The quake was reported around 2:30 a.m. local time. Tens of thousands of customers were without power.
FORTUNA, Calif. — A 6.4-magnitude earthquake shook Humboldt County in Northern California early Tuesday morning, the United States Geological Survey reported, injuring at least two people, damaging homes and roads and leaving more than 70,000 customers without electricity.
Emergency authorities were still assessing the destruction as light rain fell in the heavily forested region of rural Northern California, where the quake struck in the frigid dark at 2:34 a.m. local time about 12 miles west of Ferndale. By 5 a.m., poweroutage.us reported that about 72,000 customers in Humboldt County, about 72 percent of the total customers there, were without power. The oceanside county is more than 200 miles north of San Francisco in a seismically active area.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said no tsunami was anticipated, but reported “widespread” damage. Officials asked people to avoid calling 911 unless they were experiencing an immediate emergency.
There were more than two dozen aftershocks by 4 a.m., including at least five that were magnitude 3 or higher, the U.S.G.S. reported.