Downtown Napa suffered some major damage from yesterday’s 6.0 earthquake. Andaz Napa, the luxury Hyatt brand hotel on 1st Street is temporarily closed. There was a piece on the Bay Area KTVU news about a Salt Lake City woman who suffered cut feet from broken glass evacuating the Andaz at 3:20am. Yahoo Travel News has a first-person account with photos of their Andaz hotel room chaos from a Texas couple who experienced their first California earthquake at Andaz Napa and then left the state before any wine tasting.
A live picture just shown on KTVU news at 7:30am this morning focused on Andaz Napa and 1st Street. Police tape blocks the sidewalk for the entire block with the Andaz hotel and there were no people visible on the street.
I did not feel the earthquake here in Monterey, about 150 miles south of Napa.
Andaz Napa shaken, not stirred
The Andaz Napa website states the hotel is currently closed.
Hotel Overview
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Andaz Napa operations are currently impacted by the Sunday morning earthquake in the area. The hotel is currently closed in the interim. Guests with reservations should call +1 800 323 7249 prior to arriving at the hotel.
KTVU news interviewed a person this morning hired by the hotel to clean up water damage. The hotel hopes to be open for Labor Day weekend.
I have not been to Napa since Avia was rebranded to the Andaz Hotel.
Downtown Napa 1st and Franklin Street with Andaz Napa hotel entrance in middle of the building complex (February 2011).
Not the Biggest Northern California earthquake in 25 years
Local news is good about saying the 6.0 earthquake was the biggest quake to rock the San Francisco Bay Area in 25 years.
A vacationing Texas couple will never forget their first earthquake.
Shane Williams and his wife, Brittany, were on the first day of their trip to Napa when today’s 6.0 magnitude quake, Northern California’s most powerful tremor in 25 years, hit.
The reference to 25 years is the 6.9 magnitude October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that hit during the first game of the Battle of the Bay World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s.
Here is a geography and history lesson for Napa earthquake story writers.
There is another 350 miles of northern California north of Napa. And there was an even larger magnitude Cape Mendocino 7.2 magnitude earthquake on April 25, 1992 than the 6.9 October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in northern California. I recall with fear being inside a ballroom at the Red Lion Hotel Eureka when the 1992 earthquake hit before noon. There was a lot of stuff falling.
That being said, the Napa earthquake yesterday was a strong earthquake at 6.0 with significant damage. Napa is part of the San Francisco Bay Area waterways. The earthquake was closer to the surface than the 1989 Loma Prieta quake and there were far more people living near the epicenter of the Napa quake than the 1992 Cape Mendocino quakes.
Here is my piece of advice for persons who were shaken by the Napa earthquake yesterday. For days, months or years you may be startled by what you perceive to be an earthquake starting to shake the room.
Place glasses (or plastic cups) of water around your house to check when you are frightened that the earth is starting to move. If the water is moving, then react. If the water is not moving, then calm down and try to relax. Our family needed that reality check for years after going through the Cape Mendocino quakes of 1991 and 1992.
Napa is in recovery. Give it a couple of days or weeks for earthquake clean up and then take your tourism dollars to wine country and help finance the recovery of Napa.
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Ric Garrido of Monterey, California is writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler.
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