An earthquake and subsequent tsunami warning in northern California on Thursday prompted a large evacuation to higher ground, including the parish office of at least one Catholic church.
The earthquake, magnitude 7.0, was felt around 10:45 a.m. local time in Humboldt County, said Rex Atienza, office manager at St. Mary Catholic Church in Arcata, which is about 2,000 meters away. 4 kilometers north of Arcata Bay and approximately 9.7 kilometers east of the Pacific Ocean.
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“There was a big tremor,” Atienza told CNA by phone. “And after people started leaving the building and staying outside, when I was at the door I could still feel the building moving from left to right.”
“It continued like this. I would say maybe 20 to 30 seconds. Which in real time seemed longer,” he said.
Several members of the parish staff left the property to move to higher areas. A nearby public school was also evacuated, he said.
Some people from the area went to a local high school, others went to a supermarket and two priests from the parish went to the Newman Center at nearby Cal Poly Humboldt, Atienza said.
He said the parish building remained empty for about an hour and 45 minutes, until he received a message that everything was okay from the Humboldt County regional government.
Arcata is located in the Diocese of Santa Rosa, where much of the initial concern was focused.
About 177 kilometers southeast, in Marin County, Father Gabriel Wankar felt the earthquake Thursday morning and ran to the parish school at St. Anselm Catholic Church in Ross, where he is pastor.
“I felt a strange movement, but before I could know what was happening, a tsunami alert went off on my phone and I realized what was happening. So, I immediately headed to the school to be with the children,” Father Wankar told CNA by email.
Children and staff remained at the scene, he said. No damage or injuries were reported.
Ross is in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where the Catholic schools central office sent principals a message saying that parents were welcome to pick up their children, but that Catholic schools would remain open unless public schools in the area will close.
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami warning made national news for much of Thursday, as fears of a series of damaging long waves caused by the earthquake caused people near the coast to seek safer places.
On Thursday at 10:49 a.m. Pacific Time, the National Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for the coast of northern California and southern Oregon, due to an earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean about 72 kilometers southwest of Eureka, California. The agency canceled the tsunami warning just over an hour later, at 11:54 a.m. according to the National Tsunami Warning Center website.
The northern coast of California, near Cape Mendocino, “is one of the most seismically active areas in the United States” and before Thursday five earthquakes “of magnitude close to 7.0” were recorded, according to the National Weather Service.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Matthew McDonald
Matt McDonald is a journalist for the National Catholic Register and editor of the New Boston Post.