Santa Cruz Harbor responds to tsunami warning before its cancellation

A 7.0 magnitude quake off of Humboldt County coast prompted a tsunami warning alert for about an hour this morning.

People in Santa Cruz were given the heads up before the alert was lifted around Noon.

The US Geological Survey says that the quake struck at 10:44 a.m. off the coast of Ferndale.

After the tsunami warning was issued, Santa Cruz Harbor Patrol set out to make sure everyone on the beach was safe.

"We contacted a lot of people on foot and most people understand and, you know, the messaging to them at the time was there was an earthquake in Northern California," Santa Cruz Harbor Patrol harbormaster Blake Anderson said. "We don't know yet if there's going to be a tsunami, but there is a possibility."

Harbor Patrol began walking along the docks and beach tell people they needed to leave the area right away.

The Harbor Patrol stays in contact with agencies to get the latest information. And in the case of the 2022 Tonga tsunami, Anderson said that happen at the worst time.

“We got a message to our phones. It was three in the morning. But if you get that message, you come into work," Anderson said.

This, however, was a rare occurrence of it happening during the daytime.

"This was a unique event in that it happened in the middle of the day. Everybody's down here, everybody's in the office. So as soon as we got that notice, everybody drops what they're doing to participate in the response and play their part."

The tsunami warning ended up lifting around noon. Yet another shakeup may not far behind.

“When there is a larger events like this, there's disruption. And we do expect aftershocks. And the general trends are that the aftershocks will decrease in intensity."

The USGS’s aftershock forecast says that there is less than a one percent chance for an aftershock to reach the same magnitude.