Quake-Caused Rockslides Shut Yosemite Roads

Huge boulders knocked loose by an earthquake blocked one road into Yosemite National Park today, and two of the three other highways leading into the park were also closed by rockslides.

No injuries were reported from the quake, which was felt Tuesday night from San Francisco to Nevada and shook up casinos and hotels in South Lake Tahoe and Reno. It registered a preliminary magnitude of 5.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Six-foot-high boulders forced the closure of Highway 120 on the west side of the park. A three-foot section of the highway was gone, and a retaining wall was lost.

“It’s not a big pile of small rocks, it’s a small pile of big rocks,” U.S. Park Service Ranger Kelly McClaskey said.

A rockslide half a mile away closed Highway 140 into the park, but that was expected to be cleaned up today, Ranger Scot Bowen said. State highway crews were also clearing away a slide on Highway 120 on the east side of the park. A road from the south was unaffected.

The quake’s center was in Lee Vining, a town of 400 people northeast of Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada and about 190 miles southeast of San Francisco, said Pat Jorgenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey.

“It was a rolling, strong jolt and lasted about 25 seconds,” said Robin Bergmann, a resident of Manteca, about 120 miles from Lee Vining.

“We had lots of calls but no reports of injury,” said Mono County Sheriff’s Deputy Suzanne Sturdivant, who said the quake lasted about 45 seconds.

Elaine West, a telephone operator at Caesar’s in South Lake Tahoe, said the quake left “a lot of frightened guests” at the hotel and casino.

“In the gift shop, things started clinking around, and that’s how the girls in the gift shop knew about it,” she said.

Syrena Styff, an employee at Harrah’s in Reno, said guests reported feeling dizzy but did not immediately realize a quake had struck.