Very shallow. They felt this all the way down to mexico. They have felt this in las vegas. You would feel a 7. 1 magnitude and everyone is heightened alert. And to say that these aftershocks are going to occur for years is very unnerving to people who wont even sleep in their own homes. Karen joining us from the cnn weather center. Well speak again very soon. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. We continue our live coverage of the tremor that was felt about two, 2 1 2 hours ago in california. A followup to thursdays tremor which we now know was a fore shock. Thursday was a 6. 4 earthquake in ridgecrest, california. Friday saw a 7. 1 earthquake. That is five times bigger than what we saw on thursday. Were getting all reactions from our teams on the ground, from sarah sidner, our metrologist. I want to speak to the owners of a Super 8 Motel in ridgecrest. Thank you for joining us. What did you experience . Caller i was checking a customer and i was at the front desk. And we had this little shake, so we stepped out. We went back in and right after that, what we saw was massive. It was the first time i experienced something. I felt like the whole building was going to collapse. We ran out on the road. I could hear those sounds of earthquake, the rattling, the shaking. The whole building was shaking to the point where i thought the whole roof was going to come
down. It was really bad from what we experienced yesterday. I just started crying. I just felt whether we are going to survive this or not. And then every moment i was feeling, thats it, the top, and we rushed to the super 8 sign. Me and the other guests, we held each other tight and we were praying for the shakes to stop. Caller i had gone sorry. Go go ahead. Caller i had gone to get groceries. And my car was jumping, you know, up and down like front and back. And it was i felt like i was going to hit the car in front of the in front of my car. And it was crazy. Ive never seen Something Like this in my life. It was scary. Thats how bad the roads were . The roads were shaking so much that you couldnt control your car . Caller i was out of the car. The car was moving and i had to i was not able to keep my balance on the ground, you know. Caller it was really bad. I kind of rushed to the roads and i was scared that the cars might hit me. So i just went to the property next door. It was so shaky, we werent able to maintain our balance. Did you look for a place to hide, or was there no place available . Caller right outside the office is the main road and the cars were moving. It wasnt safe for me to go with the customer on the car on the road, so we were just i was just holding her. She was an old lady. I just held her tight. We were supporting each other. We walked to the super 8 sign. We felt that was something with
which we could hold on. We felt there was nothing over us that would collapse down. Thats what we felt was the safest place at the moment. Right across from us was the road and that was not safe for us. Tell me about the guests. Caller everyone was panicked. Fortunately we have the usgsa team staying and they warned us that we were going to get some shocks. We requested all of our guests to be alert. Everyone rushed out of their rooms. Basically the 8 05 shock that we experienced at that time, the guests were already out and we requested them to stay out for a bit and even the we have teams from the ucla stays here
who are reporting the earthquake. They were here right there. And they just they were really helpful. They kept everyone calm and we all were out here. It was scary. Let me point out a few things. You said you had the usgs team stays at your hotel and they told you to expect Something Like that, am i right . Caller it was the general thing not we will experience some aftershocks. But we were not aware of something which was going to be this big. They had just warned you about aftershocks in general. Caller yeah. And you said your guests were already outside the hotel . Caller we had experienced a little shock at 8 05. So we all rushed out anyway and then i think the major one came
later on. Excuse me for the timing if im wrong on that. I really dont remember all that. But we had a little bit what do you call a shock before the major one, the 7. 1. I think first of all, youve got the timing roughly right between 8 00 and 9 00 p. M. Your time. Our own correspondent had the same reaction. She was a little stunned and couldnt pinpoint the time of the big one. What about the neighborhood . What are you seeing . Caller we saw a couple of sparks behind the building. Caller right now there are all ambulances going here and Police Patrolling and everything. Caller all the guests are out. Caller everyone is outside. Everyone is scared. They dont want to go in the room as of now. Everyone is in the parking lot as of this moment. Can you guarantee that its
safe to go back in the hotel . I suppose not. Caller that is why we are out and everyone is out. Everyone is scared including us. All of us we are just outside. Were trying to help them, give them waters and trying to help them be strong and even with the team, just being together. We all are in the parking lot helping each other as a team. And you say youre seeing i think you said police cars, ambulances, what can you tell us about that . Caller we had like right before we started, we had a Helicopter Patrolling right above us. Ambulances are passing, so im sure there might be going on in the neighborhood. And then cop cars are obviously, you know theyre just moving. We have a restaurant next door. You saw them, right . Caller i dont exactly know what happened over there. But theres an ambulance there. But im not sure what happened there. Caller theyre right next door. Listen, thank you so much for your vivid account of what happened. I wish the best for you, for the guests at your hotel, for this night. I hope also that there are no larger tremors in the 24 hours that come. Thank you so much. Caller youre welcome. Lets bring in brent tanner right now. Can you tell us what your experience has been . Caller its been a little crazy the last 24 hours. We live on an Acreage Overlooking the town and we were all outside letting the grandkids play and the cars started dancing, the dogs were freaking out, the cattle behind
us was going nuts. And you stay there had and rode it out . Caller yeah. Theres nowhere to go. They got helicopters flying up everywhere. We can see a few plumes in smoke down in town. We saw a couple house fires. Do you still have power . Caller we have power at our house. There were some major flashes on the power line when the second quake was going on, but other than that, weve had uninterpret uninterrupted power. In our house we lost a lot of stuff yesterday. We pulled a lot off the shelves, took all the pictures down. The Refrigerator Doors opened up, but other than that, we were secured. You said the grandkids playing around. What are you guys doing as a family tonight . My daughters didnt want to
go home yesterday so they stayed the night here and the kids have been cooped up and we had them out riding their bikes. What are you going to do tonight . We dont know yet. No one is wanting to go in the house. I dont know if were going to stay out in the yard all night or pull the rv around and stay in it. Ive spoken to quite a few residents of ridgecrest at this stage and i spoke to some who said they were on a mattress inside their house but were ready to jump out. Ive spoken to some who say theyre moving to their cars. Are you considering anything like that . Caller we might stay outside. Last night we didnt get any sleep. Every time an aftershock hit, we would run back to help her by the time we get to her, the after shock would be done. Other than that, we dont really have a plan. How are the grandkids are handling . My grandson is getting ready to turn 3. The news keeps talking about the big one that could be coming. So hes nervous about that. Weve been trying to reassure him that it was going to be okay. Tonight didnt help that because it was bigger. I guess hes learning to be a californian in some ways. He definitely is. How is your outlook . It sounds like youve had a better time of it than many other residents of ridgecrest. How do you feel about this not knowing exactly where this goes from here . Im born and raised here in ridgecrest. Weve had earthquakes throughout the years. I dont think its as bad as people are showed. It seems to be played up just a little bit. We had a friend lose a House Yesterday and some classic cars. Theres damage in town. I can tell you what were showing right now, were showing a burning house. What were concerned about is the ruptured gas lines and we
have at least one instance of a mobile home catching fire so were looking at that and were looking at early reports of any damage around the city. Yeah. I saw that on the news earlier today. I had another friend to call and check on us and he had a natural gas line ruptured into his house. He shut it off. The helicopters are flying above and checking the main power lines. A lot of the city lights are still on. I can see Emergency Vehicles all through down. But other than that, other than the aftershocks, its regular old friday night. A question ive been meaning to ask, did you get any kind of warning either yesterday or today about this, that this might come from usgs or other authorities . We didnt get any warnings at all. Weve been watching the news, the usgs going on about it. They were doing a count down, so we were waiting for one to
happen. But the aftershocks are nonstop. Thank you so much for taking the time. I wish the best for you, your family, your 3yearold grandson whos kind of trial by fire when it comes to earthquakes. Thanks a lot. Caller have a good night. Paul, where are you and what are you seeing . Caller well im still in ridgecrest. We shot that house fire earlier. What often happens is you have the situation where gas lines get ruptured. This is another gas line rupture. They got in here and they put this out rather quickly. Another very fast action by the fire department. This is what theyre looking for throughout the city. You can see that these gas fires will start long after the earthquake happens. One of the neighbors over here saw all of this. Can you come out here and were doing this off of a phone right now. Ill have you stand right here and talk. Tell me what you saw. When we came out, there was other people already here and they were trying to get a hose over so we could get some water on it. We could see smoke coming out of the pipe on the roof, and then it started coming out of the roof. What have these days been like for you . Pretty crazy. I was able to sleep last night, unlike some people. But today has been a little wild with that 7. 0 this evening. That was crazy. Describe for us your emotions when you first felt that rocker . I cant say it on tv and my parents wouldnt want me to say
it. And i was praying for safety for all of us. Can you describe what it sou sounded like and felt like. A lot of rocking. The first one before it, the 4. 7 was some rolling, made me a little nauseous and then that 7 hit and that was rocking. Everything was shaking and i just got under the desk and hid until it stopped. How long have you lived in ridgecrest . Almost 15 years, i think. Can you describe the residence of this high Desert Valley and how theyre coping with all of this . Theyre really coming together. It has that rural feel and its a really tight knit community. A lot of people have been coming out and responding. People have been taking water. Helping people out. Theyre just amazing. Thank you so much. And stay safe. Thank you. You heard her refer to the estate, that is the Mobile Home Park that got hit hard. They had three homes that were were getting word from the Current County supervisor, lets listen in. Okay. Question. Whats the plan . The plan is to do a search of ridgecrest for life and property and address those specific issues. Next . Reporter do you have any reported injuries . There are a lot of medical aid calls out there. We know of no fatalities at this time. However, there have been a lot of ambulance calls. Nick is with us by phone, hes the Current County supervisor. Can you assess for us whats
happened this evening. Our situation of the awareness is its incomplete. Its slowly building. Thanks to the chief giving us information here at the Command Center. Were able to tell you that we have about 1,300 people without power. We have multiple fires. We had two fires. Dont know injury reports yet. But the situation is building. We have multiple gas leaks and well see what happens the rest of the evening. Do you have the resources to right now, ive talked with the governor, ive talked with the white house, ive talked with both states about the federal Kamala Harris and dianne feinstein, everybody is pitching in and helping. Weve declared an emergency. The state is helping with that. The world knows Whats Going On and everybody is throwing everything they got at us. Whats the absolute priority
when loss of life. Right now theres two things that we dictated to our Command Center and that is prevent any loss of life and property damage. Those are our two initial objectives and thats what were trying to do first and foremost. How are you doing on those two fronts . I understand its a fluid right now theres no fatalities. I dont know injuries. Im still working on that. Im hopeful its not as im hopeful its a good report. Im optimistic that it will be. Property damage is undetermined as of yet. At least two structure fires. One of them has been put out. I dont know the situation on the other one. But we have dozens of fire trucks and lots of activities and people are doing a lot of great work here. I think we should have things under control, as long as we can get the gas leaks under control. Can i get the number again of
people without power. 1,394. One of our reporters also filmed a house fire. I know that early concerns were about a mobile park in ridgecrest. Is that something youve been able to address . Yes. We worked that. We visited it today and were taking every measure we can to get the people situated and take care of this situation. Were doing the best we can. And im what about the one more question, go ahead. What about the naval station . Dont know anything about that. I had a tour today. Everything was under control. I have not contacted him since this recent 7. 1 earthquake. I look forward to doing that soon. Im optimistic that theyre well managed. All right. Thank you so much for taking the time. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Alex field is in ridgecrest. Alex, what activity are you seeing . We are still outside the hospital here. In the beginning, we did see people coming in. Thats seemed to have slowed down now. You certainly heard the sirens blaring, you saw ambulances, fire cars and police cars tearing down the streets through this neighborhood trying to respond clearly to an unknown situation and a number of calls. At one point we had tried to call 911 to get help for a woman who was crying for help. We werent able to get through. It is pitch black here in this neighborhood. The power went out. Were no longer seeing the flames or the smoke that we had seenarou seen around the corner and down the block. Because it is dark, many will
not know the extent of the damage until theres daylight, until theyre able to get a look around. And certainly theres a sense of anxiety. There are frayed nerves every time we feel a little tremor out here in the parking lot outside the hospital. It really stops you in your tracks. It gives everyone pause and everyone looks around for a moment and then you kind of resume. But i think there will be a lot of people who are going to absolutely have a Sleepless Night and wonder what their homes will look like in the morning. But more important than that, knowing that loved ones are okay. I dont know if this is relevant to the neighborhood where you are now, do you know if people are going to be in their homes tonight . Ive spoken to people who say they feel unsafe going back into their houses . It is not clear if anyone in this neighborhood has been told yet that they can or should go back into their house. I think out of caution and also
as a reaction to what people in this area experienced just maybe a couple of hours ago now, that theres probably going to be a great deal of hesitation about returning to a house at this point. It is pitch black. You cannot see the houses. You do not know what kind of damage your house might have sustained. You dont know if there are issues with cracks, problem with the foundation, and you dont know what kind of aftershocks you could face through the night. The darkness is not working in anyones favor and it wont be until morning that people will have a sense of ease for returning to their homes. Weve not returned to our hotel. Are you feeling, have you been feeling a lot of aftershocks in the last hour and a half since we started talking. We have been feeling them. We got out here about this time yesterday, almost 24 hours since weve been out here now. So weve gotten used to feeling the aftershocks. This morning i was jolted awake at 4 00 in the morning. That was a tremor of 5. 4. That was the largest after shock until the event this evening and that really rattled all of us. It sat everyone straight up in their beds and we all discussed that was a frightening experience. You felt these lesser tremors throughout. The day. Just before the big one, there was a tremor. People were yelling out, some of them were clapping. Then you got the big one, that changed the tone entirely. Weve been feeling periodically small ones. Maybe every few minutes or so you will feel a little bit of movement on the ground beneath you and it takes on a whole new sense of urgency. How would you describe peoples State Of Mind . Nervous. Anxious. I certainly hadnt been through Something Like this before. We had spent the day here talking to people who experienced a 6. 4 magnitude earthquake earlier this week. Thats really no small thing. But the overwhelming sense around here is that, you know, the damage from that one on thursday could have been so much bigger, could have been so much greater. There werent any serious injuries, there was no entrapment. There was a collective sigh of relief about that. There was of course the recognition that there would continue to be hundreds of aftershocks, but i dont think that many people thought that this event would be larger than the one that preceded it on thursday. Certainly seismologists leave room for that possibility, but many people here were not a