A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck roughly 7.5 miles southwest of Ferndale at 2:34 a.m. local time. The effects were felt as far as 74 miles away in Redway, according to a map published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake shuttered more than 70,000 residents in darkness as power outages spanned the region. More damage could continue as dozens of aftershocks have already occurred and more are expected.
Northern California residents took to Twitter Tuesday morning to show photos of damage to their homes and businesses. North Coast News reporter Austin Castro shared photos of a large crack splitting a road, as well as shattered storefronts.
“Residents in Fortuna, CA are waking up to scenes of broken storefronts and damaged merchandise,” Castro tweeted.
In addition to roads, bridges were also damaged in the state’s Humboldt County, according to The National Desk reporter Cayle Thompson.
The quake, which injured at least two people, according to ABC News, did not trigger a tsunami.
However, hours later, more than 70,000 residents remained without power, according to a power outage map.
“Over 74k residents are out of power. It’s pretty chaotic from what I am hearing,” one user tweeted.
One Eureka, California, resident shared photos of the inside of her home, where the earthquake caused a chunk of ceiling to break loose. In her kitchen, all the cupboard doors were flung open with their contents spilling onto the floor.
“Damage assessment continues,” she tweeted.
The USGS said in the less than 12 hours since the earthquake, 17 aftershocks with magnitude 3 or higher have rattled the area. So far, no magnitude 5 or higher aftershocks have been felt. A magnitude 5 is large enough to cause damage.
USGS Earthquakes tweeted that it expects there to be up to six magnitude 4 aftershocks following the 6.4 quake.
The quake was large enough to trigger the ShakeAlert system, which sends phone alerts to those in the vicinity of a dangerous earthquake, and USGS Earthquakes posted an image of the alert on Twitter asking California residents if they felt the quake.
“Did I feel it? Ya. It was like waking up to being on the back of an angry bull. It was real bad,” one user tweeted, adding that she was roughly 20 miles away from the earthquake’s epicenter.
“Hearing lots of calls on the scanner for gas leaks, structural damage, power lines down, water pipes burst. Not good,” she tweeted.
Even Oregon residents received an alert advising them to take cover immediately. One person in Oregon said they received the alert but didn’t feel any tremors.
Newsweek reached out to the USGS for comment.
