5.6 earthquake rocks Willits- grocery stores shattered, power out , line down, gas stations close, all damage we have so far in Willits.
At 8:10 a.m., the dogs barked first — a frantic high pitched warning — and then Nixie came seconds after the dogs and then the house began to rock and roll in a long, rolling wave. We are in Cleone on the Coast 40 miles away from the inland epicenter. A 5.6 earthquake on the Richter scale (initial estimate) struck near Potter Valley, sending a sharp jolt through inland Mendocino County and a ripple of reports across the coast. Please email us at frankhartzell@gmail with specifics of what you felt. The quake lasted about 5 seconds and was followed by several smaller aftershocks.
We just had good news from Melissa at Hopper’s Corner Market in Potter Valley. Though they felt the storng shaking they suffered almost no damage.
“Just one bottle of soy sauce broke.” At leas two grocery stores in Willits weren’t as fortunate.
A powerline fell in Willits and there were 12 separate outages affecting about 4500 people, PGE reported. We learned gas stations in Willits closed to inspect pumps for damage, grocery stores had widespread damage from tumbling items and we are still getting reports. There is no central information source in disasters in Mendocino County now. Still NOTHING on Mendo Ready two hours after the quake.
Within minutes, the MCN Listserve lit up with posts from Westport, Cleone, Caspar, Comptche, Little River, and the town of Mendocino, all describing the same sudden, unmistakable shake. Some felt a single hard jolt; others reported a rolling motion that seemed to move under the floorboards.
“Felt in Manchester near Hwy 1, initial bump and then a roll. No pics askew
nor windows rattling, but my 100-year-old bungalow creaked and groaned a
bit.” Beverly Smith repoted on the LIstserve.
Report from Devora Stern from mountaintop outside Willits
“Hey, I am northeast of town, but in town stuff was flying off the grocery outlet shelves glass was breaking. The power went out for a second. They cleared the store. Downtown peoples earth is moving stuff is flying out of the cupboards. It was the longest one anybody felt. I was playing with my chickens so I didn’t feel a thing, but the gas stations have closed down due to worrying about danger at the pumps
The Traffic LIghts are not working . Traffic is backed up. It’s a big thing in Willits.”
The earthquake registered 5.6 on the Richter scale, but the Richter scale is very flawed.
The Richter scale doesn’t tell the whole story because it only measures the maximum amplitude of seismic waves at specific frequencies from a single type of seismograph. It ignores the total physical energy released, duration, local geological conditions, and how the earthquake’s shaking is experienced by buildings and people – from Wikipedia.
Jim Heid reported to us
“My KZYX radio partner lives in Redwood Valley. He wrote to me:
“the whole house shifted back-and-forth about a foot and a half, stuff fell off the walls and shelves, but everything held together, no apparent damage, water, and electricity still working OK.”
Carol Lillis gave a specific report on how it felt.
“We felt quite a jolt in Albion. Our house is about 50 feet from the edge of a bluff and our glass doors rattled so hard I thought they would shatter. I held on tight to the kitchen counter. Our home is built on rock and that was quite a bounce.”
There were 2500 outages in Willits, PGE reported and 1500 more in unincorporated areas.
Friend Bill Kubran in Redwood Valley 8 miles from the epicenter. The shaking was dramatic for 5 seconds but nothing even fell off the shelves. “it felt like the house moved 5 or 6 feet back and forth and it lasted a long time, maybe 5 or 6 seconds,” Kubran said.
A friend in Okie Valley, closer to the epicenter, had damage from falling items.
There were no tsunami warnings
No damage estimates yet, though residents are checking chimneys, shelves, and older structures. This is the kind of quake that reminds the North Coast exactly where it sits — on the restless edge of the continent, where three tectonic plates meet and argue beneath our feet.
Please check back. We will be updating this story throughout the morning as more information becomes available from USGS, Cal OES, and local emergency officials.
What is the fault involved?
The Maacama Fault is a right lateral-moving (dextral) geologic fault located in the Coast Ranges of northwestern California. It is considered to be the northernmost segment of the Hayward Fault subsystem of the San Andreas Fault zone. Creep along the Maacama is about 8 mm per year, consistent with the steady movement along the rest of the Hayward Fault system. It is also capable of producing large earthquakes.[1][2]
The Maacama Fault runs just east of Ukiah and just west of Willits.
We didnt get much from the county but the city gave info early on.
City of Fort Bragg Police Dept ·
“We are aware of the earthquake and are actively monitoring the situation. At this time, no damage has been reported within the City of Fort Bragg. If you are injured or have an emergency call 911.
The city provided this, which was a nice gesture, but mendoready is no help, as usual.
For the latest updates, emergency information, and preparedness resources, please visit Mendocino County’s emergency preparedness website at mendoready.org.
We encourage everyone to stay informed, be prepared, and follow official sources for accurate information.”
Useful info from Jim Heid
Go here and fill out the questionnaire. If you received the early warning on your phone, complete the optional portion at the very end of the page.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc75382936/tellus
Learn more about the “Did You Feel It?” program:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/background.php
Reporting your earthquake experience on the USGS Did You Feel It? <https://www.usgs.gov/tools/did-you-feel-it> (DYFI) website provides critical crowdsourced data that scientists, emergency responders, and communities rely on. [1 <https://earthquake.alaska.edu/why-should-you-bother-did-you-feel-it-report>, 2 <https://www.saskoer.ca/geolmanual/chapter/overview-of-earthquakes/>, 3 <https://phys.org/news/2026-01-earthquake-crowdsourcing-tool.html>]
Here is how your reports directly create value:
Fills Instrumentation Gaps: In many areas—especially outside of California—seismic instruments are sparse. Public reports provide the only localized data about ground motion and intensity in these gaps.[1 <https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/faq.php>, 2 <https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs030-01/>, 3 <https://cusec.org/did-you-feel-it/>]
Improves Emergency Response: DYFI data feeds into ShakeMap <https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/> and the PAGER <https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/pager/faq.php> system, which estimate the severity of shaking and potential economic losses or casualties. Agencies like FEMA use this to decide where to direct rescue resources and aid. [1 <https://www.preventionweb.net/news/did-you-feel-it-expanding-use-earthquake-crowdsourcing-tool>]
We learned three lessons in this event. 1. The animals warning about an earthquake thing is real. The dog barking came 10 seconds before the quake. The Nixie 5 seconds before. I never believed the animal warning stuff for sure till now.
2. In the event of a major quake or disaster or fire, there will be no information for you. In the age of social media, every last person insists on printing their own one sentence summary of the event and there is no way to provide information like we used to. KOZT had earthquake news we could all access, but any online newsite, such as ours, was buried in chatter and most people were interested in reading anything but their own experience.
3. The county’s emergency system is good for Nixie warnings and that’s it. im sure they will give themselves more awards on this non response. There really should be something set up before a major event where everyone can go and it has a live human in charge of updating it, not through robotics relying on others.
