Northern California parish evacuated after earthquake and tsunami warning

Written by Matt MacDonald

CNA Staff, December 6, 2024 at 11:25 am

An earthquake and tsunami warning in Northern California on Thursday prompted a widespread flight to higher ground, including at the parish office of at least one Catholic church.

said Rex Atienza, office manager of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Arcata, which is about 1.5 miles north of Arcata Bay and about 6 miles east of the Pacific Ocean.

“There was a big jolt,” Atienza told CNA by phone. “And after people started leaving the building and were outside, when I was in the entrance, I could still feel the building moving from left to right.”

“It lasted. I would say maybe 20 to 30 seconds. Which seemed longer in real time,” he said.

Many members of the parish staff left the parish lands for higher altitudes. He added that a nearby public school was also evacuated.

Some people in the area went to a local high school, others to a supermarket, and two parish priests went to the Newman Center at nearby Cal Poly Humboldt, Atienza said.

He said the parish building remained empty for about an hour and 45 minutes until he received a clear message from the Humboldt County regional government.

Arcata is located in Santa Rosa Parish, where much early interest was focused.

About 110 miles to the southeast, in Marin County, Father Gabriel Wancar felt the quake Thursday morning and rushed to the parish school of St. Anselm Catholic Church in Ross, where he works as a priest.

“I felt some strange movement but before I could figure out what was happening, a tsunami alert went off on my phone and I realized what was happening. So, I immediately headed to the school to be with the kids,” Wankar told CNA via email.

He said the children and staff remained where they were. No damage or injuries were reported.

Ross is in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where the Central Office of Catholic Schools sent school administrators a letter saying parents are welcome to pick up their children but that Catholic schools will remain open unless public schools in the area are closed.

The quake and subsequent tsunami warning were national news for part of Thursday, as fears of a devastating series of long waves caused by the quake prompted people near the coast to seek safer places.

At 10:49 a.m. PT, the National Tsunami Warning Center on Thursday issued a tsunami warning for the northern California and southern Oregon coast, based on an earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean about 45 miles southwest of Eureka, California. The agency canceled the tsunami warning just over an hour later, at 11:54 a.m., according to the National Tsunami Warning Center website.

The northern coast of California near Cape Mendocino is “one of the most seismically active areas in the United States” and had witnessed five earthquakes “approaching magnitude 7” before Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

Matt MacDonald is a reporter at the National Catholic Register and editor of the New Boston Post.

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