Watch: Lights sway and pool overflows as earthquake hits California
A strong 7.0 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of northern California, according to the US Geological Survey.
A tsunami warning was initially issued along the coasts of both northern California and southern Oregon – an area that includes about 4.7 million people – but was later rescinded.
The earthquake’s epicentre hit closest to the town of Ferndale, California, a small city in Humboldt County about 260 miles (418km) north of San Francisco.
Local officials said no deaths or major widespread damage had been reported in the aftermath of the quake, which is one of only nine such 7 magnitude quakes to strike globally this year.
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, there had been no catastrophic destruction to buildings or infrastructure, but some homes did report minor damage.
Several stores in the area reported items falling off shelves and power briefly went out for many residents, the sheriff’s office said.
More than 10,000 people were without power in Humboldt County after the earthquake struck, according to poweroutage.us.
While the earthquake did not cause widespread damage, one resident of Ferndale who spoke to the BBC in the minutes following the quake said the inside of the building she was in “looks like a bomb has gone off in every room”.
Olivia Cobian, the innkeeper at the Gingerbread Mansion Inn in Ferndale, said the inside of the inn now “looks like a warzone”.
“We have huge cast iron fireplaces that have been lifted up and moved over, everything’s fallen over, broken”.
Another who witnessed the quake was Todd Dunaway, who was eating lunch in his home in Fortuna, California when the earthquake hit.
“It literally felt like standing on a giant waterbed,” he told the BBC. “The noise of rattling windows, creaking walls, falling dishes and decorations added to the drama and sca
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