Almost 24 hours after people in Humboldt County experienced a violent earthquake, some residents are still looking for a place to sleep.
Two people died and about a dozen were injured in the 6.4 magnitude quake that left homes red tagged.
By early Wednesday morning, PG&E reported about 14,500 customers remained without power, including about 6,500 in the Fortuna area. At its peak, the power outage affected about 70,000 customers.
Margaret Sager had no power, no lights and no water. So she and her son sat in the car to power up her electric devices still reeling from the early morning quake.
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“I felt quite a few earthquakes in my life, this one was not as bad as 1992. But as far as the destruction that it did in my house, it was worse," she said.
The quake was strong enough to rock homes off their foundation and knock out power to much of the county.
Tom Tully was showing his daughter how to operate a generator. His mother has a lung condition, so electricity is her lifeline.
“The house is like you threw a bunch of stuff in a blender and kicked it on, that's what the inside of the house looks like,” said Tully. “Me and my wife ran through a pile of broken glass in the kitchen to get to our daughter, get my son, we had to get my mom out of the back house.”
Heavy furniture narrowly missed his wife’s head while she slept.
PG&E officials were working to get power back on to thousands of customers.
“We can’t give exact times of restoration without understanding the depth of the damage and the repairs that need to be made but we are looking at a 12 to 24 hour window,” said Megan McFarland.
Another family was doing what they could to feed 12 children and four adults by a campfire
“We have hot coco bar set up over there, we're gonna let the kids make hot cocoa ... we have hot and cold water," said Laurie Taom of Rio Dell.
BAY AREA QUAKE CENTRAL
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