Local News

State Working With FEMA To Determine Whether Napa Quake Qualifies As National Disaster

August 25, 2014 / 8:58 AM PDT / CBS San Francisco

NAPA (KCBS) — While there have been three emergency declarations as a result of the earthquake from the city and county of Napa and Gov. Brown, work is underway now to determine whether it rises to the level of a "national" disaster.

Office of Emergency Services spokesman Kelly Huston told KCBS that the decision won't be made for several days.

"What we'll be doing over the next couple of days is having inspectors take a look at and do damage assessments and we'll be doing that side by side with FEMA to see the total costs for this earthquake," he said. "It's going to be in the tens of millions of dollars for sure, based on what we can see just in the last 24 hours or so."

The magnitude 6 earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area early Sunday morning, injuring over 170 people in the Napa Valley, severely damaging historic buildings in downtown Napa, rupturing gas lines and water mains across Napa, Sonoma, and Solano counties, leading to multiple fires, plunging thousands into darkness and buckling and cracking roads on Highway 37 and State Routes 12 and 121.

While it might be costly, there are earthquake models that combine the magnitude with other factors, including population density and real estate costs that present damage figures into the hundreds of millions of dollars, approaching $ 1 billion.

There have been dozens of aftershocks they have been minimal and not destructive but Huston advises the people secure the items in their house.

"That accounts for most of the injuries in these types of earthquakes," he said.

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