Score one for superstition. About 4:30 this afternoon I felt an earthquake. Well, didn't feel so much as hear. The windows rattled, the house creaked a bit, and I distinctly heard a neighbor's wind chimes clinking in the windless air. I tough perhaps it was another of the infrequent temblors that visit the mountains east of here, but checking with the USGS web site I found that at 4:27 local time a good-sized (6.5) shock had struck off the Humboldt County coast, well over a hundred miles from here. That's about where the San Andreas Fault veers seaward and gets lost in the Pacific.
There has apparently been only moderate damage in the area, though as of eleven o'clock tonight many areas of Humboldt County are still without electric power. Ongoing reports at Humboldt Online.
Unless this turns out to be a foreshock to something much grander, I don't expect any more shaking this far east. We might get more rain, though, if what little water the current system has dropped can be called rain. Yawn. I'm going to go watch television.
Bonus Link Update (nothing to do with the original post but must be shared immediately.)
Giant Bears!
