Northern California Hit by “Big One”

By Chris Boyette and Jason Hanna, CNN

(CNN) – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook Northern California’s Eureka area early Tuesday, according to the US Geological Survey, and thousands are without power in its wake.

The quake, recorded at 2:34 a.m. PT, was centered in the Pacific just off the coast, about 7.5 miles from the Humboldt County city of Ferndale, the survey said. That’s about a 20-mile drive southwest of Eureka and a 280-mile drive northwest of Sacramento.

Most homes and businesses in Humboldt County were without power early Tuesday.More than 64,000 outages were reported shortly before 4 a.m. PT – out of 99,000 customers tracked in the county according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

The quake spilled a number of items to the floor of Caroline Titus’ Ferndale-area home, video she posted to Twitter shows. “This was a big one. Power is out now. House is a big mess,” Titus wrote.

More than a dozen smaller quakes – as powerful as a 4.6 magnitude struck the area afterward, the survey reported.

No current tsunami threat is associated with the quake, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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