A bad one — 6.5 on the R scale.
I was in COSTCO, talking with a friend, pushing our carts. The whole place started rolling and shaking: the floor, the ceiling, the shelves, the freezer cabinets. Sodium Lights on the ceiling were swaying back and forth, actually hitting the ceiling on each side. Thought they might come crashing down. The wine section exploded, broken bottles and wine all over. Crew came through when the lights went out and told everyone to “abandon ship.”
So we left our carts and headed out. Woman in the parking lot told us she had been driving along the 101 between Eureka and Arcata with Eucalyptus trees swaying back and forth, highway was undulating. That stretch of road is below sea level, so there’s always the threat of tsunami, especially since the epicenter was only 27 miles off the coast from Eureka.
Jordan was refereeing a 3rd. grade BB game in a rickety old Eureka gym. Lights started swaying; panic ensued. Everyone got out. Wife was in the shower. Typical family activities. No one’s ever prepared.
Electricity was off until 8:30. Wasn’t much news on the radio because most stations are server-managed repeaters with no human oversight. Cell phones and landlines did work, except that Verizon to Verizon went dead. How do you explain that?
I had dropped Jordan off at the gym, so I drove back to pick him up. Took me a good 45 minutes to go twelve blocks because of the panic, confusion and blackout — although most streetlights seemed to be working. Everyone trying to get home at once.
Didn’t see a lot of damage. The House came through alright. No leaks, no collapses, no broken windows or falling shelves.
No redwoods came down on it.
The only local station with local news — Ch 03 — went dark and stayed that way all night, so we got no local news coverage and we didn’t get to see Charles Barkley host SNL, which, depending on your tastes, is an obvious plus/minus. The only news came at 10:00pm on Ch 05 — KEMY, which rebroadcasts Bay Area news from Oakland station KTVU. They had some video of local store damage and a home video of a young girl who looked like she was doing a 60’s shimmy-shake dance, but was really only trying to remain standing during the quake.
Overall, I think everyone here on the North Coast was amazed that the quake did relatively little damage in Eureka and Arcata, given its duration and severity. Ferndale (25 miles south) was harder hit although Oakland felt it too.
One thing: it's always revealing when the electricity goes off and you have no recourse to the usual escapes — TV. internet, video games, cell phones. You might actually have to converse with family members or read a book by candlelight. As soon as the juice comes back though, it's everyone for him/herself once again, back to the same old routines.