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California Governor Declares State of Emergency; A 6.0 Quake Rocks Northern California

Aired August 24, 2014 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Well, that's all for this televised edition of RELIABLE SOURCES. Thank you for spending the hour with me this morning. Keep in mind, our media coverage keeps going all the time on CNN.com.

And there are three great segments we had to cut from the rundown this morning due to our breaking news coverage. So we'll share those with you on CNN.com/reliablesources this afternoon. I'll see you right back here next Sunday at 11:00 am Eastern time.

And right now, Ana Cabrera picks up our continuing coverage of the earthquake in Northern California -- Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Hi, Brian, thanks so much. Our earthquake coverage continues right now.

Hello, and thank you so much for tuning in this afternoon. I'm Ana Cabrera at CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. And I want to welcome our viewers from not just here in the U.S., but around the world as we are simulcasting this hour.

Here's the latest on the breaking news we're following out of Northern California. A strong earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay area very early this morning. Here's what we've learned so far.

The 6.0 magnitude quake hit about six hours ago or a little less than six hours ago at 3:20 am local time. That's the Pacific time zone. And it jolted people from their beds, woke them up. This was centered about six miles from Napa, California, and about 51 miles from Sacramento. Several fires broke out right after it hit.

There are also reports of damaged buildings, ruptured gas lines, water mains, even historic buildings have damage like the Napa County Courthouse. There are several damaged homes, as well, including four mobile homes we've learned are just destroyed.

Napa officials say rescue teams are being deployed. It's an all-hands- on-deck situation there. Some people are reportedly trapped in their homes, at least 87 people have been taken to the hospital, most, we're told have minor injuries. But we are hearing of at least three major injuries. I want you to listen to the quake as it was captured on a family's in-home security system. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Earthquake. It's an earthquake. It's an earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Earthquake!

CABRERA (voice-over): So you saw stuff just flying off the walls, off the shelves, a child running up the stairs.

This earthquake also cracked some roads, as you can see. Several roads buckled. Knocked out power to at least 15,000 people, up to 100,000 people have reportedly been without power this morning.

And there have been about 50 gas main breaks, 30 water main leaks. This is the strongest earthquake to hit this area since 1989.

Now, the White House says President Obama has been briefed on this quake. Federal officials are in touch with state and local responders, Napa city officials are planning to hold a news conference in about an hour at 1:00 pm Eastern. And we hope bring that to you that live.

Let's get some more details on those injured. We told you 87 people were taken to the hospital. I'm joined now by Vanessa DeGier. She's the spokeswoman for Queen of the Valley Hospital.

Vanessa, we know this is a busy time for you. Thanks for stopping for just a moment to talk with us.

What can you tell us about those injuries? What are you seeing?

VANESSA DEGIER, SPOKESPERSON, QUEEN OF THE VALLEY HOSPITAL: I can tell you that at this time, we've triaged and treated 89 patients through the emergency department. The majority of the patients have nonlife- threatening injuries. We did have a few more serious cases and one pediatric patient who is going to be airlifted for further treatment.

CABRERA: And those injuries you said nonlife-threatening. Can you describe, are they cuts, bruises, broken bones?

DEGIER: Correct. Multiple lacerations and abrasions. So some deep cuts, bruises, bumps are the majority of the injuries that we're seeing.

CABRERA: We heard there are at least three major injuries.

What qualifies as a major injury?

DEGIER: Well, a more serious injury, a patient in a critical condition; for instance, we do have one patient with multiple fractures who we're treating in the hospital.

CABRERA: And I'm sorry if there was a pregnant pause there. I was being told in my ear we are awaiting a news conference out of Napa Valley that's supposed to happen here any minute.

But, Vanessa, as we wait for that, can you tell us more about how your hospital is handling this influx of people as they are coming in fast and furious, I imagine? DEGIER: Yes. Luckily we do drill and train for situations and scenarios like this. So moments after the earthquake occurred, we began to pull together our disaster response team. So we were prepared to see patients as they came in.

So you've probably seen some of your footage. We do have tents up in front of the ED. Those are triage tents that help us manage the flow of patients as they come in so we can more quickly triage patients and get them treated as necessary.

CABRERA: Where exactly is your hospital in relation to where this quake hit?

We're told it's about six miles away from Napa.

DEGIER: That's correct, yes. Our hospital is just north of Napa, but close to the epicenter.

CABRERA: And how many ambulances have you had to dispatch?

DEGIER: Well, we don't dispatch ambulances; that's all part of the EMS system that does that. So ambulances come to our hospital. And we have received a variety of ambulances and then multiple patients have come in on their own, as well, either come in driving in by themselves or being brought in by other people.

CABRERA: Did you personally feel the earthquake this morning?

DEGIER: I did not. I was actually far enough from the area that I did not feel it. But I did hear that it was very large and scary for many people.

CABRERA: Absolutely, well, Vanessa DeGier, thank you so much for joining us and do keep us updated on those injured.

Again, 89 patients now have been taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital. Let's listen in to this press conference happening right now.

RANDOLPH: -- pass along regarding the current operations. But first of all, I'd like to turn it over to our city manager, Mike Parness.

QUESTION: Can you guys spell your names, please?

MIKE PARNESS, CITY MANAGER: That's Randolph -- R-A-N-D-O-L-P-H. And my name is Mike Parness. I'm city manager. Parness is P-A-R-N-E-S-S.

So I'll start. The -- just wanted to announce that in response to the emergency that occurred early this morning, we have activated our emergency operation center. And effective at 7:59, we declared a local emergency.

The county, I believe, has taken similar action. We have brought in all available forces in the workforce to come in to assess damage, provide services; the work is underway. We're busy now surveying all of the various complaints that we have received and establishing priorities. We brought a number of resources in this morning to talk to you.

Why don't I introduce John Callanan, who is with the fire department, who is also handling the operations this morning. He can explain what we're doing in terms of responses. And then we have some of the other technical support from police, public works and other departments if you have questions.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) real quick, what does the declaration, emergency declaration mean for you? What do you get for that?

PARNESS: The declaration states that we have an emergency; it means that we have exhausted our local resources and we need more help than we can -- from the outside.

We're asking the governor; both the county and the city are asking the governor to declare a state of emergency so we can access resources through the state office of emergency services and perhaps beyond. So it's simply a declaration that determines that we need help and that it's serious.

We will be submitting with that declaration an itemized list of the types of damage and needs within the next couple of hours.

QUESTION: The governor (INAUDIBLE)?

PARNESS: We've not had communication. We just made the declaration about an hour ago. So we expect that will occur in the future.

John?

JOHN CALLANAN, OPERATIONS CHIEF, NAPA FIRE DEPARTMENT: Good morning; John Callanan -- C-A-L-L-A-N-A-N.

Obviously as the fire chief pointed out, the earthquake occurred; we had multiple structure fires that we've been dealing with, a total of about six in one of those incidences that involved approximately six mobile homes together. So that was one single incident.

All four of the six are completely damaged. The other two have suffered some major damage. Additionally, we're still in a phase of evaluating the buildings out there to know exactly what we have and what we need to -- where we need to place our priority resources.

We have a total of four strike teams from local government from the area that are in here helping us out, as was mentioned by the city manager, where our resources are exhausted as far as quantity of on- duty personnel. So in these situations as happens state and nationally, we call in outside resources for that help.

We've had in the neighborhood of -- we have right about probably 100- plus gas leaks, power lines down. Medical calls are in the neighborhood of about 80-plus at this time. The Queen of the Valley Hospital has been inundated with patients all related to the trauma- related incidences after the earthquake.

One major incident of a fireplace falling on a young child; a young person is in critical condition, has been flown out for a neurocenter.

Our crews, again, are still -- we're trying to catch up with the calls, we have a significant backlog of calls. We also additionally have resources for -- from the California Office of Emergency Services on hand. Local fire agencies with rescue crews, specialized urban search-and-rescue crews are en route here, plus some that are physically in town now.

That's about all I have. The public works director is going to come up and talk about the infrastructure issues and go from there.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) that child and (INAUDIBLE)?

CALLANAN: I do not. I'm sorry. I know it was a pediatric and I do not know the age.

QUESTION: What's you (INAUDIBLE)?

CALLANAN: I'm the operations chief, the Napa Fire Department.

QUESTION: That's the only serious or critical injury?

CALLANAN: There were two criticals that I'm aware of and -- two other criticals and I don't know the exact nature of them. I'm going to assume this is all trauma related injuries from falling debris, et cetera.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) anybody missed? (INAUDIBLE) --

CALLANAN: We have no reports of anybody missing at this time.

QUESTION: Do you feel the need for (INAUDIBLE) as far as (INAUDIBLE) can you identify all those in the -- in the city?

CALLANAN: I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

QUESTION: Have you identified all the gas leaks and power lines down in the city? Do you feel like that danger has passed?

CALLANAN: No, I believe we are still getting calls of that nature. PG&E is being very aggressive, working closely with us to identify and isolate any known leaks. But as people come home, they get out; they get moving. That's when we're starting to get more calls of this.

Additionally, we haven't really seen any aftershocks of significance. We've had some, I understand two of them in the three-point something range. But they're anticipating up into the range of five-plus for aftershocks. And I haven't felt them yet.

QUESTION: Chief, a lot of people out there just looking at the buildings, especially downtown where there's some rubble.

Any word to them about the danger of getting too close?

CALLANAN: Yes, please stay away. We've done our best and we're still working on isolating those areas and taping them off. We've tried our best to close down downtown in those areas, in those buildings that are obviously damaged.

We have teams of inspectors, building inspectors, which, again, the public works director will get to, that are going to go out and evaluate those items. But you know, it's the common sense side. Please stay away from the buildings that look like they're leaning at this point.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: -- what's your recommendation as far as where they can go? A shelter or --

CALLANAN: There's a shelter in place at the Napa High School for now. Maybe call a friend, go to a friend's place. Generally, if you don't smell gas, it's -- you're probably safe. So...

QUESTION: Can you give us any estimate of when power will be restored, (INAUDIBLE) PG&E to get a sense of just how long this could take?

CALLANAN: I do not have an idea of that.

QUESTION: Would it be that building officials maybe have a better idea of how many overall structures --

CALLANAN: Yes . And, again, we're in the middle of assessment. I'm going to let the public works director come up and speak to that and the status of the buildings.

OK?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) mobile homes, did you say two were destroyed?

CALLANAN: No, total of six. Four completely destroyed, two others damaged and that's on one incident. In another incident, there was another structure fire at a mobile home that is destroyed, as well. So...

QUESTION: Are they separate mobile homes?

CALLANAN: Separate mobile home -- separate mobile home park.

So with that, I'll let Jack LaRochelle come up and answer further.

JACK LAROCHELLE, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR: Hello. I'm Jack LaRochelle, L- A-R-O-C-H-E-L-L-E, public works director. First, I do want to say that the reports on the gas leaks that we've gotten, there's been a lot of reports that PG&E is chasing those down. We don't know the actual number.

So my understanding is that they have crews working on that as diligently as possible. The big thing that we're looking at right now from a public works infrastructure standpoint is the water main system or whole water system. There's been reported of about -- there were reports of about 30 water main leaks or breaks, a lot of them in the Brown's Valley area, which is west of town. And that's to be expected. That's a geologic area that is more

susceptible to some damage. We have our crews out there assessing all those locations. What we're trying to do is isolate those leaks, shut off the water to those areas as quickly as possible.

Now to provide water flow and volume, we've opened up our other water plant up at Hennessey (ph). So we have actually two feeds, one from the south, one from the north. Our water plants were fine. They were not damaged. That's the good news, the upside. So we are feeding water.

The tank levels did start going down right after the earthquake. So those have been stabilized and starting to come back up when we were able to get the -- our other plant in operation.

What we're doing now is, you know, so the first issue is just getting the water back on as much as possible or as quickly as possible.

The water is safe to drink. I'd like to say that. And what we're doing afterwards, after we do that part of the work is then we have to set out a set of assessment teams to go out and assess the damage.

My understanding so far is that there's some road buckling issues, but nothing as far as any catastrophic failure of any bridges, which is good news, at least in the Napa area. From a structure standpoint, we, again, have a team of folks that are going to go out who are inspectors. We'll get some structural experts to go through and assess properties. We're doing that right now.

We don't how many there are, we don't know what the extent of the damage is. But when we find something that is problematic, we will red tag it, have folks, tell folks not to be around the building for safety purposes. And then we'll go from there. We just don't know yet. But as soon as we get that information and it's confirmed, we'll make that available.

QUESTION: Feels more likely that you're going to have 100 or 200 structures damaged than dozens.

But could you at least give us a feel of how many have been red-tagged or...?

LAROCHELLE: I couldn't tell you that right now. And you know what, I -- that's speculation. I have no idea. You can just see some of the damage downtown, some of the older buildings certainly. Some of the unreinforced masonry buildings. But we just don't know yet.

QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit about (INAUDIBLE) -- about what (INAUDIBLE) requirements you have here and whether you know -- whether this whole (INAUDIBLE) retrofitting, were they retrofitted? And (INAUDIBLE) -- I know it's early, but anything along those lines?

LAROCHELLE: I can't tell you.

I don't know, Rick, if you want to talk about that, Rick.

Rick Tooker is our -- in charge of planning.

RICK TOOKER, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: Right. It's Tooker, T-O- O-K-E-R.

With regard to the structures, Jack is right. We're out assessing. We don't have numbers to tell you at this point in time as to the number that we've red-tagged. What we're really trying to do is just make certain we get people on the street identifying these buildings as quickly as we can. And we're starting really from the center outward where some of our older structures are.

With regard to the reinforcement, our URM, unreinforced masonry program, most of our buildings in the downtown, our older buildings, have been reinforced. We have just a small handful that have not.

Whether or not those are the ones that are connected to work that has been done or not, we're not able to say at this point in time. We need to collect the information and get it out to you correctly rather than making some assumptions.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

TOOKER: I don't know if the city manager or...

(CROSSTALK)

TOOKER: -- representative from the police. (INAUDIBLE)?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rick?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You go ahead.

QUESTION: Have those (INAUDIBLE) that program, over how much time are those -- were those (INAUDIBLE) or years ago or...?

TOOKER: They've varied. Of the URMs that we've had, there have been improvements made to these buildings over time. Some have been as recently -- completed as recently as the last 18 months and others have been done several years ago. So it really just -- it varies.

QUESTION: And it's a requirement?

TOOKER: It is a requirement. That's correct.

QUESTION: When was the deadline?

TOOKER: The deadline has come and gone. And so as a result, those very few that have not completed their reinforcement, we've been actively pursuing that by working with them.

But like I say, I don't want to draw a conclusion to any of those structures relative to any damage that's out there now. We just don't have enough data to tell you that.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

TOOKER: I'm the community development director.

QUESTION: OK. Thank you.

TOOKER: So police?

STEVE POTTER, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Hi, Steve Potter, P-O-T-T-E-R, from the police department. I'm the operations captain there. And I would just like to say that our 9-1-1 system and all law enforcement public safety systems are operating as normal, but enhanced because of this event.

I think we have relative calm in the community because of the -- I think a lot of that had to deal with the overwhelming response that we had from our 9-1-1 staff, our police officers and our firefighters who live here in town, who came in without having to be called in.

So with that said, we are working on security in the downtown area, some of the shopping centers. We are having -- we will have for several days a high police presence. And that's to provide service to -- and assistance to the citizens of town as well as the business owners.

Right now, we have some street closures downtown from Soskill (ph) Avenue, to Jefferson Street and from Third Street to Main. A lot of that is due to the broken glass that's downtown, the damage to the buildings, so the potential for further damage to take place.

The Napa Sheriff's Department is taking care of security at the courthouses as well as the county administrative buildings and at the Department of Corrections.

We are very thankful for the community. We've already received a lot of donations as far as lumber to board up windows. So that makes our job easier. We've been responding to a lot of alarm calls. When those buildings are secured, it makes it that much easier for us. It helps us provide other service to the community.

So any questions?

QUESTION: Sir, you said how many 9-1-1 calls you've received?

POTTER: I have no idea, but the system was maxed out for a short time, which is typical. Several years ago we had an earthquake about 5.2, I believe, at that point, we went through that. It wakes people up and they call.

QUESTION: What were the chief emergencies? Just people reporting it was an earthquake?

POTTER: They reported some emergencies. There were gas leak issues. There were fires. There were a whole host of things that people were calling about that were brought on by this natural disaster. QUESTION: Any concern about downtown, a lot of the windows and doors actually falling off? I saw a couple of officers down there checking out a store.

Any concern about people going in and stealing things, looting, that kind of thing?

POTTER: Not at this point. Like I say, we have had relative calm for this magnitude of an earthquake and those donations that we've received, where they're already starting to board up the windows. We're trying to assist the buildings' owners to come in and assess their buildings and to secure them as quickly as possible.

But we have not had reports of looting or anything like that.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) planning to come (INAUDIBLE) to get away?

POTTER: Come on up and have a good time. I would check on your reservations and your -- at any restaurants or wineries, but, you know, up Valley and downtown, a lot of it will still remain business as normal. And that's not to take anything away from the residents and businesses that have suffered, but a lot of it will be business as normal.

We just ask that they stay out of the dangerous areas where there's broken glass, brick and mortar on the ground, where they might get hurt.

No other questions, I will turn it back over to city manager Mike Parness.

PARNESS: Just a point of clarification before we close. When we say that there have been 100 gas leaks, those are calls we've received from people who are worried about gas. That doesn't necessarily mean that we verified that the pipelines are leaking or there's a hazard.

So any time we receive that kind of call, we go out and check it out. But I want to make it clear that those are calls we received, not verified leaks.

We know that the conditions are evolving quickly. So if it will be helpful, we'll do these kind of briefings on a fairly regular basis. We'll come back around noon. So about every three hours until things slow down and we should have more information, be able to verify, give you a little more detail in terms of the numbers and what's happening out there.

In the meantime, for people to receive more information, they can -- anybody can take a look at our web page at cityofnapa.org. We have the whole front page dedicated to providing data and details about what's happening.

Also, the city's public information officer, Barry Martin, can be contacted at 258-7804, extension 7817. That's 258-7804. And that's extension -- 18 -- let's see, what did I say?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) last four numbers.

PARNESS: 7804.

QUESTION: So 258 --

(LAUGHTER)

PARNESS: Someone's writing this in hieroglyphics here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 258- 7817.

PARNESS: 7817. 258-7817.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?

PARNESS: Barry Martin.

QUESTION: Just to clarify, when you talked, I know I saw in several of the news releases today were approximately 50 gas leaks. And people here said 100 -- was it 100 -- was it 100 power lines down and gas leaks total?

PARNESS: Those are the calls that we've received related to power and gas and we're in the process of verifying and determining what that means.

And the numbers are changing all the time.

All right?

Any other questions?

QUESTION: Just a follow-up on the (INAUDIBLE). Do we know from the mobile home fire? I know you may not know (INAUDIBLE), but do we know if there were injuries from that fire?

PARNESS: It's my understanding the injuries, the serious injuries were due to falling debris. I don't believe they were related to the fire in any way.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

PARNESS: That's correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.

QUESTION: OK. Thank you.

PARNESS: All right. Thank you.

CABRERA: So we were just listening in to a live news conference giving us an update on exactly what has happened there in Northern California this morning following a 6.0 magnitude earthquake.

As we continue to show you images from all around the area, this is from Napa County, that earthquake striking about six miles from Napa about 50 miles outside of San Francisco.

I want to bring you up to speed with some new information we just learned that there has now been a local emergency declared. So outside resources are coming in to help with assessing damage, provide services and survey this area.

We heard from the operations chief for Napa and the fire department there who talked about more details on those injured. It appears the most serious injury involves a child, who was crushed by a fireplace that fell. That child -- we don't know an age or a gender -- but was taken to a local hospital, had to be airlifted for, as he said, some neuro injuries. So assuming that head injury of some sort.

Three people total with critical injuries, but nobody reported dead and no reports of anybody missing.

However, there is a lot of damage that's still to be assessed, 100- plus gas leaks, thousands of people without power. So we're going to stay on top of this story as we learn new developments. And we will bring those to you. We're going to take a quick break and come back with much more as we continue to follow this breaking news.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. Our breaking news at this hour, a major earthquake struck near the bay area in Northern California. About 50 miles outside of San Francisco and very close to the town of Napa which, of course, is a huge winery and wine-growing region.

We are bringing you live pictures right now. Some of the damage in this area. This is a church we're told that has sustained quite a bit of damage. You can also see a fire there. We know that the fire department has responded to at least six different fires in this area, the Napa Valley community.

Including one incident in which there were at least four mobile homes that were completely destroyed by fire, couple of other mobile homes that were also damaged. And a lot of the damage that we are seeing and hearing about this morning is still relatively minor when you look at the bigger picture.

We're told a lot of this are bricks that have fallen off. Some homes may have shifted from foundation. That's some of the more serious damage as well as the fires that are causing some of the major damage.

As the public works director put it in that last press conference we brought to you live, he said there were no catastrophic failures as far as their initial assessments have gone. No major bridges, for example, that have gone down.

I want to bring in Will Kane. He is a reporter for the "San Francisco Chronicle" and has been on scene for the last several hours. The Queen of the Valley Medical Center there in Napa where many of these victims are being brought in. In fact, the hospital spokesperson telling us they have now seen are currently treating or have treated 89 patients. Will, thanks for joining us. Set the scene for us there. What are you witnessing?

WILL KANE, REPORTER, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE" (via telephone): well, here at the hospital and earlier this morning, every few minutes or so, there was a new ambulance that would come in and deliver another injured person to the hospital.

Family members were delivering, you know, parents, children, and spouses all to the emergency room. Things have settled down a little bit now that some people admitted to the hospital for treatment.

Just a couple of minutes ago, an air ambulance evacuated a child who was injured or in a chimney collapsed on top of them. He was flown to another children's hospital in the region.

But for now, looks like the hospital staff are working really hard to continue to triage and to take care of the people that are here at the hospital.

CABRERA: I understand you've been talking with some of those patients. What types of stories are they telling you?

KANE: All kinds of different injuries. Some people have had a heart attack, some people have had concussion. In one case, I spoke to a woman who was asleep in her bed. The quake struck and her dresser fell on top of her and that cut her in the face and she was at the hospital waiting for treatment for that cut.

CABRERA: Wow, and of course this quake hit about six hours local time. Most people were in their beds fast asleep and were jolted awake. We're continuing to show images from inside some of the buildings. This looks like a grocery store with food and drinks all over the floor. Where were you when all this happened?

KANE: I was fast asleep and maybe 30 miles away from Napa and felt the quake. It was quite a jolt. But nowhere near as strong as it appeared to be in Napa. A couple pictures off the mantelpiece, a frame off the wall had fallen. And that was about the extent of it. No serious damage where I am.

CABRERA: That's good to hear, we're glad to hear you and your family's OK. Again, about 90 people injured, three of them critically.

I want to bring in our Chad Myers. Chad, I know you've also been following this story this morning. And as we continue to follow these live pictures, as well, you can see where part of that building is pulled away from the roof of this church here.

So there are some fairly significant damages to some of the structures there, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. We had an earthquake in the sixes. Somewhere between 6 and 6.1. You heard a lot of them going back and forth. The USGS saying about a 6.05. They'll get to that. That's unimportant.

It was a shallow quake, which means the shaking was very violent and Will, if you can for us, give us the lay of the land here. I'm thinking about this as not so much the populated area of San Francisco. We've been saying bay area.

People think Marina District, Berkeley, Oakland, this is more wide out in the open. And had this kind of shaking happened in a much more densely populated area, wouldn't there have been more damage?

KANE: Yes, I think this simply because there would be more people in a tinier space. And other parts of the bay area have different kinds of soil. And that's what we saw in 1989 in San Francisco where all those buildings collapsed and injured many, many people.

That did not happen at Napa. It's a very different terrain. It's much more suburban area of the bay area. And some places are very rural part of the bay area.

MYERS: It was a rural area. And I know we know that this Napa, the city of Napa, and I've been there many times, about six miles from the epicenter. Had it been closer to San Francisco proper, there would have been more people. Nine million people felt this, you were one of them. Did it feel anything like the '89 quake?

KANE: I was there. And, you know, it did not -- it was the biggest quake I felt, but it did not compare to the '89 quake.

MYERS: Ana?

CABRERA: Will Kane, thank you so much from the "San Francisco Chronicle" and Chad Myers, as well, we'll continue to follow this. I do want to mention as we look at the pictures of the damage that we did here at that last press conference from the community development director who said that many of the buildings and the downtown part of Napa where they have many more historical sites.

Some of the older buildings, a lot of them have been reinforced over the past several months and years to better prepare for a possible earthquake. And he said that seems to have worked. One of the reasons that we didn't see more catastrophic damage.

But, again, you can see, they are still assessing, and there are areas that are hit pretty hard. We'll have more on this earthquake, the 6.0 magnitude quake that struck near Napa, California, when we come back from a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: At 12:41 in the east, just 9:41 on the west coast where the folks living near the bay area are surveying the damage after a major earthquake struck early this morning, 3:20 local time near Napa, California. You can see as the sun is coming up, getting more details about the damage that has struck that area.

You can see a church here that is damaged. We're hearing of at least three historical buildings that have damage. Several residences, including four mobile homes that were completely destroyed because of fires. More than 100 water main or gas main breaks, and 30 water main breaks.

So emergency crews are right now working quickly to get to these different areas that might need help. So far, just three people with critical injuries. Nobody reported missing and no death. So that is the good news.

I want to get right out to our photo journalist, Jeff King, who has driven up to Napa early this morning. I know you live in the bay area, Jeff. Describe for me what you're seeing where you are.

JEFF KING, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Ana, we're downtown Napa, right in the heart of the downtown. And this building suffered extreme damage. You can see. The owner was here a little while ago and he told me that had this occurred in the afternoon that right on this corner is a wine bar and those would have been outdoor tables where all those bricks fell.

CABRERA: On the ground. And Chad Myers, feel free to jump in here. I know you are with me, as well. But first, Jeff, I know you felt the earthquake this morning, and you are outside of Napa. Tell us what that was like.

KING: I woke up at 3:20 and the windows were rattling and my wife said it's an earthquake. And it didn't last very long. Maybe it felt like 15, 20 seconds that we were aware of it. And as soon as it was over, I got up and called into work.

MYERS: Jeff, it's chad, you live North Bay, I hear. How long did the shaking last?

KING: It seemed to me to be 20 or 30 seconds. It really wasn't long. It wasn't long enough for me to think about jumping and running outside. It was over by the time we woke up and realized what was happening.

MYERS: All that damage we're seeing right now happened in 20 seconds. Had people been at that little cafe there, I saw the name on the sign, had they been at that cafe, they'd been running to the middle of the street. But guess what, there'd be cars in the middle of the street, too. What do you do in a case like that?

KING: Well, I -- take your best shot, I guess. I know that the earthquake I covered a few years ago, people ran out of a building and the roof collapsed and slid down on top of them killing them, too. I just don't know what you can do.

Also, another interesting thing, I think, is you can see the owner told me that he retrofitted this building. And those were put in recently to stop damage from an earthquake and obviously something went wrong.

CABRERA: Jeff, we heard of at least two significant aftershocks. A 2.5 magnitude and a 3.6 magnitude. Have you felt those? And what is the sense there on the ground? Are people scared and worried about what could still come?

KING: I didn't feel either one. I think I was probably driving. There's tons of people out taking pictures right now. It is not a fearful place. It's more people are curious, and they want to come down and see what's happening. And a lot of people are sharing their stories about how they were woken in the middle of the night.

CABRERA: Any that stand out to you that you've heard?

KING: One guy told me that he jumped out of bed and then the dresser fell on him. And he injured his leg. And I heard on spokesman for a hospital say that most of their injuries were lacerations, and that's what he had, and there were a lot of stitches but not a tremendous amount of serious injuries.

CABRERA: All right. Jeff King, our photo journalist in Napa right now. He is near Second and Brown outside a bar or restaurant, some kind of cafe that did sustain some serious damage with bricks falling and the roof breaking away there.

Jeff king, stay safe, thanks for your reporting on the ground. When we come back from a quick break, Chad Myers is going to walk us through more perspective on exactly what happened when that earth shifted.

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CABRERA: Welcome back to CNN as we continue to bring you updates on this earthquake that hit California this morning. A 6.0 magnitude quake that struck about six miles from Napa or about 50 miles outside of San Francisco.

The strongest quake to hit this area in the past 25 years since 1989 when there was a 6.9 magnitude quake. We do know that this earthquake hit in a 44-mile wide set of major faults that are along the San Andreas fault system.

So we do know there are a lot of potential earthquake hot spots in this very small region. I want to send it over to Chad Myers in our severe weather center who has a good way to sort of understand how that earth moved -- Chad.

MYERS: It was a slip strike fault. And I'll get to that in a second. I can show you how the earth was moving. Sliding, grinding on each other. This was not along that same fault. But there are other faults here. We think about the bay area and think of Oakland and Berkeley all the way down through here.

We think of the Marina District and San Francisco here. Candle Stick Park where the shaking happened in '89. This is north of there. This is a pretty big shake. And it's very shallow. Only about 6 miles, 6 1/2 miles deep.

That means if it's a 200-mile deep earthquake, you have 200 miles for that shaking to get to you. If you only have 6 miles or 7 miles deep, that shaking gets to you rather quickly and it is rather violent. It isn't padded. These are the shaking people felt around Napa and to the south of Napa. Now, just to give you some perspective, I think this is important. To talk about the number of earthquakes globally, between 6 and 6.9 every year there's 130 of these earthquakes.

That means that earthquake like this happens every three days on the earth. That just doesn't happen where we live. Not very many in America. That's the good news. Let me show you how this works, what this slip strike means.

Two pieces of dirt, two pieces of soil, two plates, one will slide along the other. If you're on the sliding part, you'll feel the earth shake sideways. If this was a thrust fault, the whole earth would move up or down depending on which way you're going.

That would be a completely different sensation. This being the thrust, actually, is part of the shaking that brought those buildings down -- Ana.

CABRERA: Described as a rolling sensation to those a little bit closer. I crossed our wire here and now we know that the governor of California has declared a state of emergency for the area around Napa where this quake struck.

We're still learning new information, and we'll continue to follow this when we come back from the next break here, we'll bring you up to speed on some of the other news that are making headlines today, as well.

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CABRERA: Welcome back. We will have more of our coverage of the Northern California earthquake ahead. But first, some of the other stories making headlines here and around the world.

Gaza rocked by air strikes again today. Seven more Palestinians, including a mother and her three children have been added to the long list of those who have died. A rocket struck what the Israeli government said was a Hamas target.

It's been five days since a cease-fire collapsed. And since then, 92 people have been killed in Gaza according to Palestinian officials while Israel says several rockets and mortars have wounded at least four Israeli civilians.

It is Independence Day in Ukraine and the country put on a military show to mark this occasion. Ukraine's president says the war against pro-Russian separatists is a patriotic fight. And there was a counter celebration in the city of Donetsk where separatists forced dozens prisoner of war to march in the town square.

We have much more of our coverage of the earthquake in Northern California. And that is just ahead in the NEWSROOM right after a quick break.

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