Napa getting back on its feet after quake

NAPA, Calif. – Scores of businesses in this picturesque wine-making town north of San Francisco eagerly reopened Monday, one day after the most powerful earthquake to strike the region in 25 years caused extensive damage.

Determined to keep tourism revenue flowing, coffee shops greeted customers looking for their morning joe, and wine tasting rooms opened on schedule. Business owners were determined to clean up and leave the earthquake in the past.

Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd spent Monday morning helping clean out a water distribution warehouse he owns in American Canyon, near the epicenter of the 6.0-magnitude quake that struck at 3:20 a;m. Sunday. "We had water gushing out the door yesterday," he said. On Monday, he said, it's all about cleaning up and moving on. "We'll get through this," he said.

OFF LIMIT BUILDINGS

As the city's inspection of properties widened, more buildings and residences were deemed uninhabitable. Forty-nine city properties were red-tagged, officials said. More than 100 had yellow tags, meaning owners could enter but only in a limited way.

Some streets in Napa, a town of 77,000, remained snarled by rubble from the strongest quake to shake the San Francisco Bay area since the magnitude-6.9 Loma Prieta quake struck in 1989, collapsing part of the Bay Bridge roadway and killing more than 60 people, most when an Oakland freeway fell. A magnitude 6.9 quake is at least 20 times as powerful as one measuring 6.0, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Napa earthquake sent at least 172 people to a hospital for treatment. On Monday, one was still in critical condition.

AFTERSHOCKS

Residents were already feeling aftershocks that usually follow big temblors.

State geologist John Parrish said the aftershocks will decrease in magnitude and that it is unlikely there will be a large follow-up earthquake. Still, he warned people to be careful because newly damaged buildings are now more susceptible to collapse from aftershocks.

In Napa neighborhoods Monday morning, construction company trucks were everywhere. The sounds of drills and plywood being cut were constant.

Still, there was little obvious damage outside of older brick buildings in the central part of town. In homes, the problems were mostly in older chimneys and some wooden structures.

600 HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT WATER

Pacific Gas & Electric crews were rapidly restoring power. City officials said they expected all power to be back by the afternoon. On Sunday, as many as 70,000 residents had lost power.

Some of those who lost water, however, were looking at a longer wait. About 600 households were without water, and it may take until Wednesday or Thursday for all residents to get their service back, city officials said.

The Napa Unified School District closed for students, but teachers and staff were checking on the district's more than two dozen schools. School has been in session since Aug. 13. For parents without other child-care options, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Napa Valley are providing free care and activities for students as long as schools remain closed.

Signs of the earthquake were mostly small yet clear. On Napa-Vallejo Highway, one of the main routes into Napa from San Francisco, a deep crack crosses the roadway and is marked by orange safety cones. It has been filled in with asphalt, but still jolts vehicles as they cross it.

HOMEOWNER DAMAGE

While the damage to the area is not devastating, many homeowners face tens of thousands of dollars or much more in repairs, rebuilding brick chimneys, righting tilted garages and fixing cracked sidewalks and walls.

Others face even more substantial work.

"This is the worst wooden building I've seen," Raymond Woods of Woodsmyth Construction said of an Edwardian home that had fallen off its stone foundation on Fourth Street in Napa. He had come into town to volunteer for clean up.

The building's porch hung askew off the stairs. To the side, the entire house had slid a foot off its foundation, leaving a tangle of gas lines, which were marked with yellow tape.

In an alley alongside the house, the devastation was even starker. The back porches and stairs had come off and the window frames were popped out. A crack ran down the center of the building. "It's a total loss," Woods said.

Yet two houses away, "we didn't even lose any glasses," said Jorge Garcia. He lives in a newer home built under stricter building codes.

"We have a 60-gallon fish tank and nothing happened to it," he said.

WINE INDUSTRY DAMAGES

The quake, which hit the wine-making industry on the eve of its harvest, could result in more than $100 million in losses, authorities estimated. Napa is home to nearly 800 wineries, which produced 49.7 million cases of wine in 2012, according to the Napa Valley Vintners, a trade group.

Guests in the five-story Andaz Napa hotel, one of the tallest buildings in the city, were immediately evacuated after the quake hit, many remaining on the sidewalk with their luggage even hours later, wondering about alternative accommodations, the Napa Valley Registerreports. One guest, Cheryllyn Tallman, told the newspaper she was so shaken she planned to cut short her wine country vacation and head back home to the East Coast.

"I live in Upstate New York," Tallman said. "We just have blizzards — and they tell you when they are coming."

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Contributing: Greg Toppo, Donna Leinwand Leger, Katharine Lackey, Marisol Bello and Doyle Rice from McLean, Va.; Catalina Camia from D.C.; William M. Welch from Los Angeles; Laura Mandaro from San Francisco; Associated Press