Reporting from Los Angeles and Eureka, Calif. - The day after a powerful earthquake rocked the Northern California city of Eureka, residents woke today to a mess: toppled chimneys, downed traffic signals and shattered nerves as minor aftershocks continued to rattle windows.About 30 people visited hospitals for minor injuries, but there were no reports of major injuries caused by the magnitude-6.5 temblor, which struck offshore at 4:27 p.m. about 33 miles southwest of the coastal city of 26,000.More than 25,000 people were initially without power, but electricity was restored to everyone shortly after 6 a.m., according to David Eisenhauer, spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co."We're checking all the bridges and buildings and hope to have a complete damage assessment soon," said Leslie Lollich, spokeswoman for the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services.Already, officials had declared an apartment building and several commercial structures unsafe, referring the residents to Red Cross officials for temporary shelter.At the 124-year-old St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church in Eureka, parishioners were busy picking up pieces of plaster that had fallen from the ceiling and climbing ladders to adjust paintings that had tilted in the shaking. The church's tall steeple was intact after the quake.Pastor H. Loren Allen said he had delivered a homily to church members that gave thanks for the relatively minor damage. "I didn't want to make light of it," he said, "but I didn't want to sound like the grim reaper either."Centered about 13 miles deep, the quake was felt as far north as central Oregon, as far south as Santa Cruz and as far east as Reno, the U.S. Geological Survey said."It was a monstrous one," said Phil Burns, owner of Mity Nice Bakery Cafe Restaurant in Eureka, which is about 80 miles south of the Oregon border. "Usually, they're sharp, but this one was very wiggly. It was rolling in all directions."In the south Eureka fishing village of King Salmon, the 10 seconds of shaking broke power lines and knocked out electricity throughout the isolated seaside community of about 750 people.When it stopped, people gathered in the street. Some were visibly distraught. Shouts of "You all right?" were heard. Then car engines began revving up as residents raced to the only access road to the closest higher ground, the 150-foot-high Bell Hill, in case of a tsunami, said William Bowman, a resident. None materialized, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Residents of Northern California coastal communities have reason to worry about tsunamis. In 1964, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake off the Alaskan coast sent a catastrophic tsunami to Crescent City, north of Eureka, killing 11 people.Frayed nerves were evident throughout the Humboldt County region as dusk fell. Rooms at Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata, 15 miles north of Eureka, were in the dark, and patients in robes were sitting in the hallway. Generators provided only enough power to keep vital machinery working, said nursing supervisor Annie Conkler."Everyone's shaken, but fine," she said, adding that there were no patients with quake-related injuries coming into the emergency room.At Myrtle Avenue Pet Center on Hubbard Lane in Eureka, owner Melanie Noe spent the evening picking up shampoo bottles and shattered dog bowls. The only other casualties were the cats' nerves, she said.On the other side of town, lamps and dishes crashed down at Antiques and Goodies, causing a couple to run out of the store, while two women took cover under a table. "We've been through a lot of earthquakes, but I can't recall there ever being any this bad," said store owner Sandra Hall.To the south, floodlights fell at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds, and windows shattered in Ferndale. Farther south, in Redway, shoppers abandoned their carts in a grocery store and raced to their cars.State officials said authorities in the county have not asked for additional assistance from Sacramento."It looks like they will be able to handle it on their own," said Kelly Huston, a spokesman for the California Emergency Management Agency. "Our big concern now is aftershocks."At least 10 aftershocks were reported in the hours after the temblor, the strongest of them registering 4.2.Richard Allen, a UC Berkeley seismologist, said the area where the earthquake occurred was in the Mendocino Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates collide: the Pacific, North American and Juan de Fuca. It is one of the most seismically active parts of the San Andreas fault system that runs through the state."Although 6.5 is a large event, it is not uncommon there by any means," said Richard Buckmaster, a U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist.The last major quakes in the offshore region, Buckmaster said, were magnitude 7.2 and 6.6 temblors in June 2005. ||||| A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck Eureka at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, leaving much of the city without power and police scanners buzzing with reports of damage and injuries. 
 
 The quake, which lasted for around 30 seconds, had power poles waving back and forth along Eureka streets and brought panicked residents out of their homes. 
 
 The Bayshore Mall, as of 5:30 p.m., had been closed off to customers and employees. It was unclear how many people were injured there, but one employee reported that several people were picked up by ambulances. 
 
 Employees also reported light fixtures falling out of the ceiling and floor tiles popping up off the ground. Another employee reported seeing chunks of the ceiling fall onto customers. 
 
 Employees 
 
 Eureka Natural Foods shortly after the quake. (Shaun Walker) 
 
 were waiting around to get back in to the building to collect their things and survey the damage. 
 
 All along Broadway, Eureka's busiest thoroughfare, lights were out and traffic was heavy as people attempted to get out of town. 
 
 Arcata, near Humboldt State University, had power, and residents of McKinleyville also reported having power. Fortuna seemed fairly undamaged as of early evening. 
 
 Sgt. Matt Eberhart of the Fortuna Police Department said Fortuna takes dispatches for Rio Dell, Ferndale and Fortuna, adding that there were a couple reports of gas leaks and of businesses that had items had falling off the shelves, including Safeway and Beverage Plus. 
 
 One woman in front of Fortuna's Rite Aid said she lived four miles from the 
 
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 epicenter of the Loma Prieta quake and said this was a piece of cake. 
 
 "This was nothing compared to Loma Prieta," said Theresa Chesmore. 
 
 In Eureka, 77-year-old Paul Knaak owns a two-story house on Summer Street, where he had two broken water pipes and his belongings strewn across the floor. 
 
 "I don't know about the foundation yet," he said, as he waited outside Shafer's Ace Hardware in Henderson Center to purchase supplies. The store, however, was closed. 
 
 He said it was the biggest quake he'd experienced in his life. 
 
 Mike Hagedorn, bakery manager at Winco, said the store was a mess. 
 
 "Everything was off the shelves," he said. "It was booming ... . You can imagine our liquor section right now." 
 
 Phillip Smith-Hanes, Humboldt County administrative officer and public information officer for this incident through the Office of Emergency Services, confirmed just before 6 p.m. that the quake measured 6.5. 
 
 The epicenter was 20 miles west-northwest of Ferndale. 
 
 "Kind of straight west of Humboldt Hill," Smith-Hanes said. 
 
 The office has not received any reports of major injury. 
 
 "We do have quite a few reports of damage,"Smith-Hanes said. 
 
 He classified the damage as minor to moderate. 
 
 As of 7 p.m., about 27,000 PG&E; customers were without power. 
 
 Broken gas lines and downed power lines were the most types of calls coming across the scanner. 
 
 Marshall Boyett of McKinleyvile was driving when the earthquake hit. 
 
 "It was like the street was breakdancing," Boyett said. 
 
 Releases from both HSU and St. Joseph Health System said no injuries were reported at those locations. 
 
 Power is out at the Times-Standard, and reports Saturday evening were filed from the parking lot on a single laptop, illiminated by headlamps from employee vehicles. 
 
 Jana Morris, spokewoman for PG&E;, said just before 8 p.m. that about 28,000 customers didn't have power. Outages have been reported in all the major cities and unincorporated area. 
 
 "We have done a thorough investigation of the power plants, both the fossil and nuclear sites, and everything looks good," Morris said. "The investigation turned out that there was no significant damage and everything is up and running." 
 
 Morris said that crews will work around the clock to try and restore power with estimates of power being restored in some areas as late as Sunday night. Crews from Mendocino and Sonoma counties were on their way to help as of 8 p.m. 
 
 Morris said that people should not approach downed power lines even if the neighborhood is dark. 
 
 Report down power lines to 911 or 1-800-PGE-5000. 
 
 The temblor was felt at least as far east as Willow Creek where the night manager Chris Potter said the movement was definitely noticeable. 
 
 "It was pretty intense," he said. "We really felt it." 
 
 He said he thought merchandise would be falling, but that didn't happen. 
 
 According to the U.S. Geological Survey Web site, it appears as if six aftershocks have struck since the major shaiking began, none of which approached the original magnitude of the quake. ||||| Napa damaged, more than 100 hurt in Northern California quake 
 
 (08-24) 20:45 PDT NAPA -- A magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck the North Bay early Sunday, injuring more than 100 people, causing extensive damage to dozens of buildings in downtown Napa and Vallejo and sparking a fire that destroyed sixhomes, authorities said. 
 
 The quake, the largest in the Bay Area since the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, struck 3 miles northwest of American Canyon at 3:20 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was felt as far away as Chico and Fresno, the USGS said. 
 
 Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for California and said state resources would be mustered to areas affected by the quake, including Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. 
 
 Hardest-hit was Napa, about 6 miles northwest of the quake's epicenter. Walt Mickens, CEO at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, said 172 people were treated Sunday at the hospital, including a 13-year-old identified by neighbors as Nicholas Dillon. He was hurt inside his family's home on Eva Street when a chimney fell on him during a slumber party, and was airlifted from Napa to the UC Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento, where hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown said he was in serious condition. 
 
 In all, Mickens said, 12 people were admitted to Queen of the Valley and treated for injuries related to the quake, the majority with broken bones. By late Sunday, just one person remained in critical condition at the hospital; the others were in serious or stable condition. 
 
 The majority of other injuries were cuts and bruises from broken glass and falling objects, he said. 
 
 Many residents were unable to return home Sunday evening because of damage sustained in the quake. Napa officials said 33 buildings have been red-tagged, meaning residents cannot return to them until authorities determine they are safe, and they are only one-third of the way through assessing buildings. 
 
 Napa Mayor Jill Techel was among the displaced. She returned from a conference in Monterey on Sunday morning, and said when she when she first arrived downtown, she felt, "scared and sad." 
 
 "My neighbors are staying strong but you can see tears right behind their eyes," she said. 
 
 Throughout the region, said State Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said, about 90 to 100 homes have been red-tagged. Officials won't have a tally of how many people have been displaced until late Sunday, Ghilarducci said, when they begin showing up at emergency shelters. 
 
 "We have a handle on what's happening at this point," he said at a late afternoon news conference, adding that state officials do not yet have damage cost estimates and are deciding whether to apply for federal disaster assistance. 
 
 State geologist John Parrish said all the region's bridges have been checked and are safe. Measurements taken from the Carquinez Bridge revealed the span took quite a hit during the quake, but sustained no damage. 
 
 While officials warned residents to be prepared for aftershocks, Parrish said the biggest risk had passed by Sunday afternoon, as the highest probability of aftershocks is within the first hour after a quake. In all, he said, 50 to 60 aftershocks were recorded, the largest a magnitude 3.6. 
 
 "We feel it unlikely now that there will be a large follow-up earthquake to this one," Parrish said Sunday afternoon. "We do not expect there will be much larger aftershocks, but we expect they will continue for several weeks." Parrish said the soft ground in the Napa Valley helped mitigate damage by absorbing some of movement. 
 
 Still, said Ghilarducci, "It took half day to get our hands around the complexity of the event," due to power outages. 
 
 In all, 70,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers lost power in the quake, but by early evening, the utility had restored power to the majority. A PG&E statement said about 7,300 customers in Napa County remained in the dark. Most customers can expect to be back online by the end of Sunday, according to the utility. 
 
 Sixty water mains and at least 50 gas lines also broke in the quake. PG&E said 439 people called to report gas leaks Sunday, and by early evening, the vast majority had been investigated. Beginning Monday, the utility plans to fan out across the impacted areas to conduct courtesy gas safety checks. 
 
 There were also problems in Vallejo, where officials said 41 buildings were damaged, including businesses, several homes and a church. On one residential block, nearly every brick chimney had collapsed, including two that fell on a car. 
 
 "It's bad any way you look at it, but it could have been a heck of a lot worse," said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa. 
 
 Napa City Manager Mike Parness said that "most of the (Napa) Valley is operating as normal" and that most of the damage was confined to a few locations. But officials said it will be weeks until those areas are cleaned up. 
 
 Officials at Queen of the Valley set up a triage tent in the back parking lot of the emergency room. In the first hours after the quake, ambulances were arriving every few minutes dropping off patients. 
 
 A fire at a Napa mobile home park on Orchard Avenue destroyed four homes and damaged two others as firefighters improvised to put out the blaze, with a water main broken and unavailable. 
 
 In downtown Napa, bricks, concrete chunks and broken glass littered the streets. About 15 buildings were red-tagged, , and numerous other buildings were yellow-tagged and were open only on a limited basis, officials said. Most of the yellow-tagged buildings suffered damage such as broken windows, Parness said. 
 
 Most of the windows were blown out of the air traffic control tower at the Napa County Airport. The structure was spared major damage, but it will be unusable for several weeks, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. 
 
 Across Napa, dozens of unreinforced chimneys toppled, tilted or leaned precariously from houses. 
 
 "It was just like a train hit the house," Cathy Hunt said as she surveyed a pile of bricks that used to make up the chimney of her home on the 500 block of Montgomery Street. 
 
 At Napa Barrel Care, a wine warehouse just south of the city, Carole Meredith surveyed an array of tumbled barrels. 
 
 "We're physically fine but we're emotionally shell-shocked," Meredith said. Although it is too soon to know the extent of loss, she said, "there is a lake of wine on the floor." 
 
 Because wines from the bountiful 2013 vintage are mostly still in barrel, "there's just going to be huge losses," said Meredith, who owns the Lagier Meredith winery on Mount Veeder. "This is going to be a really expensive earthquake for the wine business." 
 
 At the Don Perico Mexican restaurant on First Street, there were no outward signs of problems on the exterior of the building. But inside, a pile of bricks stood several feet high. 
 
 At the Bounty Hunter restaurant down the street, broken wine bottles littered the floor. But the eatery's "holy grail" case, containing prized bottles worth up to $80,000, remained intact. 
 
 "It's a disaster, but we'll clean up," said employee Will Wright. "We'll get through it." 
 
 Andrea Griego of Napa said the quake knocked over her bedroom dresser, temporarily immobilizing her. 
 
 "It was so scary," said Griego, who suffered a large bruise and cut. 
 
 Napa's Old County Courthouse and the post office were among the buildings that sustained damage. Emergency workers usually stationed there were moved to the sheriff's office. 
 
 Residents and city officials said the toll would have been far greater had the quake struck on Saturday, when thousands of people were downtown enjoying the Napa Blues, Brews and BBQ event in downtown Napa. 
 
 Although damage appeared to be worst in Napa, there were also problems elsewhere. 
 
 In downtown Vallejo, a large chunk of bricks fell off the First Methodist Church at Sonoma Boulevard and Virginia Street. Several older homes near the church lost their chimneys. 
 
 Glass covered buckled sidewalks on a six-block stretch of businesses on the west end of Tennessee Street, the city's primary link to the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Sixteen water mains in the city were broken, city officials said. 
 
 On Georgia and Virginia streets on downtown Vallejo, several buildings were evacuated after a 19th-century brick building partially collapsed. The city engineer was on scene investigating, but fire officials said the building, the former City of Paris department store, would likely be demolished. 
 
 Building owner Buck Kamphausen, who is also the city mortician, said the building was under renovation. The roof of collapsed into the roof of a neighboring building, falling through to the floor. No one was injured. 
 
 Officials were blocking off the sidewalks on both Georgia and Virginia streets. Firemen said the extent of the damage would likely not be known until Monday, as many of the shops on the commercial strip were closed Sunday and owners had not come to survey the damage. 
 
 The First Methodist Church on Sonoma and Virgin streets also suffered damage to its bell tower. 
 
 On Fern Street, a leafy block in the city's Garden District dotted with 1920's bungalows, residents were surveying the slew of collapsed brick chimneys and starting to clean up. 
 
 At the end of the block, a brick building that houses a Real Estate brokerage was red-tagged. Brick mason Marshall Foster was using a jackhammer to take down the top half of a damaged chimney at one home. 
 
 "It was like something exploded," said Annette Millhollin, whose chimney, along with her neighbor's, tumbled onto her driveway, crushing her Oldsmobile. 
 
 Chris Mariano, who lives next to the brokerage firm, said it "felt like a bomb went off," when the quake struck at 3:20 a.m., knocking down all the dishes in his home. "It went on forever," he said. "I've never been in a quake that close to the epicenter." 
 
 There were widespread reports of power outages, gas leaks and flooding in the North Bay. 
 
 In addition to the power outages, Napa'stwo water treatment plants were undamaged, but water-main breaks knocked out service to some areas. The water that is available is safe to drink, Napa officials said. 
 
 Still, the recovery could take "a week or so because we have a lot of things to get buttoned up," said Napa's director of public works Jacques LaRochelle. 
 
 Caltrans checked the Bay Area's toll bridges after the quake and found them to be safe. On Highway 121 in the North Bay, 30 feet of asphalt was cracked, but the road was open. 
 
 Scientists said the quake was 6.7 miles deep and may have hit on the West Napa Fault. It was the largest in the Bay Area since the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 62 people on Oct. 17, 1989. 
 
 The U.S. Geological Survey initially said the quake measured magnitude 6.0, then upgraded it to 6.1 later in the day. 
 
 One of the worst scenes of damage was at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park at 1040 Orchard Ave. near Mark Way, where a fire burned at least four homes. A broken water main hobbled firefighters' efforts to control the blaze. 
 
 Water trucks were brought to the scene, enabling firefighters to control the blaze before 6 a.m. There were no injuries. 
 
 The cause of the fire was unknown. PG&E said its natural-gas lines were not responsible. 
 
 Ray Kauffman, 68, said that as soon as he saw the smoke at one of the mobile homes, "I went home to get my crescent wrench but I couldn't get to it." 
 
 "The flames were too much when I got there," Kauffman said as he looked at the remains of his neighbor's home. 
 
 A woman who asked to be identified as Theresa said she had trouble getting out of her boyfriend's home because it shifted off the foundation. She went across the street and watched the home burn to the ground. 
 
 "It was really scary," she said. "We were really lucky to get out. We lost a kitten, CoCo." 
 
 Firefighters extinguished two other residential fires in Napa, officials said. 
 
 Throughout the Bay Area, many people were jolted awake by the quake. Others who were already up were similarly jarred. 
 
 Erica Gregory, who was brewing coffee while working by herself at the 24-hour Shell gas station on Highway 29 in Vallejo, said items started to fly off the shelves when the quake hit. 
 
 "It was nerve-wracking," Gregory said. "You just have to stand there and take it." 
 
 Lily Atkinson, 10, said she was playing solitaire when her bed, and then her entire room, began shaking. 
 
 "I grabbed onto my head and held on for dear life," she said. 
 
 In Benicia, several miles from the epicenter, the quake was strong enough to knock pictures off mantles. 
 
 Darryl Sismil, owner of Marin Computer Service in Santa Rosa, described the tremor as "just a rolling sensation. It felt like I was on a boat in the bay." 
 
 At the 24-hour Napa Valley Casino off Highway 29 in American Canyon, the quake interrupted a hand of Texas Hold 'Em. 
 
 "I didn't know what to do," said Sunshine Hamilton, adding that her "legs were shaking" from the experience. "Everybody ran outside, so I ran outside too. No one grabbed chips or anything like that." 
 
 They sat outside for about 10 minutes before returning inside to finish the hand. 
 
 Les Flynn was asleep with his son on a buddy's couch in Napa when the quake hit. 
 
 "I had my little boy on the couch so I threw myself over him because the there was s- falling on the couch," Flynn said. "It was crazy, everything was shaking off the walls. The whole house was just rolling." 
 
 San Francisco Chronicle Science Editor David Perlman and staff writers Suzanne Espinosa Solis, Joe Garofoli, Melody Gutierrez, Kristen V. Brown, Greta Kaul, Jill Tucker, Mike Lerseth and David R. Baker contributed to this report.
– Communities in Humboldt County in northern California are cleaning up today after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake rocked the coastal area yesterday afternoon. " It was like the street was breakdancing, " a local resident who was driving when the temblor struck around 4:30pm told the Times-Standard of Eureka, 33 miles from the epicenter. There were numerous reports of power outages and property damage, but no serious injuries and no tsunami warning. "It was a monstrous one," a Eurekar restaurateur told the Los Angeles Times. "Usually, they're sharp, but this one was very wiggly." Humboldt County, about 275 miles northeast of San Francisco, enjoys a reputation as "the Napa Valley of weed," Gawker notes. " The pot will be OK no need to start a panic! " tweeted one Humboldt resident.