Magnitude 6.4 earthquake shakes parts of Northern California

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of Northern California early Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, jolting people awake and leaving thousands without power. No injuries were immediately reported following the earthquake, which occurred at 2:34 a.m. near Ferndale, a small community about 210 miles (345 kilometers) northwest of San Francisco and close to the Pacific coast.

Following the earthquake, more than 70,000 customers were reported without power in the surrounding area, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the country.

Caroline Titus, a resident of Ferndale, tweeted video in her darkened home of toppled furniture and smashed dishes.


"Our home is a 140-year-old Victorian. The north/south shaking is very evident in what fell," she tweeted.

"That was a big one," she said in another tweet.

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office tweeted that no tsunami was expected.

Police in Ferndale were helping to close a bridge that the California Highway Patrol reported had cracks, KRCR-TV reported.

Some gas leaks were also reported.

The earthquake came just days after a small magnitude 3.6 earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area, waking up thousands of people before 4 a.m. Saturday and causing minor damage.

That earthquake was centered in El Cerrito, about a 25-kilometer drive to downtown San Francisco.