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By Miriam Raftery
July 4, 2019 (Ridgecrest) – A 6.4 temblor named the #RidgecrestEarthquake struck 125 miles northeast of Los Angeles in Kern County’s Searles Valley this morning shortly after 10:30 a.m. It was felt as far south as San Diego’s North County and Orange County, where Disneyland has closed rides for safety inspections due to the quake.
Governor Newsom has issued an emergency declaration for Ridgecrest, the city hardest hit with damages.
The quake is the strongest centered in California since a 7.1 quake at the Twenty-Nine Palms military base 20 years ago and the strongest felt in southern California since the 2010 Easter Sunday quake in northern Mexico that rattled San Diego.
Authorities, in a press conference this afternoon, say they were inundated with emergency calls including a home on fire, medical aid calls, gas and water leaks, and stores with merchandise knocked off shelves in Ridgecrest. The Ridgecrest Regional Hospital and several apartment buildings were evacuated, local media outlets report.
The powerful temblor opened up crevasses in roads, knocked down power lines and left some residents without electricity. Minor injuries from broken glass and falling objects have occurred, according to CNN, Fortunately, no deaths have been reported.
A major crack on State Route 178 and boulders on Highway 395 have already been repaired and cleared, California Highway Patrol announced.
Strike teams from multiple agencies have responded to the area, which has also had 159 aftershocks since the major earthquakes.
There is a small change of an even larger quake hitting the region.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Ridgecrest Mayor Peggy Breeden.
Comments
This quake was not on the San Andreas, by the way...
but on a separate fault line. So it likely didn't relieve pressure on the San Andreas, which is still expected to produce another major quake one of these days.
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I felt the aftershocks of this earthquake here in Lancaster!
Sitting on my futon this morning here in Lancaster, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, I felt the aftershocks of this earthquake. I immediately thought of the movie "San Andreas", as we are actually sitting on the San Andreas fault> When I lived in San Diego I encountered a few earthquakes, one of which moved my bed, but I stayed calm. It has been indicated that this was the biggest earthquake in 20 years.