6:44 PM: The AP’s updated their reports, now saying that (I’m basing this on a report from 6:41 PM)
— Power outages were widespread across most of Humboldt County, affecting about 25,000 customers.
— In Humboldt County, several traffic lights have fallen and numerous residents have reported water, gas and sewer leaks
Additionally, CBS5 is reporting that but no reports of fatalities so far. Local hospitals are creating a triage to treat the most injured victims, but that there are no reports of fatalities so far.
SFist notes that (incidentally, SFist’s Brock Keeling was the only reason I knew this was happening — I got a text from him asking if I’d felt the quake, and I was all “what quake, is this text old?”) some folks in San Francisco say they felt the quake, quoting one local as saying “Felt for about 20 seconds in SF.” Did you feel it? Let us know here or in the comments.
Taking a ligher approach, at 5 PM today Valleywag announced 6.5 Earthquake May Have Hit California’s ‘Napa Valley of Weed’ Particularly Hard, describing today’s event as “a giant fucking earthquake” (6.5? “Giant fucking”? What do you think?)
6:19 PM: The Ferndale Enterprise newspaper has posted some good pictures of the damage from today’s quake here. This one, captioned “Falling caribou head narrowly missed striking employee Sharon Thompsen,” might be my favorite.
6:05 PM: Thus far, there have been no reports of injuries or major damage made to the USGS after this afternoon’s quake.
It did, however, knock out power in Arcata, where Humboldt State is located.
All reports so far have residents of the area reporting damage to personal property (things falling over, off walls, etc), but nothing serious. Have you heard otherwise? If so, let us know.
5:51 PM: On the heels of three quakes striking the Bay Area, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Northern California.
The USGS says the quake hit at about 4:27 p.m. Saturday about 27 miles from Eureka. The AP says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there is no threat of the quake generating a tsunami.
Several aftershocks have followed, all of them registering less than a 3.8 in magnitude.
According to the USGS’s “did you feel it?” map, the quake was not felt in SF.
