Tsunami warning for California after 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits
The warning for a tsunami is for the coastal areas of California and Oregon, stretching from Davenport, California, to Douglas/Lane Line in Oregon.
A strong earthquake was felt widely across northern California on Thursday, as authorities issued a tsunami warning.
The quake struck at 10.44am local time west of Ferndale, a small city in coastal Humboldt County near the Oregon border, according to the US Geological Survey.
It hit a shallow depth of 10kn and was centred about 63km west of Ferndale. It was felt as far south as San Francisco, where residents felt a rolling motion for several seconds, and was followed by smaller aftershocks.
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as Bart, has stopped traffic in all directions through the underwater tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland.
At least 5.3 million people in California were under a tsunami warning after the magnitude 7.3 earthquake the US Geological Survey said, in a yellow alert, which predicts localised but minimal damage.
More than 1.3 million people lived close enough to the quake that they could have felt it, the USGS estimated.
The warning for a tsunami is for the coastal areas of California and Oregon, stretching from Davenport, California, to the Douglas/Lane Line in Oregon, according to the US National Tsunami Center.
San Francisco and a large area of the surrounding Bay Area were under the tsunami warning.
The City of Berkeley police department issued an evacuation order for parts of the city on the San Francisco Bay "due to a Tsunami coming to West Berkeley," according to an alert sent to residents.
About 19,000 clients were without power in Humboldt County - up from near zero before the earthquake struck, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on social media that the governor "is now meeting with state emergency officials and working to ensure Californians are safe."
A wave could reach the San Francisco coastline as early as 12.10pm local time, said Rachel Kennedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
She said forecasters were waiting for a report on how high potential waves could be. She called it “a pretty dangerous situation”.
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