It's Not the Big One, Elizabeth

But it's big enough. Georgia got a call early this morning from her sister Mary, who lives in McKinleyville, California, who said that they had a big earthquake last night, and that she was still out of power, but otherwise OK. A bit of quick googling got me to the USGS site where you can see that a magnitude 6.4 quake took place off in the ocean off Ferndale this morning at 2:34 AM PST. 6.4 is a pretty good shaker and it appears to have set off a swarm of aftershocks in the area, mostly of magnitude 3-4. The Eureka Times-Standard reports 6.4 magnitude earthquake causes injuries, damage, power outages on Northern California coast near Eureka 

A large earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 jolted the Northern California coastline near Eureka on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, a shaker that caused structural damage, power outages and some injuries.

The earthquake occurred around 2:34 a.m. on Tuesday with the epicenter reported to be just offshore of Humboldt County.

At least two people were injured, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. One person suffered a broken hip, and another was injured by items falling off a shelf, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Samantha Karges said.

Besides Eureka, the towns of Ferndale and Fortuna were also near the quake, based on the epicenter reported by the USGS. The popular Humboldt Redwoods State Park is also in the vicinity.

The quake knocked out power to 71,850 customers, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. County officials said the utility sent a memo to them saying that power may be restored by the end of Tuesday, though a PG&E statement said that a damage assessment could take days.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that there was no tsunami warning or threat after the quake.

Residents in the region were reporting scattered gas leaks around the region, and property damage ranging from collapsed structures in rural areas to felled shelves and other home fixtures. It was unknown immediately what damage to infrastructure took place.