Shakin' & bakin'

If it ain't one thing (like a drought), it's another (like an earthquake), and The Los Angeles Times has a report by Ari Bloomekatz:

After a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California, Humboldt County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Steve Knight said the region "dodged a bullet. We had some alarms go off, but other than that we dodged a bullet," Knight said. "This easily could have been a catastrophe that could have caused a lot of damage," he told the Times-Standard.
The earthquake is the largest to hit the West Coast since the magnitude 7.2 quake in Baja California in 2010. The temblor, which struck less than 55 miles from McKinleyville, Fortuna, Eureka, and Ferndale, was followed by at least thirteen aftershocks as large as magnitude 4.6, according to the US Geological Survey.
Sergeant Brian Stephens of the Eureka police department said that, as of about 6:15 a.m. Monday, "we have not had one report of damage anywhere in the city." "Definitely a change from the last one we had," Stephens said, referring to the magnitude 6.5 earthquake that rocked Eureka in January of 2010. "This one was the exact same magnitude, almost... This was a roller and the other was more or less a violent shaking." Stephens said it was his understanding the quake Sunday night, which hit at 10:18 p.m., lasted as long as 38 seconds. "It was definitely a long one," he said. Stephens was out on a call when the quake struck and said his "car was rocking back and forth. I thought someone was shoving my car back and forth, looked around and nobody was there. Then I realized what was happening."
There were also no immediate reports of damage or injury anywhere else in Humboldt County, and no tsunami warnings were immediately issued overnight.
A resident of Ferndale, Raquel Maytorena, 52, felt the earthquake in her nearly hundred-year-old home about a mile from the coast. "It just kept going and going, very slowly and softly. It was not violent," she said. "It almost felt like you were in a boat that was rocking."

Rico says the Big One is still out there, waiting, because the San Andreas is patient...