_{Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey}

Coastal Del Norte County sought higher ground late Thursday morning after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Humboldt County at about 10:44 a.m. and generated tsunami warnings in Northern California and Southern Oregon.

The earthquake struck about 61.5 miles off the coast of Ferndale at a depth of 6.21 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

As of about 11 a.m., the Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services were advising people in the inundation zone to evacuate to an area north of 9th Street in Crescent City, Emergency Services Manager Deborah Otenberg told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. At the time, she said, surges were predicted to come ashore at about 11:20 a.m.

“There was no time for anything,” she said. “So, yes, we’re evacuating the inundation zone right now. We’re contacting schools and everybody else who’s in that area to try to get out.”

The National Tsunami Warning Center wound up canceling the tsunami warning after about an hour. According to Interim Harbormaster Mike Rademaker, Commissioner Rick Shepherd had reported watching a water surge that rose about 6-8 inches before dropping after roughly 4 to 5 minutes.

Rademaker said Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg reported a 4-6 inch “slow surge.” People were returning to the Crescent City Harbor, he said at about noon, and the California Highway Patrol had reopened U.S. 101.

“We were told it was going to hit at 11:20, so we had a half hour,” Rademaker said, adding that during a tsunami warning harbor staff try to discourage boat owners from leaving with their vessel. “We closed down the office and went to higher ground and we were in contact with our OES, texting back and forth with updates, and we contacted Noyo Harbor since they would be one of the first to receive any damage and make observations.”

Rademaker later said that some of the boat owners were prevented from getting to their vessel by CHP’s roadblock. He said Commissioner John Evans is urging the harbor to reach out to Sheriff Garrett Scott and the CHP commander to see if boat owners could have access to their vessels in an emergency.

“I do respect the huge financial investment they have,” Rademaker said.

Other people who left the area include students at ‘O Me-nok Learning Center in Klamath, according to teacher Chrystal Helton. She later reported at about noon that the students were back at school since the warning had been lifted.

According to Otenberg, the evacuation lasted just under an hour. She said she put out a notification via IPAWS, the Integrated Public Alert Warning System operated through FEMA. More than 28,000 people were alerted to the tsunami warning that way, she said, including those who weren’t registered to receive local alerts as well as people who lived away from the coast.

“We didn’t want to have people going down to the coastline or driving through and putting themselves in danger,” she said.

Bill Steven, Office of Emergency Services public information officer, went on Bicoastal Media to urge people to evacuate, Otenberg said. She said she also fielded calls from several media agencies about the situation.

Now that the evacuation is over, Otenberg said, she and other first response agencies will be analyzing how orderly it went.