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6.0 Earthquake Hit Northern California This Morning; American Hostage Released in Syria

Aired August 24, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Ana Cabrera in for Fredricka Whitfield today. Thanks so much for joining us as we continue to follow breaking news right now.

A state of emergency is in effect in California, after a strong earthquake hit the San Francisco bay area early this morning. There was just outside of Napa, California, about 50 miles from San Francisco. It has caused dozens of injuries and significant damage to buildings, any homes, roads, gas and water lines there.

Now, here's what we know. The 6.0 magnitude quake hit about seven hours ago around 3:20 a.m. local time. So people were fast asleep. They were jolted from their beds as stuff fell off shelves. Again, centered about six miles from Napa, about 50 miles from San Francisco at a depth of about 6.7 miles.

Several fires broke out. This was right after it hit several buildings, particularly in the downtown Napa area have been damaged including historic buildings like the Napa county courthouse. There are damaged homes including five mobile homes that were destroyed from the fires.

Now, Napa officials say rescue teams have been deployed, especially after people became trapped in their homes. At least 87 people have been hurt, most of them though have minor injuries. At least two, possibly three we're hearing suffered critical injuries, and that includes a child who was hit by a falling fireplace and had to be airlifted to the hospital. Take a listen to the quake as it was captured on the in-home security system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Earthquake! It's an earthquake!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an earthquake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Some scary moments. Residents telling us that shaking lasted 20 to 30 seconds. These are live pictures right now. Some of the damage where you can see appears to be a buckled road, a home perhaps, or a building that has collapsed. We know there are roads that are damaged, that power's knocked out to probably tens of thousands of people. But the public works director of Napa saying there were no catastrophic failures like bridges that would have collapsed of some sort. So that was some good news.

But they are responding to 50 to 100 reports of gas main breaks as well as 30 water main leaks. The water we're told is still safe to drink. But this is the strongest earthquake to hit this area since 1989. So it was significant.

The White House now says President Obama has been briefed on the quake. And federal officials are in touch with the state and the local responders. Again, as a state of emergency has been declared within the last half hour.

Joining me right now on the phone is Mark Luce. He is a member of Napa county board of supervisors. And we have him live on camera with us.

Mark, thanks so much for taking time to talk with us. I imagine your community is struggling a little bit this morning. How are you doing? And how are the folks there?

MARK LUCE, NAPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: We're very busy working to assess the situation. We're really thankful there hasn't been a loss of life. We're regretful for those who have been injured. But I think we're very fortunate that it occurred when it did if it occurred during business hours, it could have been a lot worse.

CABRERA: We have seen the images of the fires that broke out of the buildings that had bricks fall off. Even parts of roofs ripped off. Is that the most significant damage you are seeing there?

LUCE: It does appear some of this downtown damage that you're seeing now is some of the worst. At least that's the visible damage is we're assessing what's going on with our water mains and our gas lines and our power system. We're learning. So we're in the process of assessing all of our critical infrastructure to see where we stand.

CABRERA: We've talked to residents who said, wow, we thought this was going to be the big one. This could have been even worse than it was. What do you think accounts for the fact there wasn't more significant damage or injuries? Is it because of the way California and your region specifically prepares for earthquakes?

LUCE: I believe so. Some of the damage you see are buildings that have been retrofitted. Obviously they didn't do as well as we hoped. And a lot of the buildings nearby at least from the outside don't look like they're damaged much at all. And that's because they meet modern earthquake standards. So, it certainly could have been worse than it is.

CABRERA: Put it into perspective for those of us who don't live there. How does this earthquake compare to those you may have felt in the past?

LUCE: Well, for Napa county, it's the largest by far. I was here for the Loma Prieta. And it basically just kind of rocked us. This one moved our bed across the bedroom. And so it was very significant here in Napa.

CABRERA: Can you tell us more about the injuries?

LUCE: As I understand it, a lot of lacerations. I think your report was pretty accurate. I understand there's a few critical injuries, including that young child hit by the falling bricks. But no loss of life. So, you know, I think overall, we faired pretty well. Again, we were lucky it was at 3:20 in the morning.

CABRERA: We're showing images at the hospital there. The Queen of the Valley hospital where they have been treating or have treated up to nearly 90 patients. We talk to the spokesperson there who described triage tents that had been set up. What is your assessment of how emergency responders have responded to this situation?

LUCE: So far, so good. We've got great cooperation. We actually had to move our emergency operation center for the county from downtown to our sheriff facility near the airport. But we've got great cooperation from the state in terms of sending inspectors to look at our infrastructure. We've got great support from neighboring communities in terms of ambulances and fire service. So I think everybody's on their toes. This is what we've prepared for here in California.

CABRERA: And it sounds like people are responding with an all hands on deck mentality. Mark Luce, thank you, again, for talking with us this morning. Good luck to you and your community there.

I'm joined on the phone now by Kelly Houston, a spokesman for the governor's office of emergency services. Governor Jerry Brown, again, just declared a state of emergency.

Kelly, thanks for taking some time with us. What is the situation like right now?

KELLY HOUSTON, GOVERNOR'S OFFICE SPOKESPERSON (via phone): So our state operation center in Sacramento, which is about maybe 40 or 50 miles east of Napa and that area. We have our state operation center activated where we're looking at all of the resources on a state level that we can bring to assist the local first responders like you've seen. There's just a whole range of emergency first responder problems. Whether it's with the fires or water main breaks or with the folks that are injured that are being treated by the hospitals.

We dispatched three urban search and rescue teams. If you would see a building collapse, and even though we don't see that here, those teams all offer a specialty expertise in rescuing folks that may be involved in anything related to the earthquake.

So we have those teams in there. And the governor's proclaimed a state of emergency, and we're working with the state agencies to go out and look at infrastructure where there could be damage to water systems, dams and power that isn't obvious. But we need to make sure that it's expected thoroughly because there's a lot of damage that doesn't reveal itself until later. CABRERA: Now, we heard from Mike Parness, the Napa city manager not

long ago who at the time said there are no people reported missing. But you have activated these three urban search and rescue teams. Are there other parts? Maybe not in the city of Napa where people are still trapped and need help?

HOUSTON: There's a lot of possibilities in an earthquake like this. Because like I said, the damage is sometimes not identifiable. Or there may be a problem that we didn't catch our local first responders didn't catch. And that's why we're moving resources into the area. We did that, actually, within, you know, minutes of the actual event occurring early this morning when it was dark. And now as the light has come up, we're seeing a lot more problems than we may have been able to identify earlier in the morning.

CABRERA: We heard from the USGS that up to a million people may have felt moderate to severe shaking from the earthquake. That's a lot of people in a wide region. Can you set the scene for us a little bit of just how widespread the damage is?

HOUSTON: Well, the damage is all over the Napa county area and surrounding areas. And the reason we're seeing this widespread damage is because the earthquake was shallower than normal, I guess, probably not a good way to describe it. But it was a magnitude six earthquake but felt like a magnitude seven earthquake. And the last major earthquake that occurred in the bay area was a 6.9. What people felt was pretty significant. And in these cases, this fault is a fault that doesn't necessarily have a lot of activity. But it reveals itself like I said in different ways. And we felt it all the way as far away as Sacramento. We have folks over in the San Francisco, south San Francisco, even up in the sierra Nevada mountains felt the earthquake.

So we see the fires that are burning, the folks that were injured, some of the infrastructure in downtown Napa. These older buildings that you have collapsing fronts to it. But then there's also people that experienced a lot of debris and things that fell off their homes, chimneys and whatnot., you know, miles a ways.

So, it's really hard to predict. An earthquake is something that is still a lot of unknowns to us. And so when we have an earthquake like this in California, we have a whole system that gets activated regardless of what, you know, we think the problem might be. We just say, hey, we don't know what we're going to find, and so we dispatch as many resources as we can to the area.

CABRERA: All right, Kelly Houston, we will let you go so you get back to work. He is with the governor's office of emergency services in California. And thank you for your time. We do appreciate it.

He mentioned he's still assessing the damage. And of course, residents are still bracing for possible aftershocks. There's a 50 percent chance in the next several hours that this area would see a 5.0 magnitude aftershock. Obviously another very significant shaking and hopefully not damaging additional buildings we're already seeing. We'll have more ahead on the earthquake as well as injuries. After

the break, we're going to talk to a hospital representative and hear more specifics about what they're dealing with at this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It's now 1:15 in the east. Just 10:15 in the west where the folks near the Napa valley area are combing through the rubble, some destruction following a 6.0 earthquake in northern California that struck about seven hours ago.

I am joined on the phone right now by Vanessa DeGier, a spokeswoman for the queen of the valley hospital there in Napa which has been treating dozens of patients since this earthquake hit.

Vanessa, tell us about the injuries you're seeing right now.

VANESSA DEGIER, SPOKESWOMAN, QUEEN OF THE VALLEY HOSPITAL (through phone): Yes. We've been treating about 90 patients so far today through the emergency room. And the majority of the injuries we're seeing are nonlife threatening. But still serious. Lots of lacerations and abrasions. Obviously from falling debris and other items due to the earthquake.

CABRERA: We heard from the governor's office that they are still assessing on it as it become lighter there that there is even more damage than initially anticipated or what the initially report received reports on. Are you still getting patients who are coming to the hospital?

DEGIER: We are still seeing a few patients come through. We had two waves this morning. Shortly after the earthquake occurred, we had a small wave of patients and then another wave came a while later. Things have been a little bit quieter at the hospital, but we are still at the ready to receive more patients in case they do find people who are trapped or in different circumstances.

CABRERA: I want to get some clarification because we've heard two reports of people critically injured, then there three people critically injured. How many patients are critically injured where you are?

DEGIER: At Queen of the Valley, we had three critically injured patients, two adults and one child.

CABRERA: And that child does not include the child we learned who was flown to a pediatric hospital? Is that correct?

DEGIER: That is the child. So we treated that child to stabilized (INAUDIBLE).

CABRERA: And we learned from that press conference with the Napa city manager and the operations chief for Napa fire department that that child was essentially hit by a fireplace that collapsed. Are you able to provide any more information? I know with hippa and everything, it's difficult with the privacy laws. But certainly everybody's concerned to learn more about how that child is doing.

DEGIER: Yes. I do not have details on that.

CABRERA: OK. Is there emergency protocol that you practice for in case of a quake like this, obviously, being in California where earthquake happen.

DEGIER: We do. We work with a variety of agencies throughout the county and state and do multiple drills throughout the year. So we can practice and be prepared for events like this. Obviously, we don't want events like this to happen because it terrible times when it does. But we are prepared for them.

CABRERA: And everything has gone smooth so far, sounds like?

DEGIER: Things have gone quite smoothly. So far, the team's been working hard. They are d Doing an excellent job. I think they're doing an excellent job. Everybody's been performing very well so far.

CABRERA: And we've heard there are people from other counties and around the state who are responding to this emergency. Have you been in contact with hospitals and other medical centers? And can you tell us have they also been receiving patients?

DEGIER: I don't have details. We do stay in contact with the other hospitals. But I don't have details on how other hospitals in the area.

CABRERA: All right. Vanessa DeGier, thank you so much for joining us. Again, a spokeswoman for the queen of the valley hospital in Napa where they are now treating up to 90 patients. Three of them who were critically injured, including a child who was airlifted to the hospital and is currently receiving medical treatment.

We have crews now spanning the area, our CNN photographer Jeff King who lives in the north bay area, is in downtown Napa. This is a live image from his camera. On the corner of 2nd and Brown outside a restaurant or cafe. And, Jeff, take us through what you felt the moment that earthquake struck.

JEFF KING, CNN PHOTOGRAPHER (via phone): Well, I was sound asleep. And it was about 3:20 when I awoke to our windows are rattling and the sort of the room rattling. It was a rattling. It didn't last very long, 20 seconds or so. And I immediately got up and got ready to go to work.

CABRERA: And where you are now, this is considered the downtown area, right?

KING: Yes. I'm right in the heart of downtown Napa. We're right along the Napa river. As I moved around the neighborhood this morning, just after dawn, I could see widespread damage of not catastrophic. This is one of the worst damaged buildings I saw. You can see that right across the street, up in the corner of the Wells Fargo, the front of that building is starting to come off. It looks like it may be an older building. And then I'm told by the owner of this building that the ground floor

is a wine bar. And had this happened in the daytime in the evening, there are outdoor tables that would have been sitting on that corner. Luckily it was at 3:20 in the morning.

CABRERA: And obviously people could have been seriously injured in that case. I guess on the flip side, a lot of people were inside their homes when this happened, which in many ways was a good thing, because it wasn't a chaotic scene on the streets. But yet, you're inside a house and there's always the danger of a house collapsing or furniture falling. Are you hearing any of those types of horror stories where you are?

KING: I am. I talked to an 18-year-old who woke up and he said when he jumped out of bed, the -- he started to make it to the door when a large dresser fell on him and gashed his leg. He was OK. Had some treatment, but he was injured at the tail end of the quake.

CABRERA: We're looking at some pretty impressive images right now from our affiliate KTVU flying over the Napa area where you can see really significant damage to a roadway there. It just looks like it's almost rolled up into itself, several cracks, the road buckled there . We do know reports of several of roads that do have some damage and emergency crews trying to assess exactly what they're dealing with. But no reports of any bridges that would've collapsed. So that is some good news.

We know of 30 water main leaks, water still safe to drink, the water plants, fortunately, not damaged. And 100 plus gas leaks, some of that perhaps, connected to the many fires that fire crews have had to respond to. At least six big fires, including one that encompassed about six mobile homes, four of them that were completely destroyed and two others that had some serious damage.

Jeff, we've been talking about this being the biggest earthquake to hit northern California since that 1989 quake that hit, it was a 6.9. Were you during that time, as well? Were you there? In 1989?

KING: I -- I wasn't.

CABRERA: OK.

KING: I wasn't in the area. I just talked to a police officer who said this felt worse than 1989 because it was so much closer.

CABRERA: In fact, the governor's office of emergency service spokesperson Kelly Houston said it was a 6.0, but felt like a magnitude seven. So it was a big one. And you described things rattling where you are. But you were a little bit outside. So we appreciate your reporting there from the ground. And we'll continue to check back in and keep us posted if you hear of new information where you are, as well.

KING: OK, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, thank you, Jeff. Jeff King, our photojournalist there in downtown Napa responding to the earthquake that struck at 3:20 local time. Almost exactly seven hours ago. And he's panning up where you can see buildings that are damaged. This appears to be a maybe mixed use building with some restaurants there on the bottom, perhaps residences on the top. We do know there is damage to some historical sites in Napa, including the (INAUDIBLE) laundry building, the Goodman library, even the Napa county courthouse sustained significant damage. And he mentioned that was a wine bar where he is. We all think of Napa and think of wine often times because that's a huge part of their economy there. And we have seen images, you know, crossing twitter and other social media sites of wine bottles and infrastructure related to wineries, damaged, as well. And we hope to be able to talk with folks in the industry about how this is impacting the business and how they plan to recover.

So that will be straight ahead here on CNN. We also had Chad Myers working to bringing new information perspective to the story for you. And we will get to him as we come back as we continue to follow the 6.0 quake that rocked northern California today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Emergency officials are now dealing with dozens of injuries resulting from this morning's earthquake in northern California. The damage assessment is just beginning. And we have David Duncan on the line with me right now. He's the CEO of Silver Oak Winery which is right there in the heart of Napa, not far from the center of this earthquake, which was about 6 miles away.

David, thanks for spending some time with us this morning there. I know it's only 10:30. David, walk us through first how everybody's doing.

DAVID DUNCAN, CEO, SILVER OAK WINERY (via phone): Well, I think, you know, fortunately everybody at the winery is in good shape and we're in pretty good stead. So I know there was some people hurt in Napa, and we're, you know, concerned with that. But trying to do what we can here, so. We did have some damage, a few barrels. Three barrels fall and some wine bottles went down. And I tweeted a picture this morning, if you've seen that.

CABRERA: We're showing it to our viewers right now.

DUNCAN: A bit of a mess.

CABRERA: It's heart breaking to see that images, especially if you are a wine lover but also knowing this impacts your livelihood. You know, we just pulled some numbers from the stone bridge research group. And you know, it's a huge part of the economy in Napa, wine making. $13.3 billion, in fact, in 2011. And we know that your total of 49.7 million cases of wine produced in Napa. How has your business is taking in? And how big of a hit is this?

DUNCAN: Well, you know, I -- fortunately for us, I don't think it will be that big of a hit. I think the, you know, the vineyards certainly were not affected at all. And I know there was some damage to other wineries, I don't have a good assessment of whom and what has happened. But fortunately for us, I think we're in good shape. And, you know, I don't think this will affect the 2014 vintage at all, you know. For those who like us had some broken bottles and stuff. You lose that wine and hopefully there'll be some insurance and we'll move on.

CABRERA: You know, when we look at those pictures, David, put that in perspective for us. How much wine is lost? For you, personally.

DUNCAN: Well, those wines, the bottles I tweeted a picture of were actually very unique wines at Silver Oak we blend our wine from several different vineyard sources to make a consistent, beautiful wine every year. And those bottles that I took the picture of were actually the components of that blend. So we don't sell those wines. They're basically single vineyard, Silver Oak parts and pieces. And so we're -- it's just a tragedy to lose those wines. And, you know, there's no price on those.

CABRERA: Wow.

DUNCAN: And they're completely irreplaceable.

CABRERA: I know. We're talking probably thousands of dollars, but even more so because there's such a unique blend.

DUNCAN: Yes. And there were, hundreds of bottles that were broken, unfortunately. I shoveled them up myself, so I know they were there.

CABRERA: That's tough. I'm sorry to hear that.

David Duncan, thank you for sharing your time with us, your story with us, and best of luck in the recovery and cleanup.

DUNCAN: OK. Thanks so much.

CABRERA: It is now 1:31 here on the east coast and I want to bring you up to speed. If you are just joining us, we are following breaking news out of California. A 6.0 magnitude earthquake that shook the Napa area early this morning. Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency now in that county. At least 90 people, we know were injured. Many of them treated at one hospital there in Napa, three people who have some major injuries, three critically injured is what the hospital official tells us, including a young child who had a fireplace fall on top of him or her. Fire officials say that girl was badly hurt when that fireplace collapsed and had to be airlifted to the hospital. That's all the information we've been given.

Fires also destroying several residences there. You can see these intense flames, the images there, fire crews have been inundated with calls, making matters worse, as well, a water main broke right in downtown Napa. Thousands of people also experiencing power outages. You can see some damage here in the hardware store.

Again, this is Napa where things fell off the shelves. There's also extensive damage to the wineries in the area. As we were just talking about, speaking with David Duncan the CEO of Silver Oak Winery who lost thousands of dollars of wine, barrels that were knocked over, bottles and wines covering the floor here.

I want to bring in meteorologist Chad Myers, He is joining me now.

Chad, this quake rattled a lot of nerves and rattled a lot of homes in a widespread area and now they still have to worry about aftershocks.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The aftershocks are going to be a big problem. And I know we're talking about a 5.0 compared to -- we have already a 6.0. What can a 5.0 do?

CABRERA: A 5.0 aftershock possibly?

MYERS: Absolutely. That 6.0 been quake, it's a 6.05. So you may be hearing 6.0, 6.1, they haven't decided to round up or round down. So that is OK. But if you get another 5.0 on a building that's already damaged and already has bricks waiting to fall off, those 5.0 quakes, those aftershocks will definitely make more problems for the people here. And 5.0s typically what you'll get from a 6.0 quake. If you had a 7.0, your aftershock should be a max 6.0. One full magnitude less.

Now, maybe you don't understand how this 5.0, 6.0, 7.0 goes. A 5.0 is ten times stronger than a 4.0. A 6.0 is ten times stronger than the five and the seven is ten again and ten again and you keep going up from here. So this is what we have here. We talk about the east bay, we talk about San Francisco, down here, down toward the airport. But let me take you here from Santa Rosa back over toward Napa.

So the good news is, it didn't happen in an extremely populated area. About seven miles from the population of Napa, but over a place called Carneros. Now, here, kind of a wetland, if you will, from all the delta, the sludge and stuff that comes down the rivers and down the creeks, kind of sits there on the north bay. And that's the issue that we're having right now in Napa. Still seeing those shaking problems.

To give you some perspective, a 5.0 to 5.9, you get 1,300 of those a year across the globe. A six to 6.9 where we are right now, there's 130 those per year. So on three earthquakes about every week when it comes to earthquakes like this across the globe. So they happen a lot. But they happen in the ocean and they happen where people don't live. To get a 6.0 or 6.1 right over a populated area or at least central California, that's where the damage occurred, that's where we're seeing so much media coverage from this because there is so much damage right there in the downtown Napa area.

CABRERA: Right. And while we have these earthquakes, the strong of an earthquake happened every year and every week. This area has not experienced one so strong in the past 25 years. The last time was that 6.9 earthquake, the Loma Preita earthquake back in 1989.

Chad, thanks for explaining all that with us. We do appreciate it.

We'll have more on this earthquake as we continue. But the latest information is about 90 people injured, dozens of homes, businesses, buildings destroyed or damaged because of the earthquake itself and fires that broke out afterwards.

Right now, there's a state of emergency that's been declared. The governor putting his emergency response team in place as they are dispatching more teams to the scene to help with surveying damage, assessing the situation and getting to those who may need help.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Thanks for staying with us. Breaking news coverage continues. That strong earthquake hitting northern California early this morning took out some homes in a mobile home park. And our Laura Anthony with our affiliate KGO shows us some of the destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA ANTHONY, KGO REPORTER: This is the scene this morning at the Napa Valley mobile home park where four mobile homes were completely destroyed, burned to the ground in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

First the gas mains broke. Then the water lines. When firefighters got here, they had no water pressure. They were unable to put out the fires. All they could do was evacuate residents and try to contain them. They brought in their own water tend tenders and finally we were able to put out the flame. But as you can see, this and three others a total loss. Good news, no injuries, no fatalities at this location.

I'm KGO's Laura Anthony for CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Our thanks to Laura Anthony. She mentioned the water main breaks not being an issue with firefighters responding as well as the gas lines that were ruptured. At last check, there were 30 water main breaks or leaks that crews are still responding to. And more than 100 gas line reports that there are issues. Again, crews are trying to fix to prevent more situations like that.

Now, earlier, our Brian Stelter had a chance to talk with a woman named Karen Lynch, who is owner of the inn on Randolf, again in Napa, the Inn on Randolf. And she was able to show us some of the damage at her inn. And she described what it felt like when the ground shook. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREN LYNCH, OWNER, INN IN RANDOLF: It definitely woke us all up. I feel really lucky that all the guests were in bed sleeping. I think everybody was probably safer in their rooms. But it was definitely -- it was no a rolling earthquake where we were. It was definitely a big jolt and tossed us around a little bit. And, you know, sent pictures flying and cabinets opened and lots of -- lots of glass broken, lots of mirrors, but luckily everybody is safe. And we feel really lucky that we had bolted our foundation, putting new foundation and bolted it prior to reopening. So we feel pretty lucky. But there's a lot of -- did you lose power at the moment? It's -- it's a little scary.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: At the moment, does the inn have power?

LYNCH: Our power just went back on. There's still a fair amount of smoke in there. There's been some houses that have burned. We're in historic downtown. So downtown.

STELTER: Yes.

LYNCH: Has sustained a lot of damage. Right where we are. Everything's fine, our neighbors are all fine. Again, we had a couple of houses that burned but, you know, the fires are out now.

STELTER: We're looking at some of the pictures.

LYNCH: It's light out. And people are calming down.

STELTER: Some of the historic at Napa county courthouse, the Goodman library among the buildings that have sustained damage. And for you all, it was a Saturday night, a Sunday morning, I'm guessing one of the busiest times of the week at the inn.

LYNCH: We were completely full, yes. We have ten rooms and 20 guests and the guests have been amazing. You know, the ones who have been through a quake, you know, kind a knew what to do. And we took care of everybody who hadn't been through a quake. And, you know, it was definitely an experience. We had one person who got engaged yesterday, so I'm sure they'll never forget the day.

STELTER: I do wonder, it's 8:30 in the morning, people go there to visit the wineries, I wonder what your guests are telling you they're going to do this morning.

LYNCH: Well, you know, there's a big NASCAR race, so a couple of the guests were going to that and that is still on in Sonoma. And the rest of them were just kind of playing it by ear. We were able to get some breakfast out and everybody was just sitting around having coffee trying to decide what to do. Couple of guests walked downtown to see what's happening down there. And, you know, I think the day will unfold.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Again, that was Karen Lynch describing the scene there at her inn in Napa.

We do know no one has been reported missing. But the governor's office has activated emergency crews, including three urban search and rescue teams to go to Napa county as they continue to survey the damage and destruction that is still becoming more and more evident as it gets lighter and the day continues.

We will continue here on CNN right after a quick break. We're getting more breaking news on a different story. In fact, our sources are telling us that there was an American held in Syria who has just been released. We are working to gather information. We'll have it for you on the other side of this quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CABRERA: We welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

Breaking news right now, law enforcement sources telling us American Peter Curtis who has been hostage by Islamic rebels was just released today in Syria. And our Evan Perez is joining us now live now from Ferguson, Missouri, as he's been talking to sources joining us with more details. What exactly can you tell us, Even? And we will talk to Nick Paton Walsh as well.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, we're told this American, Peter Curtis, was released earlier today. The U.S. government was aware of efforts to try to free him. They, obviously, because of U.S. policy don't negotiate with these type of groups that were allegedly holding him hostage. So this was done through private channels. And we're told perhaps a foreign government was in touch with U.S. government earlier today and told them that he had been released.

We know that he was being held for some time. We don't know exactly where and we don't know which group. Obviously, there's been a lot of attention recently on ISIS, which beheaded an American journalist recently. And so, we are working to find out whether the government can tell us what group they believe was holding him.

CABRERA: That's a good question. I wanted to ask you about that as well. But you say he was released. He wasn't necessarily rescued. This was a private deal.

Let me bring in Nick Paton Walsh joining me from London. Of course, Nick, this all comes on the heels of the execution of James Foley who we know was being held by ISIS captors. Do we have Nick or are we going back to Evan?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm here.

CABRERA: So Nick, let me bring you in here. What are you hearing about this release?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a long and complicated story and involves another American, a man called Matthew Shria (ph). Now, he was the cell mate of Peter Curtis for quite some time. I interviewed him actually last year about his experiences.

Let me tell you what we know about Peter Curtis. Matt escaped at some point during the last year but he described where he and Peter were held for some time. Now, as far as Matthew Shria (ph), the cellmate, believes they were held by a group (INAUDIBLE). Now, Nustra (ph) describes as an affiliate of Al Qaeda, considered a terrorist organization by the United States but not as extreme in many ways as ISIS, the group behind the murder of American journalist James Foley.

They were held together it seems in the same room for much of the time and that was thought to be in Aleppo, the main city in northern Syria, the largest commercial hub of what used to be the Syrian economy. Now, the complication arose in that they hatched a plan to escape. Matthew and Peter executed it one night. But Matt described to me in the interview he gave the horrifying moment when it appeared he had managed to get out using Peter to push himself out of that window. He managed to get freedom. He tried to pull Peter out but Peter got stuck in the window and Matt described the agonizing moment where he knew he simply had to run or be both be left behind rather than just Peter. And now, of course, the news that Peter is in fact free. We don't know precise circumstances. Who was holding him in the months before his release, what happened to him after the escape of Matt Shria (ph). We don't know those details. We know from what Evan is saying that American law enforcement is now satisfied he's a free man. We don't know what Syrian border he crossed or precisely how this moment came along but certainly another American family extraordinarily relieved tonight.

CABRERA: It's amazing. We know that James Foley was a journalist. Do you know, Nick, if this Peter Curtis was a journalist or just a resident in the Syria area?

WALSH: As far as I understand, he was there, the purpose seemed to have been journalism. Now, if you look around, there isn't a massive track record of Peter Curtis appearing in many different publications. You have to bear in mind there are a lot of freelancers who operate in the Turkish northern Syria area and were back in the time of October 2012 when he first went missing.

We don't precisely know where he was abducted. There are suggestions perhaps it may have been closer to the Turkish side of the border. It's complicated. The details have been kept out of the public domain for so long to facilitate these kind of kidnap negotiations. It was obviously when, you know, you are trying to delicately arrange the freedom of someone held hostage, the last that you need is a tick by tick commentary from the media about exactly on how that's going.

Tonight though, it does appear that he's a free man and that, of course, will be a huge relief for his loved ones. And I think also too for Matthew Shria (ph) who a lengthy period of time had to deal with the choice he made of leaving Peter Curtis in that cell unavoidable situation.

CABRERA: We're happy to hear that American Peter Curtis has been released by the Islamic rebels who were holding him hostage in Syria as we work to gather more information about details of his release and exactly who was holding him.

We appreciate your reporting as we learn a little bit more from who was his cellmate at one time while he was held in Syria. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. Also worth mentioning that as we cover journalists, freelancers,

people being held in this region by different terrorist organizations, today is a memorial for James Foley who we know was killed by his hostage takers of ISIS. That memorial set to happen any minute actually in New Hampshire. So thoughts with his family and friends as well.

We will continue to follow that breaking news and as well as our earthquake coverage. The 6.0 earthquake that happened early this morning in northern California. The biggest, strongest hurricane in the past 25 years in that region. Our Kyung Lah is in there. We'll talk about that on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Fredrick Whitfield today. Thank you so much for joining us. A lot to talk about as we are following two breaking news stories at this hour including the released of an American held hostage in Syria. We are gathering more information on that.

We're also following new information that is emerging after a 6.0 earthquake hit northern California this morning. The governor has now declared a state of emergency after that strong earthquake struck near the San Francisco bay area. It caused dozens of injuries and significant damage as you can see there. Bricks that fell onto roadways, to sidewalks, roads buckled, homes destroyed gas and water lines ruptured.