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Magnitude 6.9 Earthquake Strikes Southern California; State of Emergency Declared in Kern County; Trump Weighs Options for Citizenship Question; Baby Archie to Be Christened in Private Ceremony. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 06, 2019 - 04:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. Thanks for being with us.

And we're following breaking news out of Southern California of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake one day after a 6.4 hit the same area. It has been followed by dozens of aftershocks.

The quake struck in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest, about 240 kilometers 150 miles north of Los Angeles. Damage we are told is significant but no deaths have been reported, we are happy to say.

This is what it looked like from inside someone's home in Ridgecrest.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh, oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a bad one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the front door came open.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's OK. Just hold on. Hold on. Oh, my God. This is bad, Brian. Oh. Oh, my God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: So many experienced something very much like that. The office of California's governor says they have activated the state operations center to provide further assistance to everyone. They have also requested additional support from U.S. president Donald Trump.

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MARK GHILARDUCCI, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES: At the state operations center, we are fully activated at the highest level.

Earlier tonight, Governor Newsom did talk to the White House and requested a presidential emergency declaration to support our operations here in the state and provide federal assets and what we call direct federal assistance in support of all of the mutual aid assets that we are currently providing to mostly Kern County and some to San Bernardino County.

Governor Newsom activated the state operations center at its highest level tonight and provided right now a significant amount of fire and rescue mutual aid from the Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Fresno County areas, to include urban search and rescue teams, fire strike teams, firefighters, hazardous materials response units, emergency medical services, ambulance strike teams and personnel.

In fact, roughly over 100 mutual aid personnel have been dispatched in support of these various fires and the support of the -- both Trona and the town of Ridgecrest.

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ALLEN: And we have many correspondents following this story. Let's go to Alex Field in Ridgecrest.

It is 1:00 am there but I imagine people will get little sleep there tonight.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I don't imagine many people are sleeping at all. One of the things that we heard from the mayor of Ridgecrest earlier tonight was the fact that she is well aware that many people will be choosing to sleep outside their homes tonight, sleeping in their yards, sleeping even near the street.

And that is why she was urging so much caution as people navigate and try to assess the damage and try to locate friends or family members and really be careful there, there are people who are too afraid to go inside their homes and they are choosing to sleep outside.

You certainly can't fault them for that. It might be the best decision because in the last 24 hours or so, there have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these aftershocks. And since the 7.1 hit, we have felt dozens. We felt one just a few minutes ago.

So this is a reality and every time you feel the ground move, it does contribute to the frayed nerves and that sense of anxiety that so many are feeling after what they experienced Thursday and then again tonight.

The key part here is that the emergency response is in full force. We had seen a fire, we had seen heavy smoke near where we were, we had smelled gas. Those are issues of major and critical concern, of course. Those are being prioritized right now. We have seen a few emergency vehicles go by in the last half an hour

or so. But it does seem that some of the emergency calls are subsiding, which would indicate that they are getting their arms around the situation. But basically we've been operating in the dark all night --

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FIELD: -- Natalie. The power was out until just a few minutes ago, which means that you won't be able to see the extent of the damage until the morning.

ALLEN: And sleeping outside, that is disconcerting without having any light around you for those in neighborhoods where there is no power. And we've been in breaking news coverage for several hours. You experienced this and said it was terrifying.

FIELD: It was truly terrifying. And I think some of the initial shock has worn off and I still feel that way. I've experienced smaller earthquakes before. This was a profound experience for me. It felt prolonged. I'm hearing now it lasted maybe about 20 seconds. I couldn't tell you how long it lasted because it just felt like it was relentless.

But I was with a couple of our colleagues. We quickly got under a table, we held onto it and just heard the glasses smashing overheard, heard the other people around us crying out or screaming and then everyone just scrambling to get out of that restaurant once the shaking stopped because you just weren't sure if there was going to be another aftershock. It was truly unlike anything I've ever experienced.

ALLEN: And where are you right now?

Is it pretty quiet around where you are?

Earlier I saw one live picture; there were a lot of cars on the road.

FIELD: Yes. So we are outside of the regional hospital. This is a hospital that was actually partially closed because of the earthquake on Thursday. But they have set up what appears to be like a triage center perhaps in the front yard here.

And this was at least a staging ground, it seemed at first, for a lot of the emergency responders in the direct aftermath of this.

In the first few minutes, we were hearing just the nonstop blare of sirens, fire trucks racing, ambulances racing, police cars racing. They were being flooded with calls for help.

We took a quick walk into a neighborhood that we considered to be vulnerable because it was a place that we had spent some time earlier in the day, a lot of trailer homes and mobile homes. And people were inside, crying out, asking for help saying that they were stuck inside. One of our colleagues was able to help a couple people out. But we

also tried to call 9-1-1 and the and the calls weren't going through, probably because of the connectivity issues and the also volume of callers.

So we are not seeing that volume of emergency response right now but about half an hour ago, we did hear more sirens and I expect those kinds of calls will continue through the night as they try to make sure that we're not dealing with fires, gas leaks being a primary concern.

ALLEN: It will be a long night. We hope that it will be relatively quiet. We know you're still dealing with the aftershocks. Thank you and to your team for staying with us for so many hours.

Scientists say Friday's 7.1 quake happened on the same fault as Thursday's 6.4 quake but now the recent series of shakes is making that miles long fault even longer.

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DR. LUCY JONES, SEISMOLOGIST: The epicenter of the 7.1 is at the northwest end of the fault that moved in the 6.4. Now the 5.4 aftershock this morning extended that fault, what we saw from the main shock, from the 6.4, the 5.4 extended it a bit to the northwest.

And the 7.1 seems to have extended it even farther to the northwest. So the fault is growing. We ruptured a piece in the first earthquake. We ruptured a bit more in the 5. 4 this morning and we're rupturing more now.

A magnitude 7 usually has aftershocks that last for years.

ROBERT DE GROOT(?), USGS: Yes, so the expectation is that we're going to have aftershocks tonight. It will continue on.

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ALLEN: Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is joining us now.

Karen, and when you hear Lucy Jones say there that these aftershocks could last for years, you can imagine what that means to people dealing with this right now. And your maps have been showing us and revealing us just the numerous -- the aftershocks, so many, you can't even count them.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're absolutely right. One by one and then there is another shock and we've been counting how many 4.0-plus, 5.0-plus. The 5s you can feel. The 6s you can definitely feel. The Fourth of July earthquake, 6.4, was about 5 miles deep. The 7.1, we're getting varying reports.

Was it 10 miles deep or was it at the surface?

But certainly we're seeing surface eruptions. This quake is eight --

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MAGINNIS: -- times more powerful than the 6.4 magnitude but 11 times more energy, if you can imagine that. It radiates out. It is so much more powerful, it is exponential. It is not just linear.

Here is the seismic activity around Ridgecrest, Trona; Trona, they are saying no power, a lot of disruption in the Trona area. But you can see this particular fault line, they were talking about how the seismic activity is radiating further north towards that Naval Weapons Station facility near China Lake.

So the fault here is about 25 miles long. This is a shorter fault and, yes, they are perpendicular. And we see this a lot in this region. This is not associated with the San Andreas fault. The San Andreas fault is essentially a huge plate tectonic.

But we have different areas here intersecting. So we get that magnitude and the energy radiates out and, in Los Angeles, they are saying, with the July Fourth earthquake that it felt like it was rumbling or shaking for about 30 seconds. Well, the initial quake was only 5 seconds.

But because it is bumping into these mountains and different densities of material through the ground, that is why it is shaking as it goes along until eventually it slows down. So it probably really did feel like 30 seconds.

This particular main shock lasted between 20 and 25 seconds. That tells you just how much more powerful. And we haven't seen an earthquake like this for 20 years. Prior to that, over the previous 10 years, there were eight at 6 magnitude. But over 20 years, did we see anything like this?

No. The last one, the Hectare mine was nowhere. The Northridge, that was a 6.7 magnitude, 1994, but that was in a highly populated area.

Here are all the little faults that I was telling you about kind of scooched up near Ridgecrest. And this fire is in a mobile home park. We've heard about sporadic fires. But we've also heard about these ground fissures that have opened up.

Not with every earthquake do you see the ground opening up. It is the internal rumbling below the Earth's surface that, eventually, everything gives way and you start to see that cracking take place. So we're going to see this going over the next several days as people evaluate what has happened.

ALLEN: And we are all certainly learning about California's fault system, of which is vast. Karen, thanks so much. We'll see you again.

From roadways to supermarkets, Friday's earthquake caused damage across much of Southern California. Next, more on the aftermath.

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ALLEN (voice-over): A backyard swimming pool in Ridgecrest, California, look at that as the 7.1 earthquake rolled through late Friday. The community was already on edge after a 6.4 quake hit the same area the day before.

We're happy to say there have been no deaths or serious injuries reported but quake experts warn strong aftershocks will continue.

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ALLEN: The mayor of Ridgecrest is asking the community to be patient as the city deals with the ongoing recovery. She told reporters earlier, some residents are sleeping outside for safety.

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MAYOR PEGGY BREEDEN, RIDGECREST: Thank you all for coming. I would like to say a few words to our own citizens. Many of them have experienced something that is very traumatic, somewhat unknown to most of them and many of them are sleeping outside tonight.

I know that it is a difficult situation but they're fearful to be in their homes and we are offering any services as noted earlier. We have places for people to shelter here but many are choosing to just be with their neighbors, both in their sidewalks and in their driveways and some of them are in the streets.

We're asking everyone to drive safely, be careful. Look, watch for these people and understand that we are doing the very best we can. It is not an impossible task to take care of all this. But it is going to be a longer task than we thought the other day.

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ALLEN: Ridgecrest, a small community, but you've got to feel for the people that -- the latest we hear from talking with many people there, is they are all pulling together.

Earlier CNN's Paul Vercammen spoke with our Alexandra Field. He is a veteran reporter in the region and he has felt his share of earthquakes.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've covered a lot of earthquakes in California. I covered the Northridge earthquake, 6.7. But of course, in an urban center in Reseda. On a personal level, I had transferred from the New York bureau. I was living in temporary housing.

The television went hurtling across the room. Glass shattered everywhere but was safe and sound. So went into reporting mode and Northridge was marked immediately by what we saw a little bit of tonight and that's those gas fires.

You get a gas main in that case that ruptured and all of Ventura Boulevard in some parts of Los Angeles on fire. Massive damage, calamitous garage collapses, building collapses, 57 officially dead, almost 9,000 wounded.

Now let's take a deep breath here. This was absolutely nerve-racking for all of us to be through this, that 7.1. It was stronger --

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VERCAMMEN: -- in a way. In this instance, I was outside. We were in my car. We went to the middle of the street. We were trying to avoid power lines. Instinctively, to our driver's credit, he drove to the middle of the street.

FIELD: So given what we felt here, given the intensity of it, now that you've had a chance to take a look around, does the damage meet what you expected after feeling what you felt?

VERCAMMEN: No. I feel this tremendous sense of relief. This is of no solace to somebody who might have lost their home. But we did not see mass casualties as we drove through the checkerboard of light, these neighborhoods in Ridgecrest.

This sits in a high desert valley. We did not see something that we witnessed in other earthquakes, where you have unreinforced brick masonry buildings and you see a lot of that come tumbling down. Of course, California has been extremely aggressive in its quest to have buildings retrofit.

So because a lot of the new buildings seem to be newer, more flat, no high-rises, we didn't see anything that would happen in an urban center, where you might have people injured from glass falling from a 10-story. That just doesn't exist here in Ridgecrest. I think the population is about 27,000.

What we did see. We saw that immense fire, not far from here. Black smoke going up. We actually were just wrapping up. We went over there. The firefighters hadn't even arrived.

The suspicion it's another one of those -- we call it a one-two punch. Somewhere in the water heater, in the garage perhaps, you get a rupture and a gas-related fire starts.

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ALLEN: Our reporter there, Paul Vercammen.

Earlier my colleague Cyril Vanier spoke with Pinkal Panchal and Niket Aggarwal, who own a Super 8 hotel in Ridgecrest and they describe the moment they started to feel the shaking.

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PINKAL PANCHAL, SUPER 8 MOTEL: I was checking a customer in and I was at the front desk. And we had this little shake at 8:05, so we stepped out. We went back in. And right after that, what we saw was massive. It was the first time I experienced something.

I felt like the whole building was going to collapse. We just ran out on the road. I could hear those sounds of earthquake, the rattling, shaking. The whole building was shaking to a point where I thought the whole roof was going to fall down.

And yes, it was bad. It was really bad from what we experienced yesterday. I just started crying. I just felt whether we are going to survive this or not. And then every moment I was feeling, that's it, stop. And we rushed to the Super 8 sign. We felt we and a couple other guests, we held each other tight and we were praying for the shakes to stop.

NIKET AGGARWAL, SUPER 8 MOTEL: I had gone to get the groceries. And I was in the parking lot and I felt it. So I just got out of the car. Just closed my car and my car was jumping, you know, up and down, like front and back.

And it was -- I felt like I was going to hit the car in front of the -- in front of my car. And it was crazy. I've never seen something like this in my life. It was scary.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: So that's how bad the roads were?

The roads were shaking so much that you couldn't control your car?

AGGARWAL: No, I was out of the car. The car was moving and I had to -- I was not able to keep my balance on the ground, you know.

PANCHAL: It was really bad. I kind of rush to the road and I was scared that the cars might hit me. So I just went to the property next door. We were unable to walk. It was so shaky, we weren't able to maintain our balance.

VANIER: Did you look for a place to hide or was there no place available?

PANCHAL: Right outside the office is the main road and the cars were just moving. So it wasn't safe for me to go with the customer on the car -- on the road, so we were just -- I was just holding her. She was an old lady. So I just held her tight. We were supporting each other.

We walked to the Super 8 sign. We felt that was something with which we could hold onto. Because there was nothing over us that would collapse down. So that's where we felt was the safest place at the moment because right across that was the road and that was not safe for us. All the guests were out in the parking lot.

VANIER: And tell me more about the guests.

How were they reacting?

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PANCHAL: Everyone was panicked. Fortunately, we have the USGS team staying with us at our location so they did warn us that we were going to get some shocks later on. And that's the reason -- we were all concerned. We had requested all of our guests to be alert.

And everyone just rushed out of their rooms. We have a few accessibility guests and they were on the wheelchairs. So basically the 8:05 shock that we experienced at that time, all the guests were already out and we requested them to stay out for a bit and even the -- we have teams from the UCLA and USC staying here, who are actually reporting the earthquake. So they were here right there.

And they just -- they were really helpful. They kept everyone calm and we all were out here. So they were scared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Also we've been showing you videos of fires there in the area. Of course, those fires caused by ruptures of gas lines when the earthquake hit.

Right now we want to show you dramatic video right after the earthquake hit Ridgecrest. Employees at an Albertson's supermarket are making sure that everyone is OK.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody OK?

Did you get hurt?

Is everybody OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you get hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to see if anybody is hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The air is really thick, dusty. This is a bad one. This must be the one that -- that's got to be at least 7.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: He must know earthquakes because it certainly was a 7.1. Two large quakes in two days, both in the same location. We'll have the latest from the small town caught in the middle -- after this.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen.

Southern California went 20 years without a major earthquake. Now it has had two in two days. Late Friday, a 7.1 quake rocked the high desert north of Los Angeles near the town of Ridgecrest. That is the same place hit by a 6.4 tremor the day before. Damage is more significant this time but no deaths have been reported.

More than 3,000 customers are without power across the quake zone. Of course fires have been sparked by ruptured gas lines as well. To deal with the crisis, California's governor has activated the state's emergency operations to the highest level.

We have CNN correspondents covering it from all angles. Alex Field has been with us for some time. She went through the 7.1. She is in Ridgecrest.

What is the latest situation there, Alex?

FIELD: You touched on it there; there is an outpouring of resources being made available to this area. And what we're hearing more and more is the fact that they had had the major earthquake just a day ago, meant that an emergency declaration was already in place and that helps to speed resources, that helps to speed help and services to those who need it. And probably helped significantly with the quick response that we have seen in this area tonight.

Look, people were prepared for aftershocks, many feeling them by the hundreds. Many were not anticipating that the aftershock would actually be stronger than the initial earthquake itself. It has certainly caused anxiety for people here and there were terrifying moments for so many across the community.

Right now the focus is trying to understand how bad the damage is and what the extent of injuries could be. Again, no reported fatalities at this point. We don't have any estimate on how many could be injured.

We also are not hearing any reports of flattened buildings at this point but we do know that they will have to do a lot of work surveying the structure of buildings. That, of course, will be easier when you have daylight. This quake happened just before nightfall here and then you had the added problem of a massive power outage, really making this effort to get people to safe places and to see how bad the damage really was a little bit more difficult.

ALLEN: And how often have you been feeling aftershocks, Alex?

FIELD: Dozens. There have been dozens since that -- Natalie, we are actually just feeling one as you say that right now. So that gives you an idea of the frequency. That was a relatively small tremor compared to some that we have felt tonight. They vary in size. All of them set off your nerves a little bit after you feel what we felt earlier this evening.

But they are certainly coming. We keep feeling them and we know that we will have many more in the coming days.

ALLEN: Extremely unsettling, I can absolutely understand. Alex, thank you for your courage staying with us. We appreciate it and we'll talk with you again.

Los Angeles TV stations KCAL/KCBS were in the middle of a newscast when the earthquake struck Friday evening. The news anchors calmly explained what was going on and then headed for safety.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are experiencing quite a bit of shaking. If you'll give us a brief moment here, we're making sure that nothing is going to come down in the studio here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is going for quite a bit, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It continues to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a very strong earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- strong here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 8:21 here on the air, we're experiencing very strong shaking. I think we need to get under the desk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, we're going to go to break. We'll be right back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.

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ALLEN: Don't blame them a bit. KCAL/KCBS there. We continue our coverage of the second powerful quake that rattled California. We'll have the latest on the damage caused by the latest tremor when we come back.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the front door came open.

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ALLEN: Breaking news out of California. We continue to bring you the latest, magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit just after 8:00 pm there, that is one day after a 6.4 hit the same area. And it has been followed by dozens of aftershocks. The quake struck in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest north of Los Angeles. Damage is significant. But no deaths have been reported.

We'll turn now to other news that we're following. U.S. president Donald Trump believes he still has a way of adding a controversial question to the 2020 census. That question, are you a U.S. citizen?

Critics say it may intimidate immigrants into not responding and make the population count inaccurate, especially in Democratic districts.

Every 10 years each household is expected to fill out the questionnaire. The results used to determine representation in Congress and allocation of federal funds. Abby Phillip has Mr. Trump's reaction.

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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump signaling he may use an executive order to force a citizenship question onto the 2020 census.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have four or five ways we can do it. It is one of the ways that we're thinking about doing it.

PHILLIP: Having lost in the Supreme Court and as the forms are being printed without the question, Trump seems undaunted.

TRUMP: So we could start the printing now and maybe do an addendum after we get a positive decision.

PHILLIP: Arguing history is on his side.

TRUMP: If you look at the history of our country, it has almost always been asked. You need it for Congress, for districting.

PHILLIP: But both claims are false. The question has not been asked since 1950. And districts are drawn based on the total number of people, not citizens, in a particular area.

Sources tell CNN that Trump is frustrated with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for caving and announcing publicly that the administration was abandoning the effort. But asked if Ross' job is safe, Trump said:

TRUMP: Yes. Sure. Wilbur is --

[04:40:00] TRUMP: -- a good man.

PHILLIP: And with the positive jobs report out today, Trump again using the strong economy to attack another official he appointed, the Federal Reserve chairman.

TRUMP: We don't have a Fed that knows what they're doing.

PHILLIP: Meantime, as Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups describe deplorable, dirty and overcrowded conditions at border detention facilities, Trump says he doesn't see a problem.

TRUMP: I have seen some of the places and they are run beautifully. They're clean. They're good.

PHILLIP: The president seemingly more concerned with his 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

TRUMP: You look at what Joe Biden has done with China, Biden didn't know what the hell he was doing. Biden doesn't know about that.

PHILLIP: And at a hearing today, Justice Department lawyers told a judge that they are looking at ways to include the citizenship question in the census, but they made no mention of a potential executive order.

In fact, they said no decision had yet been made about how to proceed -- Abby Phillip, CNN, the White House.

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ALLEN: Iran is threatening retaliation after the United Kingdom seized one of its oil tankers off the coast of Gibraltar. A source tells CNN the U.K. detained the Grace 1 because it believed the vessel had weapons bound for Syria.

Iran calls the seizure piracy and warns it could detain a British tanker if theirs isn't released. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more about this.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Iranian authorities demanding the immediate release of the super tanker Grace 1, they are calling the detention by the authorities in Gibraltar as an act of piracy, they are saying that Britain and Gibraltar had no right to implement either their own sanctions or E.U. sanctions in what the Iranians describe as an extraterritorial manner.

Nevertheless, the supreme court in Gibraltar has ruled that the authorities there can detain the vessel for an additional 14 days over and above the original 72 hours that it has under international law.

Meanwhile the crew of the vessel are being questioned not as criminals but as witnesses as to where the vessel was going and what it was doing. It is known that it took 2.5 months to get from the Persian Gulf around the Horn of Africa all the way around the African coast to get to Gibraltar and that at times it switched off its tracking system. That's deemed as suspicious.

And when it set on its journey, it was registered to Panama but in late May the Panamanian authorities deregistered it because they were concerned that the vessel had links to financing terrorism.

We've also learned that the Spanish acting foreign minister and the Iranian authorities are both accusing Gibraltar and Britain for acting at the request of the United States. Now the authorities in Gibraltar deny that; they are saying this was not a political decision, that they were not acting at the request of another country.

But the tensions continue to rise. A former Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in Iran says that a British vessel should be snatched and held by the Iranian authorities until the Grace 1 is released. So tensions on this continue to rise -- Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

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ALLEN: Citizens in Sudan celebrating after the military and the opposition reached a power sharing agreement. Thousands took to the streets, chanting and waving flags because they believe their revolution has won after much bloodshed in the streets during their protests.

After weeks of stalled talks, the military council and the country's pro-democracy movement have agreed to form a rotating joint council that will rule for at least three years before transitioning to a civilian government.

Just a few hours from now, the newest British royal will be christened in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle. It comes exactly two months after baby Archie was born to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. But the news media is not invited. And that has caused a bit of a ruckus in the U.K. CNN's Max Foster has our story.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So far we've had limited sightings of baby Archie. So royal fans are holding out for a clear shot of his face this weekend.

EMILY NASH, ROYAL EDITOR, "HELLO! MAGAZINE": We have had a few little glimpses of him, but everyone wants to see how he's developing, how he's growing and it's such a happy occasion.

FOSTER: The couple have organized a small, private ceremony at a chapel inside Windsor Castle. No media allowed, though they will have a personal photographer there and will release pictures after the event.

This lack of media access has sparked criticism --

[04:45:00] FOSTER (voice-over): -- among some British newspapers and politicians, calling out the couple for refusing to allow public access to the christening when $3 million of taxpayer money is being used to renovate their private family home.

LUKE POLLARD, LABOUR PARTY MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: But when you're still taking millions of pounds worth of public money, money that could be spent on schools and hospitals, to upgrade and refurbish what is, you know, luxury palaces, you've got to ask yourself, what are the public getting in return?

FOSTER: But there's been a counter backlash from the army of Meghan and Harry fans on social media, known as the Sussex Squad.

GOLDBURN P. MAYNARD JR., SUSSEX SQUAD ALLY: I don't see any kind of contradiction between there being taxpayer funding or public funding and the royals asking for some privacy.

FOSTER: Professor Goldburn Maynard, who describes himself as an ally of the Sussex Squad, claims Meghan faces unfair scrutiny because of her background.

MAYNARD: The default when it comes to Meghan, because she is a foreigner and she's not royal from this society, et cetera, is that when she does something, she's doing something that's wrong.

FOSTER: While it may be angering some, the Sussexes seem to have decided to keep Archie's life as private as possible -- Max Foster, CNN, Windsor, England.

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ALLEN: We'll have more on the California earthquake ahead, tremors interrupted a basketball game all the way in Las Vegas, Nevada, more than 100 miles away. We talk with a sports announcer calling the game at that moment -- when we come back.

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ALLEN: Ridgecrest, California, now has a special notoriety, two major earthquakes in two days. A large 7.1 hit the town late Friday, that is just one day after a 6.4 tremor shook the area. It's been followed by dozens of aftershocks, some of them significant. Authorities are waiting until daybreak to continue assessing the damage but so far no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

Here is how some residents in California describe what it was like to be in their homes when the violent shaking started. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I experienced it as I'm at my dad's house and I'm standing there and the next thing you know everything is starting to shake. I'm standing underneath the structure. And my only option is just to get out and away from to where there is no gas lines or anything else like that.

And then it just started rattling. Everybody started rattling, it started flinging me around and I literally had to grab the gate to help keep myself at least something stable to keep on ending and even it still shaking really bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were in the trailer when it hit and then I kind of had a picture frame and stuff and everything fall on me and stuff and shatter my whole entire jaw right here. And I had got cut. I was bleeding and stuff and I was trying to -- and then after the aftershock, I was like, you know what, no, we're getting out.

And my whole trailer was literally rocking. I thought it was going to tip over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: And so many people that experienced that are sleeping outside tonight in California. The quake was felt 140 miles east of the epicenter in Las Vegas, where the basketball games were taking place for the Summer League. Earlier Cyril Vanier spoke with NBA TV announcer Jared Greenberg, who was announcing a game at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JARED GREENBERG, NBA TV ANNOUNCER: About 16 hours before the earthquake struck, I was awake in my hotel room on this trip in Las Vegas and felt at about 4:10 local time, the swaying feeling. And I never had experienced that before. Once it happened in the first quarter of our game, it was the Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs, we felt at the broadcast location we had at midcourt just the swaying, as if someone was taking our platform and moving us left to right.

And it flashed me back to 16 hours earlier in the day, when the first time I experienced my first-ever earthquake. What was interesting about it, the way it is set up is from the NBA Summer League, it's on the campus of UNLV and we have two simultaneous games going on in two adjoining gyms.

They're separated by about 50 yards. And our gym that we were in for the Orlando- San Antonio game is considerably smaller. It holds less than 3,000 people. And there were a lot less than that, because the headliner of the entire week was taking place across the hall, which seats around 18,000 fans. And they were sold out tonight. So that venue right away canceled their game. Meanwhile, during our

game, the players and referees on the court, who were running up and down, expressed to me during the next time out that they didn't even feel it. But clearly up to our broadcast location and the fans, everyone was feeling it.

We had some of the light fixtures shaking a bit. But I tell you, it was a very wild thrill feeling to have this for the first time in my life twice in a 16-hour span.

VANIER: Jared, we're looking at the pictures right now of the Pelicans game and it's pretty clear, people are leaving the stands. Especially in the back rows, people are getting up and they're leaving. And that was right around the time when the game was just flat out interrupted.

GREENBERG: Right. And what you're looking at is the Thomas and Mack Center, which is just separated by a hallway from where I was at the Cox Pavilion. That arena right here seats between 17,000-18,000 fans.

Tonight it was at capacity because Zion Williamson, a much anticipated pro debut of the number 1 pick of the draft, was playing tonight against RJ Barrett and the New York Knicks.

Where we were just down the hall, the Thomas and Mack Center, again, a much more intimate feel with less than 3,000 fans. Because so many people were in there, there was way shy of capacity of 3,000 fans with us.

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: Was your game interrupted?

Did your game -- was it suspended?

GREENBERG: What happened was, ours happened at the end of the first quarter. They continued play because players and referees and coaches didn't --

[04:55:00]

GREENBERG: -- recognize it was happening. Just the spectators and media recognized it.

They continued playing through half-time. They evaluated the court, recognized there was a small issue with the court. Both teams agreed it wasn't a safety issue. They took all precautions, they continued playing the third quarter but by the end of the third quarter, the NBA deemed that it would be out of precautionary best for everyone to call the game and just cancel it after the third quarter.

VANIER: And what was the reaction of the people -- and I know you said it was a lot more subdued in your gym. I understand that.

What was -- did you leave the arena at any point during this process? GREENBERG: I didn't. And just to, again, paint the picture here, what you're looking at, the reason why I believe fans in the bigger venue, the Thomas and Mack Center were -- had much more of a reaction, was because the big scoreboard that's suspended above midcourt was visibly shaking.

And my television crew that we were working with kept on taking live shots of that. And we were shocked; it felt as if we were almost in two different cities, having two totally different reactions because that arena was seeing this monstrous scoreboard and videoboard visibly shaking.

And in our arena, we don't have a videoboard or scoreboard that is suspended over midcourt. So we didn't have that type. We had some light fixtures that our camera crew was catching that were shaking. But that paled in comparison to what you're seeing here in the Thomas and Mack Center, where clearly there were a lot more effects felt from the earthquake.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: So many people experienced this one.

Thank you for watching this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. I'll be back with another hour and we'll have the latest on the quake and the aftermath.