December 5, 2024, Northern California Earthquake + Tsunami Warning

[Vagabond]

I just received a tsunami warning on my mobile phone. There was an earthquake with an epicenter off the coast of Humboldt County, California, about 200 miles north of San Francisco, registering 7.0 on the Richter scale a short while ago. Fortunately, I am atop one of San Francisco's many hills, but if you are in a danger zone, please get to higher ground ASAP.

Information about Tsunami Warning #GoogleCrisisResponse https://g.co/kgs/9CZ57pN

7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off Northern California coast, tsunami warning canceled

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake was reported off the coast of Northern California, according to the USGS. A tsunami warning that had been issued was canceled.

abc7news.com

 

[tangerine dream]

I got it too. I'm in inner sunset, also atop a big hill (mount sutro area), didn't feel any shaking.

 

[skateycat]

I’m safe. I am in Eureka California and I’m at work and stuck on campus but just kinda trying to not contribute to the chaos.

 

[sk9tingfan]

A report from Northern CA News station.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Karen-W]

Hope @SkateSand is safe - she and her hubby live up in that area.

ETA - tsunami warning has been canceled.

https://tsunami.gov/events/PAAQ/2024/12/05/so1aq0/3/WEAK51/WEAK51.txt

 

[SkateSand]

Hope @SkateSand is safe - she and her hubby live up in that area.

ETA - tsunami warning has been canceled.

https://tsunami.gov/events/PAAQ/2024/12/05/so1aq0/3/WEAK51/WEAK51.txt

We're fine here - our house is just inside the tsunami evacuation zone, but if we run over to our neighbor's lot, we are out of it. Both of our phones are in another room so we heard this strange sound but couldn't pinpoint it and assumed our cat was touching something that sounded an alarm. I looked all over but forgot to look at the phones.

 

[barbk]

It would be GREAT if the frickin' TV stations in the SF area put out actionable information rather than yakking on about tsunamis in general. The Tsunami Forecast map was indecipherable if you tried to figure out whether San Mateo was in the zone.

One of the blatherers also noted boats heading quickly for "the safety" of shore. The shore is the least safe place in a tsunami, and ships further out experience almost no effect.

 

[Vagabond]

I did an Internet search for maps of tsunami zones in Northern California earlier today. They all appear to be down for maintenance.

 

[SkateSand]

So apparently there was mass panic in town and numerous car accidents and injuries. There was a devastating tsunami here in 1964 that wiped out half the town (29 city blocks destroyed and twelve deaths and many injuries) and then another bad one in 2011 that did millions of damage to the harbor and boats were destroyed. There have been 32 tsunamis since 1933 (when the gauges were installed) and we are the tsunami capital of the continental U.S. - yay, us! I totally missed the whole thing, having just gotten back from shopping in town fifteen minutes before the earthquake and tsunami warning. Probably just as well as I had my phone with me then and might have panicked a little myself.

 

[Badams]

So, is everything good? No tsunami? How long is th warning for?

 

[skateycat]

So, is everything good? No tsunami? How long is th warning for?

The warning has been over for a couple hours now. There was no tsunami.

 

[MacMadame]

So, is everything good? No tsunami? How long is th warning for?

It was in effect for 64 minutes.

ETA it included our town by only stuff a few miles west of us on the edge of the Bay. Also, we were down in LA so if our house was going to go, nothing we could do about it.

 

[skateycat]

This is half amusing and half WTF

Yesterday Eureka Police put a tsunami evacuation notice on their Facebook directing people to get to North of Fourth.

Fourth Street is also the southbound lanes of Highway 101.

1. North of Fourth is the name of a dive bar in Eureka.

2. Going north of Fourth Street puts one squarely in the middle of the bay. To get out of the tsunami zone, it is better to get oneself south of Fourth.

 

[Vagabond]

Mistaken message on tsunami danger sent to thousands in Bay Area, highlighting region’s messy response

Mistaken message on tsunami danger sent to thousands in Bay Area, highlighting region’s messy response

Mistaken message on tsunami danger was sent to thousands in Bay Area, highlighting region’s messy response to major event

www.sfchronicle.com

Ryan Reynolds, program services manager with San Mateo County’s department of emergency management, said in an interview Friday that the X post may have resulted from a glaringly simple mistake: someone in his office acted on a weather service tsunami bulletin that had ended the alert for Hawaii, not California.

Not that Ryan Reynolds, apparently.

One has to wonder how prepared local governments in Northern California would have been had there been an actual tsunami.