The National Weather Service Tsunami Warning Center has called off a warning that was in place from Santa Cruz to Oregon.
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Thursday around 10:45 a.m. off the coast of Northern California, west of Ferndale in Humboldt County. Tsunami warning messages hit cellphone users, telling them to get away from the coast between Davenport in Santa Cruz County and Douglas, Ore.
“There is no longer a tsunami threat from earthquake,” a U.S. Tsunami Warning System notice said after the initial panic around 12 p.m.
Recommended actions were to remain observant and exercise normal caution near the coast.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management previously said people should “stay out of water and away from beaches, harbors, marina docks, and piers. Move at least 1 block inland.”
BART and Muni resumed normal service after the Transbay Tube and other transit routes were briefly closed.
Earlier, at Pier 30, just south of the Bay Bridge, several San Francisco Police Department vehicles cruised the waterfront, and officers were spotted urging people to evacuate to higher ground. But the chainsawing continued unabated at Delancey Street Christmas Trees.
By 12:15 p.m., small waves could be heard lapping the pilings on the Embarcadero, but no one appeared to be in danger. An employee who gave his name as Mike wasn’t scared. “They just canceled the warning,” he said. Pointing to a handsome 8-foot fir, he added, “If a wave did come, I’d ride that one right there.”
Several daycare centers and elementary schools in Alameda asked parents to pick up their children immediately, even after the warning was rescinded, while the city’s tsunami zone map tool remained down.
Dani Li, a mom in the Sunset, collected her child from the Growing Tree School, “just to be safe.” But said she was not nervous and walked across the beach to watch the waves with her son.
The Berkeley Police Department had issued an immediate evacuation order at 11:30 a.m. for the city’s west side, anticipating the tsunami’s arrival at 12:10 p.m.
Molly McGrath, a designer, was at her studio in northwest Berkeley when the first alert sounded on her phone. Minutes later, sirens sounded, and a loudspeaker declared that her area was under an evacuation order.
“I was on the fence about whether to evacuate, but then I decided I was going to,” she said by phone from her car. “The sirens are kind of what did it for me. I don’t even really know where I’m going.”
All over the Bay Area, people worried as the time approached that authorities had suggested a wave would hit. Scientists at the Gladstone Institute in Mission Bay were moved to the top three floors of their building after the tsunami warning went out.
Thursday’s earthquake was the second-most powerful to strike the United States in more than a decade. Since 2010, only one other U.S. earthquake reached a magnitude of 7.0, according to USGS data: a 7.1 temblor in 2019 in rural Kern County, 160 miles northeast of Los Angeles. That quake caused tall buildings in L.A. to sway. In Mexico, meanwhile, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck in 2010, and a 7.0 two years later.
Alex Valentin, a Santa Cruz surfer, said he was disappointed because he was stuck at work. He was standing on the roof of his office when The Standard called, just trying to catch a glimpse of the swell.
“There’s no such thing as a tsunami,” Valentin said. “Just juicy waves.”
The Shelter Cove General Store in Humboldt posted on Facebook that it was closed until further notice after wine bottles fell from shelves. It has since reopened.