Local News

Napa Struggles To Clear Debris Following Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake

August 26, 2014 / 8:54 AM PDT / CBS San Francisco

NAPA (CBS SF) -- After Sunday's magnitude 6.0 quake caused major damage in Napa, the city is struggling to keep up with the amount of debris being disposed.

For some, this is a painful kind of spring cleaning.

Items like tables, dishes, TVs and aquariums are just about the only thing left standing.

"Oh my gosh, this much got destroyed just in this little area," said Noah Massey. "I mean that much got destroyed off an earthquake, it's pretty crazy, really crazy."

There wasn't much time to sit around after taking stock of the damage.

The City of Napa says it couldn't keep up with the volume of junk dropped off by the truckload. Some residents even brought the whole recycling bin. By the end of the day, the city added five more collection sites.

TinaMarie and her family lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Her most recent, now destroyed purchase was a 55-inch TV that wasn't mounted on the wall when it went down.

"I have to look at it because everyone's alive," Jackson said.

The Piper family made out with minor injuries too. Sophia Piper couldn't go to school today because of the quake. Browns Valley Elementary is one of about a dozen locations.

"I thought like this is really valuable to a lot of people what they lost a lot of things, but glad that they survived," Piper said.

Along with damaged goods, there was also a lot of toxic chemicals, and questionable junk.

"To tell you the truth I think people are taking advantage of it actually," said Clarke Good from Sonoma County.

KPIX 5 spoke to a city official who said this is to be expected, unfortunately, even though people are discouraged from using this as a dumping ground.

The city will also be coming up with a plan to separate all the e-waste popping in the coming days.

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