A moderate 6.1 magnitude took place at 3:20 this morning north of San Francisco in the Napa Valley area.

Virtually all North American media are covering the event including the CBC as follows:

California's governor declared a state of emergency on Sunday after a powerful earthquake shook the area north of San Francisco, igniting several fires and cutting power to tens of thousands of homes.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state of emergency on Sunday morning just hours after the magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck around 3:20 a.m. local time, jolting residents of the San Francisco Bay Area from their beds.

The quake's epicentre was eight kilometres northwest of the town of American Canyon, about 60 kilometres north of San Francisco. Napa and Sonoma — two nearby tourist destinations known for their wineries — were​ some of the hardest-hit areas, with tens of thousands of residents cut off from power, according to the utility company PG&E​.

Gurbeer Singh cleans up at a 7-11 store in American Canyon, Calif., which was the epicentre of magnitude 6.0 earthquake early Sunday morning. (Ben Margot/Associated Press)​
Napa resident Rob Doughty, who was awake when the quake hit, said it was like a roller coaster ride, but scarier.


"You could hear things crashing all around in the house," Doughty told CBC News Network.

"My cupboards got dumped out, my refrigerator got moved around, then the power went out. Pitch black. It was scary." 

Doughty said it was "total chaos" when he ventured into downtown Napa. Many of the town’s older stone buildings suffered severe damage.
 
Injuries mostly cuts, bruises

Two major injuries have been reported, and hospitals have been busy coping with moderate injuries throughout the morning, Napa Division Fire Chief John Callanan said.


Vanessa DeGier, spokeswoman for Queen of the Valley hospital in Napa, said her hospital has treated around 70 patients for cuts, bumps and bruises.

She says the facility has treated a hip fracture and heart attack, but it's unclear if either was related to the quake.

The quake also caused six significant fires, including one that engulfed four mobile homes. The damage from the fires is not yet clear, but it appears significant, Napa Division Fire Chief Darren Drake said.

Several other smaller fires have been reported, but firefighting efforts have been complicated by broken water mains.

"There's collapses, fires," said Napa Fire Capt. Doug Bridewell, standing in front of large pieces of masonry that broke loose from a turn of the century office building where a fire had just been extinguished. "That's the worst shaking I've ever been in."


Bridewell said he had to climb over fallen furniture in his own home to check on his family before reporting to duty.
 
Strong, shallow quake

California Highway Patrol Officer Daniel Hill told KTVU-TV that road damage appears confined to the Napa and Sonoma areas. He said there appears to be no damage to major bridges in the Bay Area.
 

'It started very much like a rolling sensation and just got progressively worse in terms of length.'- Randy Baldwin, U.S. Geological Survey

The depth of the earthquake was just less than 11 kilometres, and numerous small aftershocks have occurred in the nearby Napa wine country shortly after, the USGS said. The USGS says the quake was the largest earthquake to shake the Bay Area since the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake in 1989.


"The 6.0 is a sizeable quake for this area," said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., adding its depth would be considered a "shallow quake."


"It started very much like a rolling sensation and just got progressively worse in terms of length," said Oakland resident Rich Lieberman.


"Not so much in terms of shaking, but it did shake. It felt like a side-to-side kind of rolling sensation. Nothing violent but extremely lengthy and extremely active."


The USGS asked others who felt the quake to share with them what it felt like for future research.


The agency also warned the Napa area will likely get 30 to 70 smaller aftershocks — between 3 and 5 magnitude — over the next week.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/california-earthquake-magnitude-6-0-prompts-state-of-emergency-1.2745245