Residents in northern California are still cleaning up after an early morning earthquake that measured 6.4 on the open ended Richter Scale. The temblor struck Humboldt County at about 2 o’clock in the morning shutting down power to 71 thousand homes. The latest toll indicates 2 people died and 11 were injured in the shaking, but buildings were left intact.

The town of Ferndale was the hardest hit where the damage included roads in the area. The quake was centered  in the Pacific Ocean about 7 miles off the California coast, but according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, fortunately it did not produce a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quakes occurred in a region where three of the earth’s plates come together known as the Mendocino Triple Junction. It;s also an area of high seismic activity that averages about 80 quakes annually.

-Tony Lee