6.9 Quake Rocks N. California Coast : Destruction: Dozens of Victorian homes are wrenched off foundations. At least 35 are injured. Worst damage is in Ferndale, which was holding a festival.

A powerful earthquake rocked California’s remote north coast on Saturday, knocking brick facades off buildings, sparking fires that destroyed several businesses and a post office, and sending at least 35 people to hospitals with cuts, broken bones or chest pains.

The magnitude 6.9 quake began its long rumble through Humboldt County at 11:06 a.m. and was centered in a rural area about 35 miles south of Eureka, seismologists said. Shock waves were felt 260 miles away in San Francisco and in parts of Oregon and Nevada.

The heaviest damage was in Ferndale, a dairy town and artist colony of 1,700 that is home to some of California’s best-preserved Victorian homes. The town was sponsoring a “Best of the West Festival,” and its quaint shops and sidewalks were jammed with celebrants in Western garb when the shaking began.

“It was one enormous pow--a bang--and then it just kept going and going,” said Gary Edgemon, 41, who owns a Ferndale meat market and serves with the town’s volunteer Fire Department. “When the faces of the buildings fall off and windows start falling out, you know it’s something else.”

Pat Tomasini was in the kitchen of her blue, two-story Victorian home when the quake struck.

“I heard the door pop, then the windows popped, then the dishes came flying out of the cupboards,” Tomasini said. “I tried to run out the back door, but there was no porch there, so my husband took me out the kitchen window.”

Downtown, people were knocked screaming to the ground by violent tremors that shattered large storefront windows on Main Street. Two people were injured and two cars were crushed when the red brick facade of Valley Grocery--housed in one of Ferndale’s numerous turn-of-the-century buildings--crashed down.

At least two dozen of the town’s restored Victorian homes--many of which house bed and breakfast inns and were full of guests Saturday--were thrown off their foundations. The jolt also toppled chimneys and ripped porches from many homes.

Officials temporarily closed the main road into Ferndale and water, telephone and power service were unavailable to many residents throughout the region for much of the day.

Shortly after the quake, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency. Authorities urged people to stay in their homes, check their gas lines and gather emergency supplies to prepare for aftershocks, which continued through the day.

The stretch of coast near Eureka is one of the most seismically active regions of California, a spot where three tectonic plates--the Pacific, the North American and the Gorda--intersect. During the last two decades, at least 10 strong quakes have rattled residents of the remote region. Saturday’s quake was the fourth temblor measuring greater than 6.5 to strike the area since 1980.

Tsunami centers in Hawaii and Alaska were alerted but no warnings were issued.

The Ferndale quake came three days after a 6.1 temblor shook remote desert communities of southeastern California about 600 miles to the south. Seismologists said the two events were not related.

In October, 1989, California’s most deadly recent earthquake--the Loma Prieta quake--struck the Bay Area, killing 67 people, destroying 1,500 homes and causing $7 billion in damage. That quake was initially measured at magnitude 6.9--like Saturday’s--but later was revised to a 7.1 quake.

While Ferndale endured the brunt of Saturday’s losses, there were reports of damage from throughout Humboldt County, a scenic, isolated region best known for its ancient redwood groves and struggling logging industry.

In Petrolia, a sheep ranching town of about 1,000 people south of Ferndale, at least 20 homes were jarred off their foundations. A post office, restaurant and store were burned to the ground, and the fire station and Town Hall also were damaged, officials with the state Office of Emergency Services reported.

One unidentified man said he and his wife were exploring tide pools on the coast near Petrolia when the quake hit.

“We were knocked completely off our feet,” he said. “The cliff above us began sliding down . . . like a big rockslide. I yelled at my wife: ‘Run for the beach!’ and we ran.”

The town of Loleta also lost its post office and a store, said Steve Knight, a spokesman for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department.

In Fortuna, the downtown business district was described as “a disaster area” by resident Diana Lewis.

“My son and I were in a cafe and it was literally destroyed,” Lewis said. “The gas grill (that) weighs several hundreds pounds was picked up and moved two feet. It was terrible.”

Caroline Weed, curator of the Fortuna Depot Museum, was at an outdoor rummage sale in Fortuna with her two daughters when “the ground just started moving and never quit. We had to hold on to one another to stand up. It was very scary.”

Officials in Eureka--the largest city in Humboldt County--said supermarkets and the Bayshore Mall were closed because of toppled shelves and other minor damage. Traffic lights were out, but residents quickly assisted overworked police in directing motorists.

California 254, known as the Avenue of the Giants, was closed because of a downed power line and three landslides.

At the Humboldt County Fairgrounds, the Red Cross set up shelters for those who lost their homes and the Salvation Army was preparing meals for victims.

Of the 35 people injured in the quake, 11 people were reported hospitalized Saturday. John Coleman of Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna said the injured mostly suffered bruises and cuts, but some had chest pains and broken bones.

Tom Mullins, a spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento, said damage and casualties would have been much more severe if the earthquake had struck in a more populated area.

“It was a strong earthquake, but the area is relatively rural and relatively sparsely populated,” Mullins said.

As they boarded up their businesses and braced themselves for aftershocks, residents of Ferndale reflected glumly on the wounds the quake had inflicted on their picturesque town.

Set in the fertile Eel River Valley, Ferndale was founded in 1852 by Danish dairy farmers. Today, descendants of those first families coexist with artists, innkeepers and retirees in a town designated as a State Historic Landmark. There are no parking meters, traffic lights or postal delivery and residents like it that way.

Edgemon, the volunteer firefighter, said the quake was “a major blow and catastrophe” for Ferndale, which had been abuzz with pony rides, a parade and other festivities when the quake began.

Gil Santiago, pastor of Ferndale’s Lutheran Church, was one of a few dozen people forced to find shelter because their homes were torn asunder.

Santiago said the earthquake started a small fire at his church, next to his home, but that it was quickly extinguished by parishioners.

“We have no water, no electricity, no phones,” Santiago said. “We can’t go back into our house.”

Times staff writer Jenifer Warren contributed to this story in Los Angeles.