6.0 Napa Quake Injures 120

Water mains rupture amid widespread power outages
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 24, 2014 6:03 AM CDT
Updated Aug 24, 2014 4:10 PM CDT
6.0 Quake Shakes San Francisco
Cellar worker Daniel Nelson looks over toppled barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon following an earthquake at the BR Cohn Winery barrel storage facility Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif.   (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake rolled through the San Francisco area early today, reports the LA Times, in the biggest temblor to hit the region since 1989. It was initially reported at 6.0, and later revised upward by the USGS. It was "just a rolling sensation," one witness tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "It felt like I was on a boat in the bay." At least 120 people have been sent to the hospital; three of them are in critical condition. Thousands are without power, 15 to 16 buildings are "no longer inhabitable," and firefighters are trying to put out six fires amid 50 reported gas leaks and 60 ruptured water mains, the AP reports.

The California Highway Patrol's Golden Gate division tweeted that it's checking bridges and other structures for "obvious signs of structural integrity;" it later said that preliminary reports "are looking positive," while noting widespread power outages. The quake struck at 3:20 local time, with an epicenter three miles northwest of American Canyon in Napa. It was relatively shallow, with a depth of 6.7 miles; a series of aftershocks have since rattled the area. An early-warning system gave residents a 10-second warning that the quake was coming, the LA Times reports. (More San Francisco stories.)

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