Napa, Calif., quake: Scores of homes uninhabitable, many without water

Hundreds of properties in Napa remain without water as city officials continue to take stock of the damage caused by a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck early Sunday.

At a news conference Monday, Napa City Manager Mike Parness said “very, very impressive progress” had been made in terms of restoring power and gas service to an estimated 70,000 customers. As of midday, just 15 customers remained without power, he said.

Crews were working to fix 90 leaks in the water system as hundreds of customers waited for their service to be re-connected.

“I can tell you that with 10 crews, we’re doing our level best to get everybody back and fixed as quickly as possible,” Public Works Director Jacques LaRochelle said.

Centered about nine miles south of wine country’s Napa at 3:20 a.m., the earthquake was the largest to strike the Bay Area since the 6.9 Loma Prieta temblor of 1989, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and it lasted 10 to 20 seconds, depending on “where you were located exactly.”

Officials were still in the process of assessing the city’s infrastructure and did not yet have a damage estimate, which will be needed as they press for a federal disaster declaration.

“One of the first things we’ll be doing is figuring out what this means in terms of impact,” Parness said.

Getting the declaration would unlock significantly greater resources for property owners, he added.

So far, 49 buildings had been red-tagged, and more than 100 had been yellow-tagged. Queen of the Valley Medical Center had treated 208 people with injuries related to the earthquake, mostly cuts and scrapes, officials said.

The earthquake also set off 50 fires. One fire destroyed six mobile homes.

The CHP reported that California 121 at California 29 was damaged, with cracks that could cause flat tires. The CHP for the Solano district dispatched its graveyard shift immediately to search for damage and quickly found it: An overpass in Vallejo on California 37 headed toward American Canyon showed several areas where the roadway had separated and concrete had crumbled.

According to the USGS, the earthquake occurred within 44 miles of a set of major faults along the San Andreas fault system that forms the boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.

The earthquake jolted wine sellers in the vineyard-rich area, smashing costly bottles.

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