Downtown Napa remained shuttered on Monday, one day after a 6.0 earthquake jolted the heart of California wine country, though power was restored to nearly all of those plunged into darkness by the strongest quake to rattle the region in 25 years.
"Overall, we've made very, very impressive progress," Napa City Manager Mike Parness said at a Monday news conference where a host of city leaders highlighted the damage and the efforts to clean up the damage in the aftermath of Sunday's big quake. "We've been in emergency mode...We hope by tomorrow we will be in recovery phase."
Residents, businesses and officials continued to take stock of the damages from the temblor, which sent hundreds to the hospital and left up to 100 homes and buildings uninhabitable. The earthquake, which struck for about 10 to 20 seconds at 3:20 a.m. nine miles south of Napa, was the largest to shake the Bay Area since the 6.9-magnitute Loma Prieta quake in 1989. Napa's fire chief said his team quashed 50 fires.
As of 4:30 a.m. Monday, 150 customers were without power, down from 70,000 on Sunday at its peak just after the Napa quake, PG&E said. The utility promised that "all power" would be restored later Monday morning. The Public Works Department in Napa also on Monday updated the number of water lines that broke and needed repair from 60 to 90. Eight had been repaired Sunday night.
On Monday, Napa's Community Development Director Rick Tooker said the number of structures that were red-tagged rose to 44 from 33, meaning they were deemed uninhabitable. In 2009, Napa was ordered to retrofit 18 of its historical downtown buildings up to seismic code. Twelve had been, but six were not - and three of those six suffered the worst damage.
In addition, Tooker also said a total of 100 buildings were yellow tagged, meaning that the owners were given a warning that the structure might be dangerous.
In terms of injuries, a total of 208 patients were treated at Queen of the Valley Medical Center on Sunday, though only 17 were admitted, according to hospital president Walt Mickens. Most suffered cuts to their feet and cardiac conditions. One person suffered a cardiac emergency and was still in critical condition on Monday morning.
The most serious patient, identified on Monday as 13-year-old Nicholas Dillon, was airlifted in in serious condition to UC Davis Hospital, after a chimney collapsed on top of him. But his aunt, Carmen Rosales, told NBC Bay Area that the ordeal could have been worse. Her nephew, was having a sleepover on Saturday night, and quickly moved from the air mattress on which he was sleeping when he felt the first jolt. Soon afterward, the fireplace collapased on the lower half of his body. X-rays show he suffered pelvic fractures, his aunt said, and there is no damage to his spine.
In a statement, the hospital said one person died on Sunday but doctors do not "believe this death was directly related to the earthquake." In addition, parents Connie Navarro and Angel Sanchez gave birth to a baby boy, Ismael Sanchez at 2:37 a.m. Sunday, just before the quake struck. The baby weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces, the hospital reported.
Damage was also reported at wineries and tasting rooms central to the region's famed wine industry, which has an estimated annual economic impact of $13 billion in Napa County alone. In nearby Vallejo, city leaders estimated the damage there cost about $5 million.
CoreLogic, which conducts natural hazard assessments, estimated the economic loss from from the quake in the region could range from $500 million to $1 billion.
The early morning wake-up call was shocking.
“We were just sleeping and all of a sudden there was enormous amount of noise and our bed started bouncing from side to side,” said Dandridge Marsh, 37, who works in the wine retail business and lives in Napa with his wife. “You could hear things falling down.”
There were at least 50 aftershocks reported following the big quake.
All Napa Valley Unified School District schools were closed Monday to inspect for possible damage. Officials announced Monday afternoon public schools would be closed again on Tuesday. Napa Valley College did not suffer any major damage and will be open on Monday.
NBC Bay Area's Gonzalo Rojas, Jodi Hernandez, Marianne Favro, Shelby Hansen, Bob Redell, Riya Bhattacharjee and Geoffrey Eisler contributed to this report.
Photo Credit: NBC Bay Area