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Team Coverage A powerful earthquake that rattled Utah and four other states is still making noise tonight. Twelve hours after the quake, aftershocks were still hitting the town of Wells, Nev.
The earthquake shook part of Nevada earlier today and was felt across much of the West, including Utah. It's likely been 30 years or more since an earthquake of this magnitude has originated between California's Sierra Nevada mountain range and Utah's Wasatch range. No one was seriously injured, but the damage is significant.
The magnitude of the quake, initially estimated at 6.3, was later revised to 6.0 by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. The quake, which struck at 7:16 a.m. Mountain Time, was centered in a sparsely populated area 5 miles east-northeast of Wells, near the Nevada-Utah line.
The epicenter was in an area known as Town Creek Flats, close to Interstate 80, but the damage is mostly seen in the town of Wells. In the town's historic district, some of the buildings dating back to the 1870s, of course, aren't earthquake-proof and simply crumbled.
It's really amazing when you look at pictures to see that no one was seriously injured in this earthquake. Some of the buildings on Front Street have completely collapsed. Some businesses are boarded up and some roofs fell.
Fifteen cameras captured the chaos inside Stuart's grocery store -- canned goods flying off the shelves, bottles of wine crashing to the floor.
The store owner's son, Bob Woolsey, said, "It just was shaking wildly. You could just watch things fall off. I don't know how long it lasted."
Part of the store's extended ceiling collapsed.
Eyewitness News spoke to the owner of the El Rancho Hotel, and he said that the damage to his hotel is easily up to $50,000. "So the building itself road the shake out pretty well, but then I started melting bricks off of 3 sides of the building, and I believe to the date the damage is pretty cosmetic," Gene Kaplan said.
This small town has 700 residential structures, including those in the historic district. Officials say every building in Wells has some damage, either structural or with its contents.
Kaplan says it's a shame to see historic buildings looking like this. "Well, it's a blow because we are one of the few surviving railhead cow towns, going back to the 1870s in America, that was still in its original configuration, and the buildings on Front Street took a real hit," he said.
Other residents in the small community can't believe what their town now looks like. "We don't consider our place as an earthquake capital or anything," resident Bob Woosley said.
Twenty buildings are now considered destroyed, 20 others damaged, and anything else in the way of falling debris didn't stand a chance.
Woosley was home when the quake hit. "Just the intenseness of the whole thing, it's just scary," he said.
Mike Cichy owns the Frontier Apartments building. "The rocking was so vibrant that it knocked me out of bed," he said.
People in Wells are dealing with more than just cosmetic damage. Roads have been shut down, businesses closed, and even the stability of the city's public utilities are a big concern.
Most of the city has power, including the downtown area, which has the most visible damage. Most of the city has water and heat as well, now. The three water mains that broke as a result of the earthquake have now been repaired, or the breaks have been isolated and crews are still working on them. There is a boil order in effect.
Getting gas in this town is impossible. On our way out here on I-80 going Westbound, we saw numerous signs saying "No fuel or services in Wells."
Truck stops have been hit especially hard. Contents fell off the shelves, fuel lines ruptured, and at the Flying J people had to evacuate after a propane leak.
Speaking of propane, most of the people in Wells use propane. The population there is 1,600. This afternoon we still have many reports of propane tanks leaking on people's properties. People have been told to shut off their propane tanks if they are leaking, and firefighters will come and assist them with that.
"I'm completely surprised by the level of the damage that I'm seeing right here due to this earthquake, and I think my surprise is that because of this damage there weren't greater numbers of injuries or someone killed," Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons said. "It has shaken this community to its foundation, but I can tell you the spirit of this community has not been defeated or shaken to that extent."
Gibbons says he estimates the damage at about $2.5 million right now, but there is still a lot to assess. He is planning to go to the state's capitol and to the federal government to ask for financial aid to deal with this damage.
There is some push to restore services tonight, but many services may not be restored until tomorrow. One of the major challenges facing the community is the weather. They are expecting two to four inches of snow in the next 48 hours.
The Red Cross is setting up at the local fire station, and they are considering having three schools in the area be a command post.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
