7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Southern California on Friday night — the second one near Ridgecrest in less than two days. The latest earthquake occurred 11 miles northeast of Ridgecrest, according to the US Geological Survey. It comes a day after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake centered near Ridgecrest rattled the state Thursday. That earthquake has produced more than 1,400 aftershocks, scientists said. Multiple fires and injuries have been reported in Ridgecrest — about 150 miles from Los Angeles — after Friday’s earthquake, Kern County spokeswoman Megan Person told CNN. An emergency operations center is being set up in Bakersfield, she said.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Thursday struck shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern at Southern California cantered in a remote desert area in the middle of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, as per to the United States Geological Survey. The shock was so strong that it is considered to be the one of the most powerful quakes to shake that region in 20 years.
Though after such an enormous 6.4-magnitude earthquake, thankfully there are no causalities and serious injuries or afterward threat, according to the initial reports. The authorities also told the reporters at a news conference that there is no such report of someone being seriously injured by the temblor.
In a statement, a geophysicist, Paul Caruso, with the United States Geological Survey said that the earthquake hit a remote area in the Mojave Desert which is around a hundred miles north of Los Angeles and 50 miles east of Bakersfield. And it would have been far more worse than it appears currently.
Mr. Caruso said, “It’s been widely felt, but we don’t expect any significant damage,” he added, “An earthquake that strong that occurred near a city would cause major destruction and probably a lot of casualties,”
Emergency officials in Kern County, Calif., have responded to approximately two dozen occurrences comprising people demanding medical help and structure fires around the city of Ridgecrest, where a local hospital had also to be evacuated, as per to the county officials. Though there were no case of serious injuries reported, but there were still some houses that got on fire, power lines were downed as well as some gas leaks reports have been reported.
Chief Witt also said in a statement, “We have more calls than we have people,” he added, “However, within two hours, we’ll have a lot of people to help.”
According to seismologist Lucy Jones at the California Institute of Technology, there are more aftershocks, even additional large quake, may possibly occur in the coming days.
Jones also said that the quake was the largest in Southern California since the year 1999.
This huge earthquake not only caused dozens of aftershocks but also several reports of around two dozen fire along with medical incidents have been reported. The evacuation of several different apartment buildings was also gone underway and was completed successfully without any major injuries.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office also said that the Ridgecrest hospital and several other apartment buildings had been evacuated immediately and the temporary shelters have been opened at two locations as well that also comprises a Walmart in Ridgecrest.
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