Quake-damaged communities face daunting recovery following latest Humboldt County shaker
By Wilson Walker
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FORTUNA, Humboldt County (KPIX) — Some communities damaged in Tuesday’s 6.4 magnitude earthquake on the Humboldt County coast are looking at a challenging road to recovery.
Crews have been working around the clock to repair the Fernbridge, the main route in and out of the town of Ferndale closest to Tuesday’s 6.4 magnitude earthquake. While the bridge was expected to open as soon as Wednesday evening, other communities damaged in the quake will take much longer to fix.
Pull up anything on Google maps in the Eureka area and it will say that accessibility may be affected by the Ferndale Earthquake. In communities like Fortuna, the damage is worse and some fear it may be lasting.
“We can’t go in and out my front door because the framing is tweaked,” explained Kathy Comerer, owner of Fortuna Fabrics & Crafts. “So I’m effectively closed until they get it fixed, which, unfortunately, probably isn’t likely very soon.”
Even thought her front door is broken and her glass storefront shattered, Comerer is still finding things to be positive about in her jumbled craft & fabric store. For starters, a lot of makers buy their supplies well ahead of Christmas.
“Until right on Christmas Eve when all the men come in looking for Christmas presents that are wives for crafts,” she laughed.
Another positive is that a lot of her merchandise is made for a soft landing.
“It’s not that bad. It really wasn’t that bad in here,” she said walking among the fallen items. “This is probably about two hours, three hours worth of work.”
What concerns her is what this could mean for a town that is, in some ways, still not fully recovered from the last earthquake.
“Last year, we lost windows all up and down the street. In fact, we lost more windows in town than any place else,” Comerer said, looking down a street full of boarded-up windows. “They had lots of damage. The next storefront over there lost a window; the landlord opted not to replace it. Just opted not to replace it. They had lost one window, and the stand, they lost all their windows. We’re all, all the small businesses, we’re already struggling. We’re already struggling. This scares people away from shopping, and if we can’t get back up and before Christmas it really hurts us.”
She says the second round of damage comes on top of a hard time for Main street.
“It’s sad when the economy tanks. And that’s what we’re seeing,” she said. “Because of the economy, so many of us are struggling.”
Comerer is hoping shoppers return with the electricity, and she says more than 30 customers have already reached out, offering to help put the craft store back together again.
“Right now, with everything that’s going on in society, one of the biggest benefits of living in a small town, especially in this area, is that we care about each other,” she said of the help from neighbors. “Overall, we really do care about each other and we’re gonna be there for each other.”
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