Historic church damaged in 2014 Napa earthquake a restored landmark 10 years on
NAPA -- On Saturday, the city of Napa marked the ten year anniversary of an earthquake that rocked the town. Despite all the damage, some important lessons were learned.
Napa has been through a lot. From downtown flooding in 2005 to the devastating Atlas wildfire in 2017. Then, on Aug. 24, 2014, the South Napa Earthquake struck at an epicenter between Napa and American Canyon. It was a magnitude 6 temblor that caused as much as a billion dollars in damage to this corner of Wine Country.
At Napa's First Presbyterian Church early that Sunday morning, the landmark built in 1874 was literally being shaken apart.
"It really jarred us awake and we knew that there was going to be damage," said Jane Roscoe, the church's family ministry director. "So, we came down pretty quickly, down into town and, when we arrived, we saw that the front window -- our 'Jesus window' -- was down on the ground. Inside, the damage was extensive. Speakers had fallen. There was a lot of debris everywhere."
It took two years and $2 million to restore the church's main sanctuary but, of course, it was not the only building with major damage. The historic Center Building dropped tons of bricks onto a parked car. Luckily no one was in it at the time. Today, there are still signs of the damage done that day.
Across the street, the old courthouse has been completely restored after the quake shook a chunk off its front. And, around the block, the top corner of the Carpe Diem restaurant ended up on the sidewalk. It's all been repaired with the bricks colored to match perfectly.
From her workplace across the street, Janice Chaidez still remembers the horror of that morning.
"I mean, you just sat straight up on the bed and my husband said 'Don't move, we're having an earthquake,'" she said. "And I mean, all you could hear was just everything breaking, everything hitting. I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, is our house going to be still here? Are we going to be able to get downstairs?'"
Later, she drove through downtown. "They all had a lot of damage, a lot of damage," she remembered. "I mean, you'd see people's driveways just sticking up like that. It's just amazing. The horrific stuff, it's just -- it's dreadful to go through it, to see it."
Kevin and Laura Sutter had only moved to Napa six months earlier when the earthquake gave them a wakeup call.
"Our bed was shaking so much, I thought the ceiling was going to fall down on us!" Kevin said. "I remember the kitchen smelled like barbecue sauce and soy sauce, all smashed on the floor. What bothered me most was, since I grew up in San Francisco, what if -- where is the epicenter? If it's in San Francisco, the 'big one' has hit! Then we discovered it was right here in Napa. Whew!"
Back at the church, by coincidence, they used this Sunday to celebrate its 150th anniversary. The old building has been through a lot over the years, including a huge windstorm in February that tore part of the roof off and, once again, damaged the "Jesus window." Still, the congregation's pastor, Genesis Auste, found inspiration.
"Life is like two railroad tracks parallel to each other," he said. "There will always be bad things happening but there are also good things happening at the same time and that's what this community has taught me, I think -- the importance of community as well. It's very important that you don't go through the bad times and the good times on your own."
Practicing with the choir, Ruthellen Miller reflected on how the earthquake affected the city.
"It changed us in that we depended less on 'things' and more on ourselves and each other. And our friends, to just kind of bring it all together. That's what I remember most about it," she said. "I really like being a part of Napa."
It has been ten years and, if you ask many who lived through it, they'll tell you the "act of God' that tried to shake the town apart only succeeded in bringing it closer together.
