The U.S. Geological Survey reports that Humboldt County California was struck by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake Wednesday afternoon.
The quake’s epicenter was underwater about 40 miles southwest of Eureka.
Lt. Wayne Hanson of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office told NBC that no major damage or injuries were reported but that the shaking was significant. The USGS “Did You Feel It” website had multiple reports from coastal areas of Level VI shaking, designed as “strong”.
Ironically, the quake struck as a “room full of Public Safety Officials” were meeting at the California Office of Emergency Services.
The USGS reported measurements from the quake over 200 miles to the north, east and south.
An outbreak of measles that started at Disneyland is causing massive problems throughout California according to the LA Times.
Thirty babies are now in home isolation in Alameda County because of possible exposure to measles. Sherri Willis of the Alameda County Public Health Deaprtment told the LA Times that the children were not infected but had contact with measles patients.
“It is our job to try to determine who has been exposed,” Willis said.
There have been 87 confirmed cases of measles connected to the Disneyland strain. Officials say that most of the people who have contracted the disease were not vaccinated against it and urged all people to get vaccinations if they did not as a child.
Measles is spread through the air by coughing or sneezing. The U.S. had a record number of cases last year, with 644 infections in 27 states.
Other precautions being taken include over two dozen high school students from Huntington Beach High School being sent home because they were unvaccinated and one student was confirmed to have measles.
“Unimmunized students are excluded from school for 21 days past the date of exposure, during which they need to monitor themselves for signs of measles,” Deanne Thompson, Orange County health care agency spokeswoman said. “This is to avoid spreading the disease.”
A measles outbreak traced to Disney theme parks in California continues to grow with 70 people sickened from the highly contagious disease.
The outbreak has now spread to five states and into Mexico with the majority reported in California.
State epidemiologist Gil Chavez told reporters that anyone who has not had the MMR (mumps/measles/rubella) vaccine should temporarily avoid Disney theme parks. He also said highly crowded locations like airports or bus stations should also be avoided.
He said anyone who’s been vaccinated has nothing to fear.
State officials said cases range from 7 months to 70 years old. About 25% of those infected had to be hospitalized and five of the sickened were Disney employees.
Chavez said California averages 4 to 60 measles cases a year, so 2015 is off “to a bad start.” He said that it’s likely they won’t be able to find patient zero for this outbreak.
Weekend earthquakes shook California and caused rock slides in Idaho.
Two back-to-back quakes struck southern California Saturday night with the strongest a magnitude 4.2 according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That quake was centered around 8 miles north of Castaic, California.
“All of the sudden it was two big rattles and little rumbles afterwards,” Castaic resident Jessica Shickle told NBC Los Angeles. “It was like the Lord literally just took our house and just kind of gave it a couple shakes, and that was it and it went away.”
USGS seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones told NBC the quake was basically small.
“This really is a very small earthquake,” Dr. Jones said. “It’s a size that’s relatively common in Southern California. I did a check and there were eight earthquakes 4.2 and larger in 2014.”
On Sunday, a 4.9 magnitude quake rocked Challis, Idaho and surrounding areas. The quake was followed by aftershocks of 4.0 and 3.6 a few hours later.
The 4.9 quake caused rock slides that blocked roadways but officials say there were no serious injuries.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 3.9 earthquake struck Tuesday off the coast of San Pedro, California.
The tremor struck around 3:26 p.m.
The epicenter was 16 miles from Long Beach and 14 miles from Rancho Palos Verdes. The quake was reportedly shallow at a depth of 2 miles.
Residents of the area said that the quake felt a lot bigger than the USGS report.
“Felt much stronger than a 3.9,” Chris DuRee, who was near downtown Long Beach, told KTLA-TV. “Rattled softly and then a few strong rolls. No damage anywhere.”
No reports of significant damage or injuries according to local officials.
Los Angeles is one earthquake away from losing a major part of their water supply.
The city of Los Angeles gets almost 90 percent of its water from three major aqueducts. These aqueducts run from the Colorado River, Owens Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The aqueducts cross the well-known San Andreas Fault a total of 32 times.
This means any major quake along that fault line could end the water supply into the nation’s second largest city.
Mayor Eric Garcetti is calling on city officials to create better plans to protect the city’s water supply.
“[Water is] one of L.A.’s greatest earthquake vulnerabilities,” Garcetti told the L.A. Times. “If it were to take six months to get our water system back … residents and businesses would be forced to relocate for so long that they might never come back.”
Officials are looking to San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission for a possible solution. The SFPUC recently installed a specially designed pipe over a fault line that has “accordion-like joints” that would allow the pipe to flex and move in any direction should the fault line move.
“We’re the first city that’s really bet its life on outside water,” U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones told the Times. “We have to cross the faults. There’s no way to not go over the fault.”
“There should be a serious dialogue among the agencies that are responsible for the three sources of water to Southern California,” said Thomas O’Rourke, a Cornell University engineering professor. “Sometimes it’s very difficult to go beyond those institutional barriers…. Somebody just has to take it up.”
A massive storm rolled into northern California on Thursday, knocking out power, flooding highways and toppling trees.
Strong winds contributed to the death of a 40-year-old homeless man who had been sleeping on a trail when a tree fell on him. An elementary school student survived in what local officials called a miracle after an 80-foot tree fell on him. He is listed in good condition at a hospital.
“It’s a big storm, as we expected, and it’s headed south with very powerful winds and heavy rainfall,” National Weather Service meteorologist Will Pi told Fox News.
Parts of Southern California that are prone to mudslides have been evacuating ahead of the storm. At least one apartment complex was entirely evacuated because of previous slides in the area. Lumberjacks in the San Bernardino National Forest were putting concrete weights on lumber stacks to keep them from collapsing from the high winds.
Many stores have been blocking their doors with sandbags in anticipation of flooding.
California officials are concerned about the San Bernardino Mountains because of the wildfires in the last few years that has devastated the vegetation and made the land primed for major mudslides.
The storm is also expected to dump feet of snow in the mountains and ski resort operators say they expect to have over three feet of new snow by the weekend.
Protesters upset over the death of a convicted criminal while he had been resisting arrest and another who attempted to take a police officer’s gun to shoot him blocked a California highway for hours Monday night.
The protesters had been marching through Berkeley in a mostly peaceful protest although some businesses suffered broken storefront windows. After a short time, the protesters jumped a fence and blocked Interstate 80.
The protesters continued to block the highway despite a heavy police presence forcing police to stop traffic on the highway for the safety of the protesters.
The protesters were shouting, “Shut it down for Michael Brown.”
The protesters also forced an Amtrak train to stop. The California Highway Patrol said they arrested over 150 protesters on a variety of charges.
Despite the damage and delays caused to others not connected to the Michael Brown or Eric Garner situations, protesters continued to insist the protests were only peaceful.
“I want to tell you this is a peaceful protest,” said Nisa Dang, an African-American student at U.C. Berkeley. “I want to also say this is a protest for black students, for black bodies. If they want to take the lead, let them take the lead.”
Berkeley’s mayor told the New York Times he was disappointed in the protests.
“It’s ironic that the place with probably the strongest supporters is being trashed,” said Tom Bates. “What we have are a lot of people who are outside agitators who want to disrupt and cause violence with the police.”
“[I am] totally devastated and disappointed,” Bates added. “What could have been peaceful deteriorated into people attacking the police and doing damage.”
The CDC is confirming that California is in the midst of a whooping cough outbreak.
Doctors say that the outbreak is the worst in 70 years and there is over 1,000 more cases than the last major outbreak in 2010. Over 9,900 cases have been reported and confirmed as of November 26th.
The disease, known as pertussis, is caused by bacteria and is known to run on a 3 to 5 year peak cycle.
“The last time a series of outbreaks occurred across the country, California started the parade,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told ABC News. “And so this is a harbinger we are fearful of.”
The CDC says that 50 percent of children under a year old who catch the disease need to be hospitalized and up to 2 percent die.
The CDC is requesting that all pregnant women be injected with the whooping couch vaccine with the hope that the injection will pass the protection from mother to child.
Religious freedom attorneys have filed a lawsuit in California aimed at protecting the religious freedom of a first grade student who was harassed by his school for handing out candy canes last Christmas with a message of Jesus.
Isaiah Martinez was told by his teacher “Jesus is not allowed in school” and prohibited from handing out the candy canes.
Advocates for Faith & Freedom filed suit in U.S. District Court to prohibit the West Covina Unified School District from stopping Isaiah’s distribution of the candy canes this year.
“The school has neglected to correct its actions, and after exhausting all options to avoid a lawsuit we were left with no choice but to file a complaint in federal court. We are asking the court to protect Isaiah’s rights and the rights of others like him from having their religious speech censored. Students do not shed their First Amendment rights just because they enter into a classroom,” attorney Robert Tyler said.
There has been no official statement from the school, however attorney James Long with the AFF says the school has made it clear they want only “religious neutrality.”