6.4 magnitude earthquake near Ridgecrest felt throughout Southern California

A 6.4 earthquake has shaken Southern California on this Fourth of July holiday. It was initially described as 6.6 magnitude, but was revised down.

It was reported at 10:33 a.m. southwest of Searles Valley in San Bernardino County at a depth of 8.7 kilometers.

Searles Valley is a remote desert area north of Barstow and about 25 miles northeast of Ridgecrest.

In the hours after the quake, Kern County Fire Department officials said on Twitter the agency was out at nearly 24 incidents around and near Ridgecrest, including calls for medical assistance and a structure fire.

San Bernardino County Fire Department tweeted out that in the assessment of its northwest communities, crews saw broken water mains, power lines that had fallen and some roads with rock slides. Multiple buildings had minor cracks. Its fire station in Hinkley has broken windows and was running on a generator for at least a period of time.

Emergency officials reported no major injuries in the earthquake.

Ridgecrest Regional Hospital was evacuated as a precaution; 25 patients – the facility’s capacity – were taken to hospitals in Palmdale, Lancaster and Bakersfield, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Most were transported by air. The hospital kept its emergency room and urgent care open but was going to have the facility checked by a seismic engineer.

BakersfieldNow reported that Burroughs High School will be used as the evacuation center according to police.

A San Bernardino fire official told ABC7 that in Trona, a small unincorporated community just miles from the epicenter, buildings were found with cracks and broken windows, but there were no structural collapses or fires. No one has been found injured, the official said.

Cans line the floor at the Stater Bros. on China Lake Blvd. in Ridgecrest after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. (Photo courtesy Adam Graehl)

Pipes are damaged from an earthquake, Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Trona, Calif. A strong earthquake rattled a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday, rattling nerves on the July 4th holiday and causing some damage in a town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of aftershocks. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

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This photo shows damage on Highway 178 in Ridgecrest, Calif., following an earthquake in the area Thursday, July 4, 2019. The earthquake shook a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday, rattling nerves on the July 4th holiday and causing some injuries and damage in the town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of ongoing aftershocks. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

In this image taken from video provided by Ben Hood, a firefighter works to extinguish a fire, Thursday, July 4, 2019, following an earthquake in Ridgecrest, Calif. (Ben Hood via AP)

A motorcyclist rides over a temporarily repaired part of damage on Highway 178 in Ridgecrest, Calif., following an earthquake in the area Thursday, July 4, 2019. The earthquake shook a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday, rattling nerves on the July 4th holiday and causing some injuries and damage in the town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of ongoing aftershocks. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

A road is damaged from an earthquake Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Trona, Calif. A strong earthquake rattled a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday, rattling nerves on the July 4th holiday and causing some damage in a town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of aftershocks. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

Seismologist Lucy Jones talks during a news conference at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, July 4, 2019. A strong earthquake rattled a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday morning, making hanging lamps sway and photo frames on walls shake. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries but a swarm of aftershocks were reported. (AP Photo/John Antczak)

Utility poles are damaged from an earthquake, Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Trona, Calif. A strong earthquake rattled a large swath of Southern California and parts of Nevada on Thursday, rattling nerves on the July 4th holiday and causing some damage in a town near the epicenter, followed by a swarm of aftershocks. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

The Stater Bros. on China Lake Blvd. in Ridgecrest is in disarray after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. (Photo courtesy Adam Graehl)

About 2:30 p.m. San Bernardino County Fire District tweeted that it had finished its check of all its communities and found damage to some homes and infrastructure. More rounds of surveys will be done.

Southern California Edison spokesman Robert Villegas said about 6,900 customers – 6,000 in Ridgecrest and 900 in Searles Valley area – were having power outages as of 12:45 p.m. The company was doing a damage assessment, and doesn’t have any information as to if the earthquake has caused any major damage to the company’s infrastructure, he said.

He said if people see any damage to electrical equipment, even if they don’t hear any noise, they should stay away from those damaged parts and call 911 immediately.

Roads were cleared quickly, officials said, even a large crack across Highway 178 had been filled with asphalt by mid afternoon.

Ridgecrest Mayor Peggy Breeden said the city of 28,000 was doing its best in the hours after the shaking, and Assemblyman Vince Fong and Congressman Kevin McCarthy had reached out to the city to offer any help.

“It’s been chaotic here to say the least,” she said. She asked the city’s residents to check on their neighbors if they can.

Despite relatively minimal damage, the city’s officials declared a state of emergency.

“Because we’ve had over 87 aftershocks, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Breeden said at a 3 p.m. press conference. “The state of emergency allows us to seek significant help from other government entities.”

Ridgecrest is in northeast Kern County near the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It’s about 150 miles from Los Angeles.

In Ridgecrest, resident Jessica Bennett, 42, said she was sitting on her bed this morning when “everything started flying off my dresser.”

Furniture moved and things got broken, and while she’s not aware of any structural problems, “The house is a disaster.”

In her mobile home park, one of the trailers collapsed with a grandmother and granddaughter inside, Bennett said, but they were able to get out safely.

Amanda Callaway, 36, from Ridgecrest, was driving on the north side of the city during the quake. She pulled over her car, thinking a tire might have popped off.

“We got out and we can actively see the road undulating. It’s intense. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “We can see the road shaking. It was a trip.”

She didn’t see any damage to the road, although a traffic light had gone out. There was some smoke southward of where she was, she said.

Thankfully, everything was fine for her, she said. She went home and found a bottle of wine had fallen off of a shelf. Her dog was also frightened, she said.

In a live news conference, seismologist Lucy Jones said there have been several aftershocks already and to expect more.

“We should be expecting lots of aftershocks, some of them will be bigger than the 3s we’ve been feeling now,” she said.

At a 12:30 p.m. update she said there have been 6 above magnitude 4 and some 30 that registered in the 3s.

Jones said there’s about a 5 percent chance a quake even bigger than the 6.4 magnitude one is still to come and there is certainly a possibility of aftershocks in the 5s.

While a large aftershock may still come this afternoon from the Ridgecrest area, Jones said, “It’s far enough away from the San Andreas (fault) that any impact on that system will be minimal.”

She also said: “This earthquake was large enough the shaking could have caused damage” out in the desert region. She said she wouldn’t expect damage in the LA area.

Aaron Leming, a Ridgecrest resident, said the foreshocks felt like a sonic boom he would sometimes hear from a nearby naval air weapons station. But the actual quake later felt a bit different, he said.

“Things started going crazy. My car actually moved,” he said. “It lasted about 10 seconds even though I felt like it lasted for a minute or two.”

He said water from his mother’s pool overflowed. He has been seeing downed power lines everywhere as well, he said.

Everyone seems to be safe, he said, but with power outage many grocery stores are closed. Some gas stations are selling goods but only accepting cash, with registers down, he said.

“You got what you got at this point,” he said.

Social media reports showed that shaking was felt to the south at the National Weather Service’s San Diego office and as far east as Desert Hot Springs.

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“I felt it” reports have also been posted from North Las Vegas, Woodland Hills, Palmdale, La Puente, Santa Maria, Santa Ana, Visalia, Hanford, Lemoore, Porterville and Covina.

Jones and Robert Graves, a USGS seismologist, said the early warning system was triggered, but it didn’t push cell phone alerts to the general public. They weren’t sure whether something went wrong, or the quake simply didn’t meet the threshold for a widely broadcast warning.

Jones tweeted at 10:40 a.m. that an earlier magnitude 4.2 temblor in the same area was a foreshock.

Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said all trains in operation were stopped after the quake for about 12 minutes. But after the epicenter of the quake was located, all trains resumed service as the epicenter was beyond 70 miles off any Metrolink tracks, he said.

The Thursday morning temblor was one of the region’s biggest since the 1994 Northridge quake, and the first to surpass magnitude 6 since 1999, Jones said.

Around the L.A. area, people indoors and sitting down would likely have felt the quake, but people in cars or walking around outside may not have noticed it, Jones said.

Her first thought when the shaking started was, “I’m gonna have to tell family not to come over this afternoon,” Jones said. “I have a whole pile of food in that refrigerator.”

Jones and Graves will be giving regular updates for the next few hours as more information comes in, she said, but she advised everyone who’s not working to continue with their holiday plans.

Bennett said she’s waiting to start cleanup because news reports said to expect more shaking.

She’s never experienced anything like this while living in Ridgecrest, she said. “It was scary indeed.”

My dad lives in Ridgecrest and felt strong ground shaking. I asked him to take pictures of any damage, see photos below (credit Adam Graehl). M 6.4 – 12km SW of Searles Valley, CAhttps://t.co/3e222a3nq8 pic.twitter.com/jaTt3GWLYw — Nick Graehl (@nickgraehl) July 4, 2019

#Update: Incredible picture of a road ripped open just out from the town of #Trona in #California, after the 6.4 magnitude #earthquake has been felt in that region. pic.twitter.com/kz6ZpgLkdl — Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) July 4, 2019

My dads liquor store in Ridgecrest (11 miles from the earthquake) 🥴 pic.twitter.com/4RC0mY3eha — Zomo (@zomo_abd) July 4, 2019