not just today but tomorrow and the third day. so this event is not over, and the fear is there s a 1 in 20 chance there could be a stronger earthquake to come along. people should remember the rules of safety. take cover. get underneath something that is sturdy and strong in case things start falling off-the-walls, off the ceiling or you have some incident with the ceiling. that is generally what injures people. if you re in a store try to find something or go underneath a register with somebody because things fly off of shelves, and that is usually how people get injured in these events, brooke. talking to one of those eyewitnesses in ridgecrest and for folks just tuning in addition to the boulders and rock slides and the continued feeling of the after shock, there have been fires reported in the ridgecrest area. tell us what we know about that. we re just getting that from county rescue and they re going out and trying to assess what is going on. do we know for sure it was from
a state of emergency was just declared in the town near the quake s epicenter and emergency workers are responding to injuries. fires, there s rock slides, cracked roads and downed power lines. also breaking, we are standing by for president trump s remarks at his controversial fourth of july celebration. we are told he s still expected to speak this hour despite concerns about bad weather causing delays. and our correspondents and analysts are standing by for this as we cover all of our breaking news this hour. first to cnn s nick watt. he is near the quake epicenter near ridge krefrcrest. what are you seeing there, nick? reporter: brianna, this is the town that bore the brunt of this quake. as you mentioned, the biggest earthquake to hit southern california in 20 years, but its location is key. it s out here in the mojave desert. it s not too close to los angeles. so this town, ridgecrest, bore the brunt. downed power lines, cracks in roads, some cracks in building, a couple of f
sort of thing happens quite often. especially rock slides, something that s very dangerous here as you re driving along some of these roads, bridges. it is pretty common for rock slides and mud slides to actually happen hereafter an event like this. but, you know, keeping in mind how far away we are here in southern california from ridgecrest, 156 or so miles and you re hearing about buildings cracked or rock slides, it gives you an idea of the power of this particular earthquake. and because it was shallow as you heard from seismologist jones that creates the potential for damage. and we now know there is damage of course in and around the epicenter there in ridgecrest. we re hearing that crews is reporting they ve gotten at least two dozen calls for medical emergencies and for
up side of this happening on a holiday. hopefully folks had family and friends around them. it s also my understanding we ve been covering some of these rock slides and, you know, boulders shaking loose. have you it s my understanding you saw some of that? well, i didn t see it. we were on my niece was on her way her coworker, rather, i m sorry, was on her way out of trona and a boulder fell. and a couple of people on their way into tronea said the boulde almost hit their car from the mountain. i know two big boulders came down and broke the concrete, i mean thaasphalt. so there s no way in or out of trona right now. we re stuck. you re stuck. and after shocks, have you felt them? oh, they re coming. they re coming strong. are you from southern
what will happen. we are still waiting to see about these reports of cracks in buildings, rock slides, power outages. so we re getting reports of damage. so far, no reports of injuries. hopefully that s the case for the rest of the day. of course, this is still unfolding and we re going to be finding out what happens in the hours ahead. ridgecrest is 150 miles northeast of los angeles. people felt it in nevada. lucy jones will have another news conference in nine minutes. did you feel it in los angeles? we did. we felt it. it was gentle here. lasted about 10, 15 seconds. we all felt a rolling motion. we all came out into the hallway to see what was going on. we knew it was an earthquake immediately. then it seemed to pass.