Humboldt County residents felt relieved Friday to have avoided the worst potential impacts of Thursday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake, although some damage still needed to be cleaned up.
The region has experienced more than 120 aftershocks since the earthquake, with as many as four or five measurable aftershocks hitting the area every hour.
In the city of Rio Dell, most residents are grateful things haven’t gotten worse.
“I was so awake,” April Ness explained as she demonstrated how she was stocking a refrigerator at the Humboldt County deli and retail store where she works. “So I stood up like this and it started shaking. I grabbed a handle like that. And then I saw the syrup for the ice cream flying off the shelf. Like the ground just lifted up. So we just kind of tiptoed , and went straight to the door. I quickly brought everyone out.”
For Ness, Thursday’s earthquake was an initiation of sorts into Humboldt County. She recently moved to Scotia from Kentucky.
“It’s been a crazy ride,” she said. ‘I’ve never done anything like this in my life. And I don’t think I ever want to do that again.”
And the sticky sound produced by shoes on the floor gives an idea of how much cleanup has taken place here at Hoby’s Market & Deli.
“They were all on the floor,” she said of the wine bottles. “Of course we have things trying to suck everything up.”
A day later, the cleaning is still in full swing. But the mess was somewhat softened by the lessons learned from the past few years.
“Two years ago, when there was a really bad earthquake, they put reinforced wire on all these racks,” Ness said of the liquor cabinets. “And this time they really helped. So we didn’t lose as much alcohol as before.”
Stephen DeLong, a research geologist with the USGS, said the differing outcomes of the two earthquakes are both complex and relatively simple.
“Yes, it’s quite interesting because yesterday’s earthquake released eight times more energy. It was really a much bigger earthquake than the one in 2022,” DeLong explained.
Geography and location played a big role in the difference, he said.
“The simplest answer is that the 2022 Ferndale earthquake was much closer to land. It was just offshore, just west of Ferndale. The way that earthquake broke out just sent its energy eastward and right into the river valley where you’re in,’ DeLong said. “A lot of the shaking and Rio Dell has affected the structures there. These are seismic waves, just like waves in a pool. These things go through the soft sediments that you stand on there in the city. And then behind you, there’s harder rock hills and some of the energy can be reflected back somewhat.”
Previous earthquakes have caused much more damage. On the wall at Hoby’s is a photo of the original market burning to the ground.
“That was April 26, 1992,” Ness said of the photo.
So another year, another earthquake. Only this one was just a fleeting blow compared to what the nearby fault can do.
“It’s just amazing that this all happened in one minute,” Ness said.
There are people here who can point to parts of their buildings and say the damage happened in 2022. The consensus seems to be that the earthquake, with that strong initial shock, landed much harder here. Remember that time the Ferndale Bridge was closed for a while and the power went out for a while.
Nothing like that happened after Thursday’s 7.0 for a community that knows all about strong earthquakes that seem to be hitting often around this time of year lately. And many locals will tell you they know the next one might not be that far away.
