Tsunami warning cancelled after magnitude 7 earthquake hits California

A strong 7.0 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of northern California, according to the US Geological Survey.

A tsunami warning was initially issued along the coasts of both northern California and southern Oregon – an area that includes about 4.7 million people – but has since been rescinded.

The earthquake’s epicentre hit closest to the town of Ferndale, California, a small city in Humboldt County about 260 miles (418km) north of San Francisco.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services said they had not immediately received any reports indicating widespread damage.

Typically, after an earthquake first responders in the area will survey buildings and roads to look for any damage and examine structural integrity.

While the earthquake does not seem to have caused huge destruction, one resident of Ferndale who spoke to the BBC in the minutes following the quake said the inside of the building she was in “looks like a bomb has gone off in every room”.

Olivia Cobian, the innkeeper at the Gingerbread Mansion Inn in Ferndale, said the inside of the inn now “looks like a warzone”.

“We have huge cast iron fireplaces that have been lifted up and moved over, everything’s fallen over, broken”.

More than 10,000 people have been without power in Humboldt County since the earthquake struck, according to poweroutage.us.

Multiple aftershocks have also been reported since the initial earthquake, which struck around 10:44 local time (18:44 GMT).

Some areas, including the city of Berkeley in northern California, issued an evacuation order due to the threat of a possible tsunami.

“EVACUATE NOW,” an X post from the city warned. “People in the Tsunami Zone are in IMMEDIATE DANGER and MUST EVACUATE NOW. Stay east of 7th St. This is a lawful order to leave now.”

Kayla Aihara was staying at a hotel in Half Moon Bay, California and got the back-to-back alerts about the earthquake and potential tsunami.

Before the tsunami warning was cancelled, workers at the hotel had told her to vacate a gym and go to higher ground out of fear of the tsunami’s impacts.

Some vacated outside and she said multiple people crowded near the shoreline of the Pacific Coast hotel, watching the waves and waiting to see any hints of a tsunami.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the earthquakes and was meeting with state emergency officials to help coordinate the response.

The US West Coast is the confluence of a number of the Earth’s tectonic plates, and tremors are not uncommon. But a strong 7 magnitude quake isn’t typically seen in the region. Experts say there are between 10 and 15 earthquakes of this magnitude that hit globally each year.

The area has been struck by a number of major earthquakes, including a 1994 quake that hit Northridge, in the Los Angeles area, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands more, as it wrought billions of dollars of damage to homes and infrastructure.