a month ago, Eureka doctors Asa Stockton and Nathan Shishido sat on a curb in the earthquake-ravaged city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, wondering what to do with the outpouring of donations they had received in Humboldt County.

Tags: ca, earthquake, Eureka, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, Local
Posted in Times-Standard | Comments Off

Ink People Center for The Arts Keeps Programs Going

Two months ago, after the 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the North Coast, The Ink People Center For the Arts in Eureka still remains in a temporary location.

Tags: ca, California, coast, earthquake, Eureka, Humboldt, KIEM, Northern California
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Earthquake “Never Happened” According To USGS

We received a rather odd notice from the U.S. Geological Survey this afternoon. Apparently, they are “recalling” notification of last week’s 4.6 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Humboldt County. Below is the exact text that we received from the USGS.

To the best of our knowledge, we have never heard of an earthquake being “recalled”, similar to bad brakes on a Toyota. Combine this with this past weekend’s UFO sightings over Eureka, and our headlines are starting to more resemble something like a script from the X-Files than a small town news service.

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From: ens@usgs.gov (USGS ENS)
To: editor@humboldtonline.com
Reply-To:
Subject: 2010-03-06 08:47:37 DELETED: (M 4.5) OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 40.3 -124.7 (2e67b)
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Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 22:50:16 +0000 (GMT)

DELETED: Event CI 14597412

== EVENT DELETED NOTIFICATION ==

***This event has been deleted after review by a seismologist.***

Geographic coordinates: 40.320N, 124.733W
Magnitude: 4.5
Universal Time (UTC): 6 Mar 2010 08:47:37
Time near the Epicenter: 6 Mar 2010 00:47:37

Location with respect to nearby cities:
38 km (24 miles) W (269 degrees) of Petrolia, CA
49 km (30 miles) SW (234 degrees) of Ferndale, CA
57 km (35 miles) WSW (250 degrees) of Rio Dell, CA
71 km (44 miles) SW (223 degrees) of Eureka, CA
342 km (213 miles) NW (306 degrees) of Sacramento, CA

DISCLAIMER: https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/help.html?page=help#disclaimer

This email was sent to editor@humboldtonline.com

This is an update to a previous notification for this event

Tags: California, earthquake, Eureka, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Northern California, Petrolia
Posted in Humboldt County News | No Comments »

Small earthquake off coast of Northern California rattles Humboldt County

A 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the North Coast early Saturday morning. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the event occurred at 12:46 a.

Tags: ca, California, coast, earthquake, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, Local, Northern California
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Latest Humboldt County Earthquake Measures… 4.6

The latest earthquake to hit Humboldt County was initially reported to have a magnitude of 4.4 on the Richter Scale. That estimate changed to 4.6 within a few minutes. Absolutely no reports of damage or injuries were heard on scanner traffic, and it was barely noticeable in Eureka. One person in the office felt it, another didn’t. It hit at 12:46 a.m. local time and was centered approximately 22 miles due West (offshore) of Petrolia.

Tags: ca, earthquake, Eureka, Humboldt County, injuries, Northern California, Petrolia
Posted in Humboldt County News | No Comments »

Tsunami Watchers Flock To Trinidad

LumberjackThirty minutes before the tsunami was supposed to hit, cars parked on the bluffs behind the Trinidad Head Lighthouse. People set up lawn chairs and picnics and squeezed in for the best view of the shore. The ironic side effect of the tsunami alert system was apparent; people flocked to the coast, rather than away from it.

Tags: earthquake, HSU, Humboldt, Trinidad, tsunami
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3.9 Earthquake Hits Humboldt This Morning

A Magnitude 3.9 earthquake rolled through Humboldt County at 4:22 a.m. The epicenter was 35 miles West of Petrolia, California, at a depth of 6.8 miles. No immediate damage or injuries were reported. It was not felt at all at our offices in Eureka.

Tags: California, earthquake, Eureka, Humboldt, Humboldt County, injuries, Petrolia
Posted in Humboldt Online Newswires | No Comments »

Humboldt natives living in Chile reflect on earthquake

A couple weeks after experiencing Humboldt County’s 6.5-magnitude earthquake, Jane Leer left for her study abroad program in Santiago, Chile — not knowing that she would experience a much stronger, more destructive quake a month and a half later.

Tags: earthquake, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, Local
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Tsunami barely felt

Tsunami barely felt [Daily Triplicate]
Local waves follow 8.8 Chile quake

Boat owners Bob Ginnochio and John Brubaker awaited the ocean surges side by side on a dock at Crescent City Harbor on Saturday afternoon, but their pre-tsunami precautions were very different.

Ginnochio left his charter vessel, the Tally Ho II, in the harbor, while Brubaker pulled his 22-foot completely out of the water.

Plenty of other people opted for a third approach of taking their boats out to sea to await the waves flowing north from a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile.

Tags: Crescent City, earthquake, Humboldt, Local, tsunami
Posted in Del Norte County | Comments Off

Surges jostle Crescent City harbor after 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile

Surges jostle Crescent City harbor after 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile [Daily Triplicate]
RELATED STORIES: Devastation after earthquake in Chile (20100227108315/News/Local-News/Huge-quake-hits-Chile-tsunami-threatens-Pacifi)

Tsunami hits hawaii (20100227108314/News/Local-News/OFF-THE-WIRE-Hawaii-blasts-sirens-warning-of-possible-tsunami)

Ocean surges reached Del Norte County on Saturday afternoon after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

One of the surges, according to gauges in the Crescent City area, was 2 feet above normal levels.

Sandbars not normally visible in the Crescent City Harbor poked above the water line on several occasions as water receded before the surges.

The tsunami advisory remained in effect Saturday evening, and emergency personnel were still in the harbor at 5:15 p.m.

NOAA said coastal residents in tsunami advisory areas, including Crescent City, Klamath and Smith River, still should stay out of the water, off of the beach and out of harbors and marinas.

People lined observation points along the coastline trying to catch a glimpse of a tsunami.

Bob Ginnochio of Crescent City, owner of the charter fishing vessel Tally Ho II, watched from the harbor docks after receiving a call about the tsunami warning.

“I just came out to make sure my boat was tied up — if the dock goes, at least it would be tied to the dock,” said Ginnochio.

Ginnochio said he began docking his boat at the harbor in 1993, and the vessel road out the 35-inch surge that damaged the docks in 2006.

His boat was undamaged then, and it appeared every boat left in the harbor would escape damage Saturday.

John Brubaker decided he would just pull his 22-foot boat out of the water.

Brubaker said with a laugh he pulled his boat out because “there’s a tsunami coming — it’s just common sense.”

Ginnochio said the harbor was allowing people to take their boats out to sea to wait out the surge or leave them in the harbor.

A couple dozen boats were taken out to sea in case of a bigger tsunami.

Authorities blocked public access to Citizen’s Dock, only allowing boat owners to come in and either secure or take their vessels out to sea.

Sheriff’s Commander Bill Steven said access was blocked because if the harbor was flooded with people, it would create a safety issue for boats coming in and out.

Crescent City Police Sgt. Garrett Scott said authorities also blocked access to B Street Pier, the Preston Island parking lot off of Pebble Beach Drive and the Crescent City jetty.

By comparison to Saturday’s surges, the biggest wave of the destructive 1964 tsunami here was estimated at 22 feet above the mean low tide level, meaning it was 16 feet above the tide at the time.

Researchers have found that the crescent shape of the city’s coastline along South Beach tends to amplify tsunami energy, and with the way the harbor is situated, it seems to act as a funnel for the surge. More recent research has suggested the inner boat basin adds to this effect, and focuses a tsunami’s energy even more.

This was seen the last time a tsunami struck Crescent City in November 2006. On that occasion, a 35-inch surge that never breached land caused millions of dollars worth of damage to the inner boat basin.

In 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska generated a series of waves that destroyed much of Crescent City’s downtown, killing 11 people in Del Norte County.

A 9.5-magnitude earthquake in Chile on May 22, 1960, generated a tsunami that caused flooding in coastal areas of Crescent City. It was the strongest recorded earthquake in human history.

Tags: coast, Crescent City, Del Norte County, downtown, earthquake, fishing, flooding, Humboldt, jetty, Klamath, Local, Smith River, tsunami
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CHILE WIRE: Chile struck by one of strongest earthquakes ever

CHILE WIRE: Chile struck by one of strongest earthquakes ever [Daily Triplicate]
TALCA, Chile (AP) — One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile on Saturday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant, and authorities said at least 214 people were dead.

The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east. The full extent of damage remained unclear as scores of aftershocks — one nearly as powerful as Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake — shuddered across the disaster-prone Andean nation.

President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile but said the government has not asked for assistance from other countries. If it does, President Barack Obama said, the United States “will be there.” Around the world, leaders echoed his sentiment.

In Chile, newly built apartment buildings slumped and fell. Flames devoured a prison. Millions of people fled into streets darkened by the failure of power lines. The collapse of bridges tossed and crushed cars and trucks, and complicated efforts to reach quake-damaged areas by road.

At least 214 people were killed, according to Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma, and officials said about 1.5 million homes suffered at least some damage.

In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, people sleeping in bed suddenly felt like they were flying through major airplane turbulence as their belongings cascaded around them from the shuddering walls at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT).

A deafening roar rose from the convulsing earth as buildings groaned and clattered. The sound of screams was confused with the crash of plates and windows.

Then the earth stilled, silence returned and a smell of moist dust rose in the streets, where stunned survivors took refuge.

A journalist emerging into the darkened street scattered with downed power lines saw a man, some of his own bones apparently broken, weeping and caressing the hand of a woman who had died in the collapse of a cafe. Two other victims lay dead a few feet (meters) away.

Also near the epicenter was Concepcion, one of the country’s largest cities, where a 15-story building collapsed, leaving a few floors intact.

“I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here,” said Fernando Abarzua, marveling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake, “but he keeps shouting, saying he’s OK.”

Chilean state television reported that 209 inmates escaped from prison in the city of Chillan, near the epicenter, after a fire broke out.

In the capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) to the northeast, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building’s two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.

While most modern buildings survived, a bell tower collapsed on the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church and several hospitals were evacuated due to damage.

Santiago’s airport was closed, with smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and destroyed pedestrian walkways in the passenger terminals. The capital’s subway was shut as well, and transportation was further limited because hundreds of buses were stuck behind a damaged bridge.

Chile’s main seaport, in Valparaiso about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Santiago, was ordered closed while damage was assessed. The state-run Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, shut two of its mines, the newspaper La Tercera reported.

The jolt set off a tsunami that swamped San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region. He said the huge waves also damaged several government buildings on the island.

It then raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga and prompting warnings across all 53 nations ringing the vast ocean.

Tsunami waves washed across Hawaii, where little damage was reported. The U.S. Navy moved a half-dozen vessels out of Pearl Harbor as a precaution, Navy spokesman Lt. Myers Vasquez said. Shore-side Hilo International Airport was closed. In California, officials said a 3-foot (1-meter) surge in Ventura Harbor pulled loose several navigational buoys.

About 13 million people live in the area where shaking was strong to severe, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS geophysicist Robert Williams said the Chilean quake was hundreds of times more powerful than Haiti’s magnitude-7 quake, though it was deeper and cost far fewer lives.

More than 50 aftershocks topped magnitude 5, including one of magnitude 6.9.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. It caused a tsunami that killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage along the west coast of the United States.

Saturday’s quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.

Tags: California, coast, earthquake, homeless, Humboldt, injuries, inmate, Obama, tsunami, United States
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TSUNAMI WIRE: Quake-triggered tsunami rushes ashore in Hawaii

TSUNAMI WIRE: Quake-triggered tsunami rushes ashore in Hawaii [Daily Triplicate]
HONOLULU (AP) — A tsunami triggered by the Chilean earthquake sent a surge of water ashore in Hawaii, California and islands in the South Pacific on Saturday as the waves continued onto Alaska and parts of Asia.

There were no immediate reports of widespread damage, injuries or deaths in the U.S. or in the Pacific islands, but a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile killed at least five people and left 11 missing.

In Hawaii, water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. Waves later washed over Coconut Island, a small park off Hilo’s coast.

The tsunami was causing a series of surges that were about 20 minutes apart, and the waves arrived later and smaller than originally predicted. The highest wave at Hilo measured 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) high, while Maui saw some as high as 2 meters (6.5 feet).

Scientists cautioned the waves would continue into the afternoon.

“We dodged a bullet,” said Gerard Fryer, a geophysist for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. He said there was the possibility that the tsunami would gain strength again as it heads to Japan.

There were no immediate reports of widespread damage around the Pacific Rim just tidal surges that reached up to about seven feet in some island chains. Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. No injuries or major property damage were reported.

Nearly 50 countries and island chains remained under tsunami warnings, from Antartica to Russia’s far northeast.

The tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean at the speed of a jetliner after the quake hit Chile hours earlier. Unlike other tsunamis in recent years in which residents had little warning, emergency officials had ample time to get people out of the potential disaster area.

Sirens blared in Hawaii to alert residents to the potential waves. Emergency officials used buses to ferry people in tourist-heavy Waikiki away from the shore. Authorities even flew overhead in Cessna blaring warnings to people to get out of the potential danger zone

In Tonga, where nine people died in a Sept. 29 tsunami, police evacuated tens of thousands of people from the coast.

In Samoa, where 183 people died in the same tsunami, authorities used radio, television and mobile phone text messages to alert residents of the waves. Thousands of people Sunday morning remained in the hills above the coasts on the main island of Upolu.

Island chains closer to the epicenter in Chile appeared to have sustained more damage than ones farther away.

On the island of Robinson Crusoe, a huge tsunami wave flooded the village of San Juan Batista, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region.

He said the huge waves also damaged several government buildings on the island.

In French Polynesia, tsunami waves rushed ashore, damaging parts of the coast and tossing around boats. The biggest waves were in Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, where they reached more than 13 feet (4 meters).

Australia warned of the possibility of dangerous waves, strong ocean currents and flooding from Queensland state in the north to Tasmania in the south. No evacuations were ordered.

In Hawaii, boats and people near the coast were evacuated. The normally bustling beaches were empty. Hilo International Airport, located along the coast, was closed. Residents lined up at supermarkets to stock up on food and batteries. Cars lined up at several gas stations.

The Navy was moving more than a half dozen vessels to try to avoid damage from the tsunami. A frigate, three destroyers and two smaller vessels were being sent out of Pearl Harbor and a cruiser out of Naval Base San Diego, the Navy said.

The ships will be safer out at sea than if they were tied to piers where they could be banged around by the waves, the Navy said.

A tsunami wave can travel at up to 600 mph, said Jenifer Rhoades, tsunami program manager at the National Weather Service.

Some Pacific nations in the warning area were heavily damaged by a tsunami last year.

The Sept. 29 tsunami, spawned by a magnitude-8.3 earthquake, killed 34 people in American Samoa along with the deaths in Samoa and Tonga. Scientists later said that wave was 46 feet (14 meters) high.

The tsunami warning center said the waves reached the islands so quickly residents had only about 10 minutes to respond to its alert.

During the devastating December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, there was little to no warning and much confusion about the impending waves. The tsunami eradicated entire coastal communities the morning after Christmas, killing 230,000 people.

In Hilo, officials cordoned off the first three blocks next to the beach. A few people watched the still ocean as a whale swam off the coast, but streets were mostly empty as tsunami sirens blared. Gas stations had long lines, some 10 cars deep.

A grocery store was filled with people buying everything from instant noodles to beer. Shelves with water were mostly empty.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle declared a state of emergency. She said leprosy patients from the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokai have been moved to higher ground before the waves arrived.

Past South American earthquakes have had deadly effects across the Pacific.

A tsunami after a magnitude-9.5 quake that struck Chile in 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded, killed about 140 people in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines. It was about 3.3 to 13 feet (one to four meters) in height, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK quoted earthquake experts as saying the tsunami would likely be tens of centimeters (inches) high and reach Japan in about 22 hours. A tsunami of 28 centimeters (11 inches) was recorded after a magnitude-8.4 earthquake near Chile in 2001.

Seismologist Fumihiko Imamura, of Japan’s Tohoku University, told NHK that residents near ocean shores should not underestimate the power of a tsunami even though they may be generated by quakes on the other side of the ocean.

“There is the possibility that it could reach Japan without losing its strength,” he said.

Tags: California, coast, earthquake, flooding, Humboldt, injuries, Pacific Ocean, pot, Samoa, tsunami
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Officials end North Coast tsunami advisory Saturday evening, no damage reported

The North Coast received a mild dose of tidal surges Saturday afternoon after a tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile the night before put most of the Pacific Ocean region on alert.

Tags: coast, earthquake, Humboldt, Humboldt County, Humboldt County News, Local, Pacific Ocean, tsunami
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Tsunami advisory after 8.8 quake in Chile

Hawaii is bracing for a tsunami following a massive quake that hit Chile at 3:34am local time.  The first waves are expected to hit the island state at 11:19 am.

Coastal California is under a lower-grade advisory, so use caution in your whereabouts for the next several hours.

[UPDATE: The National Weather Service predicts a wave will hit San Francisco at 1:26 pm and Crescent City at 1:46 pm.]

At least 78 122 are dead from today’s earthquake.

The same area of Chile was rocked by a 9.5 earthquake in May of 1960.

Tags: California, coast, Crescent City, earthquake, Humboldt, Local, Northern California, San Francisco, tsunami, UPD
Posted in Humboldt Blogs, Opinion | Comments Off