


“The cows were just dancing to some rock and roll today,” he said, noting that his herd appeared to be OK but were probably spooked by the din of everything “bouncing around.” A glass cabinet with mementos, ornaments and family photos “walked itself” away from a wall and a refrigerator and freezer “shimmied its way across” the garage. Leonardi spent two hours cleaning up glass after the temblor shook nearly ever drawer in his house open, knocked over a dresser and yanked furniture and appliances from where they were anchored to the wall for earthquake safety. Humboldt County has about 136,000 residents and is in a part of the state that has a long history of large earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 in 1980 and a 6.8 in 2014, according to the California Earthquake Authority.ĭennis Leonardi drove through the night from the San Francisco Bay Area to get back to his dairy farm in Ferndale, and then had to take a lengthy detour because the bridge was out. The power outage involved the main transmission line that runs into the region and Pacific Gas & Electric’s restoration work was slowed because rain prevented use of a helicopter to assess damage, said state Sen. Three decades ago, homes in nearby Petrolia burned because the firehouse garage door jammed and trapped the engines inside. In an echo of the 1992 quake, the volunteer Rio Dell Fire Department was initially delayed in responding to some 60 calls that included two fires because the garage doors were off the hinges and had to be pried open, Chief Shane Wilson said.
