 All right, well, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for coming in and spending a little time with us. I'm Mark Gilarducci. I'm the director of the governor's office of emergency services here. And I want to just take a minute and provide a little bit of an update on the earthquake this morning, the 6.4 magnitude quake that occurred at 234, about 8 miles offshore of Ferndale, California, which is up in Humboldt County. Obviously, a relatively strong earthquake, and it was felt widely as far east as Redding and as far south as in the Bay Area. And I'll start off by saying interesting to note that the earthquake early warning system, which is the new system that we have, was able to actually push out alerts 10 seconds in advance of the earthquake, shaking to some 3 million people in Northern California. And so I was really happy to have given individuals an opportunity to drop, cover, and hold or get to a place of safety within that 10 second time frame. And the system did operate as we had hoped and that we've been working to design. The impacts from the quake really centered in Humboldt County and predominantly around the towns of Ferndale and Fortuna and Rio del. And it's not an area where there are strangers to earthquakes. They've had pretty good size of earthquakes up in this area in the past. And we're happy that this one wasn't as large as it could have been and we've seen in the past. But still, we have seen this one resulting in damage, both structural and non-structural. When I say structural damage, we're talking about damage to homes, damage to critical infrastructure and lifelines, so water, power, and gas lines. At this point, there's some 71,000 people that still are without power. And PG&E, we're working closely with PG&E to get that power restored up into the area and making sure they've got all the resources to be able to do that. And non-structural damage, what is non-structural damage? It's things like your plates, your bookshelves, your TVs, your things that are on the shelf that could fall over that aren't bolted down. They're non-structural. And unfortunately, it's the non-structural items that create a danger for people, short of a house collapsing on you or a building collapsing on you, the potential for having a bookshelf fall over or something come over and an injury you is high. So we have had some injuries associated with this particular event. We're still assessing the total numbers, have no confirmed reports of fatalities as of yet, but we do know that we've had some injuries that range from minor to moderate and most of those were, again, from non-structural kinds of situations. And the infrastructure, and we'll talk about, I have a few speakers here today, we'll talk about some of the infrastructure, both damage to roads and bridges, which are obviously critical lifelines in the area and have sustained some damage and are being inspected currently. We're here at the State Operations Center, where behind me you'll see representatives of a number of state agencies that are here coordinating a state's support response effort to the earthquake up north and to Humboldt County. Really, the role here is to provide whatever resources or commodities, mutual aid assets, whatever the local government and our tribal governments in that area need to be able to address what their immediate needs are. So we have supported them with some mutual aid fire assets and we have prepositioned some commodities for humanitarian efforts, things like cots and blankets and comfort kits, should they be needed as the date goes on. We know that there's a storm coming in, we're working closely with the National Weather Service and we're monitoring the circumstances there for individuals that may be out of their homes as a result of this and we wanna make sure America Red Cross is directly involved and if there's sheltering systems, there are sheltering items that are necessary or opportunities, that is taking place as well. That damage assessment will be ongoing through today and into tomorrow in the next few days. Earthquake damage is always a little bit more difficult to find because you have to get in and understand what the foundations looks like, where the cracks may take place and that'll also drive what the overall damage assessment is and what it means for us from the standpoint of seeking any additional assistance for disaster aid. Important to note that following the 6.4, we've had it up to 80 now aftershocks, the largest being a 4.6, which happened in and around Rio del and it appears that Rio del is probably sustained, some of the hardest hit areas, but there's still assessment going on in Ferndale, which is also close to the epicenter and we do know that there were some water main breaks and other kinds of things in the town of Fortuna. Throughout that process, there was a notice issued by the National Tsunami Information Center based in Alaska, the Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, advising that there was no threat of a tsunami because the earthquake was offshore and so it's important to note that and so we don't expect that to be the case. So that's kind of where things are at right now. The State Operations Center on this end will continue to be operational through tonight into tomorrow or as long as it takes to ensure that all of the resources that are being applied are being done so and that we help the folks up there navigate through this particular situation. We know that with the aftershocks, individuals will maybe feel a little uncomfortable about being back in your home. Your home is livable. If you can get in, you understand just like anything if you feel like there is the earthquake happening again, an aftershock, drop, cover and hold, find a safe spot in your home to get to. Please remove all that non-structural stuff or bolt it to the wall or secure it in some form or fashion so that it's not above you should something fall over. So you wanna make your home as safe as possible through this period of time and of course if you have any emergencies or need any assistance to call local authorities to be able to provide that assistance to you. The responders up there are pretty busy. So make sure that if you need them, it's something that you need them for when you call them. But this is a one team one fight effort, local state folks all working together to be able to help out the community there. So with that I'm gonna turn it over to Tony Traveras who is with the California Department of Transportation, Caltrans. And he's gonna talk to you a little bit about some of the work and assessments that we've seen with regards to the bridges and roads. Thank you, Director Gilarducci. I'm Tony Tavares, I'm the Director for the California Department of Transportation, Caltrans. And like to just mention a little bit about the infrastructure, the state highway system up there in the Humboldt County area. We have dispersed a almost dozen person strike team to go out inspect all the bridges, the major structures and the roadways throughout Humboldt County. We have bridge engineers, we have specialized engineers and bridge inspectors that are helping us with this work. So far we've identified one bridge, the Fern Bridge which is on state route 211 connects Ferndale to US 101 which has suffered some damage with that bridge. We have traffic closed at this time on that bridge. We are allowing emergency vehicles to pass across that bridge through traffic control. I also wanted to mention that I've issued a $6 million emergency director's order to the district one director in that area to bring a contractor on board as quickly as possible. We have selected Myers and Sons to be that contractor. They are currently mobilizing their equipment and their resources and personnel to actually be on site by later today and begin the reconstruction work on that bridge. Most likely just my thoughts going forward, most likely we will shore that bridge and get it ready and open to public traffic and then commence with the final repairs of the bridge. Also want to mention we are working very closely with regional and local authorities up there on the inspection of their facilities as well. This is a one team effort as director Giller-Dutey mentioned and all of us here, these state agencies are working very closely with our local partners in the Humboldt County area. One last item I'd like to mention as well is that Caltrans has various facilities in the area. We are making those facilities open to bring in resources to assist with any of the needs of Humboldt County. So we're working very closely with these state agencies to bring in commodities and other items that may be needed for the people of Humboldt County. So with that, that concludes my comments. I'd like to turn it over to Cindy Pridmore of the California Geological Survey. Hi, I'm Cynthia Pridmore with the California Geological Survey, Department of Conservation, and I'm also chair of the California Earthquake Clearing House which was last activated for the 2019 earthquake, I mean 2019 earthquake, which was also a 6.4 and a 7.1. Today's earthquake was about a half a mile, about two miles offshore. It was about 15 miles southwest of Ferndale. It was on, the earthquake was probably on, it was called the Gorda Plate. It's a complex area offshore where we have the Pacific Plate, the North American Plate, which we're on here. And some small pieces of other plates as well. The area over the last century has had about 40 earthquakes that are magnitude six to seven. So it's not unusual for us to have these earthquakes of this size in this region. We had, as Director Gillard-Dirty said, we had about 80 aftershocks. There were three of them, magnitude 4.6, 4.0 and 3.9, which were the largest at this point. We have sent some scientists out in the field from the California Geological Survey and likely there are other scientists out there as well, as well as engineers starting to get a reconnaissance fill of what kind of damage and features are out there and we will be sending more people out there if needed to document the characteristics of this earthquake. Part of what the Clearinghouse does is help sort out and connect people who are doing that research and make sure that we have a platform to provide that information out to others. It's a key part of providing intelligence after an event to the State Operations Center. As I also mentioned, there was no tsunami. The plate motion or the fault motion for this was a side-by-side motion. So there was no possibility of lifting up and even causing a small tsunami. That's about it. Oh, the USGS has also put out, this is very helpful, what they call an earthquake forecast, aftershock forecast. This will be changing by the hour, but when I last looked at it, there is approximately a 13% chance within the next week of a magnitude five or larger. So people do need to be prepared, especially if they're in weakened structures to be mindful of where they're staying. And just to be prepared, get that water, make sure they have flashlights and electrical, other support, things that they need to carry on if there's another earthquake. Thank you. Next speaker is Troy. With Highway Patrol. Thanks. Good morning. I'm Troy Lucas with the California Highway Patrol. During earthquakes like this, the California Highway Patrol's primary mission is to ensure and maintain public safety and if needed to help out with any evacuation efforts. Also to necessitate the safe movement of community members, goods, and emergency supplies. As soon as this incident occurred, like it's been stated around 2.34 a.m. this morning, CHP officers from the Humboldt area, our Garberville area, as well as Crescent City began conducting damage assessments throughout their respective communities. The majority of the damage of this incident was noted near the Humboldt County. We're currently working right now with our law enforcement and public safety partners to include Cal OES, Cal Trans, Humboldt County Sheriff Department, Cal Fire to mitigate the emergency as quickly as we can continue to do. The CHP now, right now, as we currently speak, we only have 12 uniform members fully dedicated the incident at this point. The CHPs supporting Cal Trans right now at a closure at Fern Bridge, which is State Route 211, which is still currently closed, as Artie previously mentioned, and the CHP will continue to provide dedicated personnel until this incident is mitigated. This panel turned back over to you, sir. Thanks, Commissioner. Just a closing. So we've continued to keep Governor Newsom briefed on the response and all of the different aspects and strategies that we're taking place. And I think it's really important to reiterate something both the commissioner said and Cindy said, and that is really this issue of having a plan. We live in earthquake country. This is another example of the fact that earthquakes can occur at any time without notice. And so it's really important that we as Californians have a plan, have a family plan. We have some supplies in case we lose power, like they have done there, or in case we have to, we can't have our refrigerators don't work, or whatever the case, we've got some supplies that we can take care of ourselves or our family for a few days. And of course, we've seen now on numerous occasions that the earthquake early warning system is a very valuable tool. So we really encourage you to download if you haven't the My Shake app and get that. It comes as part of the Android phones, but if you don't have an Android phone, download that app, it's free. And it's something that you could have and be able to have another tool in the toolbox to make your family as safe as possible. So with that, I've heard from the team here, happy to answer any questions that you may have. Hi, I'm Sophie with the Associated Press. Can you tell me if we have a sense of how many people could be temporarily displaced because of this, displaced from their homes and how many people could be without water or gas? So right now it's part of the damage assessment that's underway is to get a better sense of exactly the number of homes that have been damaged enough that people cannot go back in and reside in those homes. And we know that there has been at least one structure fire and we also know that there were a couple of homes that may have been knocked off their foundation or partially collapsed. So we're going through this damage assessment to get a sense of that as we speak now. And then with regards to water, part of that damage assessment is to make an assessment of how much of the water delivery system in the towns I mentioned, Riadel, Fortuna and Ferndale have been impacted in a way. Can those water systems be patched? And in the interim, I mentioned earlier that we are pre-positioning commodities such as water and other kinds of things to be able to support the community if necessary. So if we need to get water to people based upon the outcomes of this assessment, we can make sure that people have the water they need for as long as they need it. Some of these things that where you get large breaks in the system do take a while to replace. And that is a priority of some of the things that we work with local government on is ensuring that all the resources are there for local government to be able to get those lifelines patched as soon as possible. We know that the sooner that the water power and electric, you know, water power and gas service comes back online, you know, the rest of it can be pretty smooth. So that's really gonna be one of the larger efforts in the next 24 to 48 hours. Hi, I'm Monica at the end, I'm with Fox 40. This may be hard to answer, but I'm just gonna ask anyways, is there any timetable or given previous earthquakes that we've had in that area of how long it could take for power to be restored? There's 70,000 people without power, it's a big challenge. So I know it's a great question and, you know, I have to say, you know, we've been really working hard to make sure that PG&E has all the pathways, the CHP has been great in being able to make sure that they have access and into areas that they need to. And they have moved a whole bunch of resources into that area, not only their local units, but they've moved in mutual aid to be able to support them. They've already restored some power this morning. So I know they're on a trajectory. The question is, is there some transmission line that was impacted and so they tripped off and some of it is when they hook it back up again, they also have to make sure that the line is safe, that there's no impact in gas and in that coordination between the gas returning on the pilot light and the gas and the electrical all has to be done. So that probably will take, you know, I mean, they're working on it hard. Hopefully they can get it all done by today, but, you know, more than likely your question is how long does it typically take? This size earthquake in this area, probably, you know, a day or two before it's all fully restored. And how isolated is Ferndale with the bridge being? Is that the only road in? Question, you want to talk about that? Oh, Caltrance, oh yes, Director, thank you, thank you. Yeah, no, excellent question. So Ferndale is not isolated. US 101 runs right next to it, so they have access through US 101. There are some local roads in the area that I'm receiving reports that may be damaged. We are working closely with those local authorities there to see how quickly we could help them repair those roadways as well. Transmission line, what happened there? Well, the reports we had earlier was that there, one of the transmission lines, you know, the shaking may have caused what they call a trip in one of the circuits that are on the line that may have shut the system down. I don't have the specifics exactly what happened, but it's not uncommon that these circuits get tripped in an earthquake, which is really something that prevents, you know, arcing and it prevents, you know, the power from causing fires and other kinds of things. So they have to go in and make sure that the lines are back operational again and secure and that they can move the power through in a safe environment. Hi, Mike with the Sacramento Bee. You mentioned some weather changes coming up. Supposed to be, you know, rainy, cold, potentially foggy. You mentioned how that may impact people who are displaced, but does that present any challenges to the damage assessment or to the response to having winter weather up there? Yeah, it's a great question. Right now, we don't anticipate it slowing us down and doing the damage assessment, but, you know, and the weather that's coming in is what I would call, I mean, it's winter weather, but it should be manageable for us. There are certain things that we may not use in this case, like, you know, aerial flights or other kinds of things that do damage assessment would be more on the ground and house-to-house kind of thing, but we don't anticipate that to be a problem at this point. Thanks, everyone. All right, thank you all very much.