Magnitude 4.8 Quake Shakes Wine Country
A moderate earthquake measuring magnitude 4.8 shook Northern California’s wine country 12 miles north of Santa Rosa on Monday morning, causing minor breakage in stores and homes but no injuries, the U.S. Geological Survey and police agencies reported.
The 7:16 a.m. temblor was felt sharply in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties north of San Francisco in a geologically active area of geysers and hot springs that had not suffered such a strong shaking in 26 years. At Healdsburg, on the Redwood Highway north of Santa Rosa, Mark Romany, manager of a Safeway store, said wine bottles and spaghetti sauce jars smashed on the floor.
“I was here when it happened,” Romany said. “We started hearing bottles breaking, and a few ceiling tiles fell. There was very minor damage, and it took us about an hour and a half to clean up.”
The Belvedere Winery south of Healdsburg said not a bottle in 45,000 cases of well-secured wine under storage was broken.
Radio station KVON in Napa said listeners called in reports of china breakage in homes near Mt. St. Helena.
Pat Jorgenson, a spokeswoman for the Geological Survey, said three faults are in the vicinity, and it was uncertain which one was involved.
The quake was the strongest in Sonoma County since Oct. 1, 1969, when magnitude 5.6 and 5.7 shocks resulted in $6 million in damage in Santa Rosa.
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