(CNN) — The magnitude 6.4 earthquake that rocked the Eureka area of northern California on Tuesday killed at least two people, sparking reports of damage to roads and homes and leaving tens of thousands without power.
The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 2:34 a.m. PST, was located in the Pacific regarding 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Fortuna, a city of regarding 12,000 in Humboldt County, part of the Redwood forested shoreline in California. Fortuna is near Eureka and regarding 280 miles (450 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento.
Earthquake damage is seen outside a building in Rio Dell, California, on Tuesday.
At least two people died “as a result of medical emergencies” during and following the quake, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. In addition, twelve injuries were reported.
While there are few details on the injuries at this time, none are considered critical, Humboldt County Sheriff William F. Honsal said. The number of injuries is expected to rise, he added.
The two people who died, a 72-year-old man and an 83-year-old man, had medical emergencies at some point during the quake and emergency services were unable to reach them in a timely manner, Honsal said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, allowing Humboldt County to access resources under the California Disaster Assistance Act, Newsom’s office said in a statement.
“Jennifer and I send our deepest condolences to the families grieving the loss of their loved ones and offer our best wishes for the recovery of those injured in this earthquake,” Newsom said in a statement.
Damaged storefronts in Fortuna, California, on Tuesday.
More than three dozen smaller quakes, up to magnitude 4.6, struck the area followingwards, the survey reported. Tuesday’s earthquake comes one year following a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Humboldt County’s Cape Mendocino on December 20, 2021, causing minor damage to area buildings.
Most homes and businesses in Humboldt County were without power early Tuesday. Nearly 70,000 outages were reported at regarding 1 p.m. PT, out of 99,000 customers tracked in the county, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
In Rio Dell, one of the cities affected by the quake, the local administrator, Kyle Knopp, said that water and electricity were still not working.
“Widespread damage to roads and homes” is being reported throughout Humboldt County, the county sheriff’s office said Tuesday morning on Twitter. At least two people were injured, the sheriff’s office said.
Wendy Pickett Monolias woke up to the tremor in Eureka.
“Once the shaking finally stopped, we grabbed our flashlights and phones and looked around. Everything was in shambles,” Pickett Monolias said. “Things you didn’t expect to fall or break. An entire cabinet in the bathroom fell over and broke.”
The quake spilled several items on the floor of Caroline Titus’ Ferndale-area home, video she posted on Twitter shows. “This was a big one. There is no electricity now. The house is a big mess,” Titus wrote.
Northeast of Ferndale, the quake damaged part of the Fernbridge Bridge, which spans State Route 211 over the River Eel, CNN affiliate KRCR reported.
The Fernbridge bridge carrying State Route 211 in Humboldt County was closed following Tuesday’s earthquake for safety inspections, the California Department of Transportation said.
Part of the road on the bridge was cracked, an image tweeted by the California Department of Transportation showed.
“The bridge is closed while we conduct safety inspections due to potential seismic damage,” the tweet reads.
In downtown Fortuna, some shop windows were smashed and people were putting up boards to cover the gaps on a rainy Tuesday morning, KRCR video shows.
The main quake produced at least some shaking from the Oregon coast to just south of San Jose, California, public reports show.
It did not pose a tsunami threat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.
