7.0 Quake Off Coast Of Northern California Triggers Tsunami Warning

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, December 6, 2024…

• Residents and authorities on California’s North Coast are assessing the aftermath from Thursday’s 7.0 earthquake. Fortunately, the quake was centered 70 miles off the coast of Eureka minimizing damage. Immediately after the quake, a precautionary tsunami warning was sent out to residents across a wide swath of coastal Northern California and Oregon, but that was quickly canceled when the threat passed.
• The Butte County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who shot two children Wednesday at the Feather River Adventist School in Oroville.

California Tsunami Warning Triggered By Quake Was No False Alarm, Officials Say

A widespread tsunami warning that was triggered by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake Thursday morning set off an hour of scrambled evacuation efforts across coastal Northern California before it was canceled.

Shaking from the large quake, which struck at 10:44 a.m. off the coast of Humboldt County, was felt across Northern California and the Bay Area, and it prompted early warning alerts on cellphones. It was followed by at least two dozen smaller aftershocks in the area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

By 11:55 a.m., the National Tsunami Warning Center called off the warning, which had covered the Bay Area and other coastal areas stretching from Santa Cruz County to Oregon.

In that hour, though, the seemingly dire messages led to a mix of confusion and indifference throughout the Bay Area as people, and their local leaders, tried to figure out what to make of a widespread tsunami warning. Emergency alerts blared on cellphones across Northern California, and officials rushed to order evacuations for coastal areas in the tsunami risk zone, including West Berkeley and parts of Del Norte County. Schools in Oakland were sheltering in place, and one campus in West Oakland was evacuated.

Butte County K-8 School Shooting: Shooter Identified, Students In ‘Critical But Stable’ Condition

A man who shot and injured two kindergarteners at a private religious school in Butte County on Wednesday was identified by law enforcement as 56-year-old Glenn Litton.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Litton suffered from mental illness and had a lengthy — though not violent — criminal record. He added that Litton was born in Chico and was homeless, moving back and forth between Chico and Sacramento.

The sheriff said Litton may have targeted the Feather River School of Seventh Day Adventists near Oroville based on its religious affiliation.

Litton shot and injured two kindergarteners: 5-year-old Elias Wolford and 6-year-old Roman Mendez, both of whom are in “critical but stable” condition at a hospital in Sacramento.