Napa, Calif., earthquake: Economic hit could reach $1 billion

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Cellar worker Adam Craig, 36, of Napa works to clear the rubble at the Kieu Hoang Winery, one of several in the area that were damaged by the earthquake. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Cellar workers work to clean up the Kieu Hoang Winery, one of several in the area that were damaged by the 6.0 temblor. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Vickie Katsubayashi looks at a red-tagged home near downtown Napa. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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A home in Napa was damaged by Sunday’s 6.0-magnitude earthquake. (Alvin Jornada / EPA)

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A crack in the pavement cuts across a street in a neighborhood of Napa that was affected by Sunday’s quake. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Bay Area Home Depot employees join a volunteer cleanup effort in downtown Napa. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Bay Area Home Depot employees help with volunteer cleanup efforts in downtown Napa. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Four homes at Napa Valley Mobile Home Park in Napa were destroyed by a fire triggered by the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck early Sunday. Two other homes were badly charred by the fire, while many were knocked off their foundations by the temblor. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Karl Luchsinger recovers a child’s car seat from a vehicle after a carport collapsed in the Napa earthquake. (Josh Edelson / AFP Getty Images)

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Gin Betourne, 56, uses a candle for light after a 6.0 quake caused a power outage in her Napa, Calif., neighborhood. The quake damaged the chimney in the house she has lived in for six months. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Maria Hanks, 50, and her husband Brad, 53, sit in candlelight after spending much of the day cleaning up the damage around their house. They lost power after a 6.0 quake struck and it had still not come back on by nightfall on Sunday evening. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Cars sit under a carport at Charter Oaks Apartments in Napa that collapsed in Sunday’s earthquake. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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The remains of one of four mobile homes destroyed by fire at Napa Valley Mobile Home Park in Napa after the earthquake. The community was left without water and power. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Phil Tessier of Napa helps Tim and Ann Whitlock move out of their home on Twin Oaks Drive after it was heavily damaged by the quake. About 100 people from their church, Grace Church of Napa, pitched in. “Who says you can’t move in six hours? It can be done,” Ann Whitlock said. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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One of the mobile homes destroyed by fire at Napa Valley Mobile Home Park in Napa. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Whitlock walks on a stretch of buckled sidewalk while helping his parents move out of their damaged home in Napa. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Dan Kavarian, chief building official for the city of Napa, walks around the downtown area red-tagging building that were deemed unsafe after a 6.0 earthquake hit the area early Sunday. The quake damaged several buildings and caused several injuries. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A 6.0 earthquake sent bricks falling from a Napa business onto a car early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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People gather in downtown Napa to view the damage to buildings from a 6.0-magnitude earthquake early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A close-up view of damage to a building caused by a 6.0-magnitude earthquake early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Dan Kavarian, chief building official for the city of Napa, posts a yellow tag allowing limited access on a building damaged in a 6.0-magnitude earthquake early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Windows at the post office in downtown Napa were shattered in a 6.0-magnitude earthquake early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Bricks that fell from a building in Napa caused substantial damage to a car parked next to it during a 6.0-magnitude earthquake early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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The post office in downtown Napa suffered damage to its brick walls and windows in a 6.0-magnitude earthquake early Sunday. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Gurbeer Singh cleans up fallen merchandise at a 7-Eleven store in American Canyon, Calif., after Sunday morning’s 6.0 earthquake. (Ben Margot / Associated Press)

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With spilled wine covering the floor, winemaker Tom Montgomery views damage caused by Sunday’s earthquake at B.R. Cohn Winery’s barrel storage facility in Napa, Calif. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

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Steve Brody inspects damage to his mobile home in Napa, Calif., after Sunday’s magnitude-6.0 earthquake. (Ben Margot / Associated Press)

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Bottles are strewn on the floor of the Bloom Hair Salon in Napa, Calif., after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake centered nearby. (Evan Wagstaff / Los Angeles Times)

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A home in Napa, Calif., that was badly damaged in the earthquake. (Evan Wagstaff / Los Angeles Times)

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A Napa, Calif., building housing a tasting room suffered significant damage in the earthquake. (Evan Wagstaff / Los Angeles Times)

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Broken bottles lie on the floor of an oil and vinegar store in Napa, Calif., after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake centered nearby. (Evan Wagstaff / Los Angeles Times)

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Napa County, Calif., firefighters spray foam on hot spots from a fire at a mobile home park in Napa after Sunday morning’s 6.0 earthquake. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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Jean Meehan looks over the damage to her JHM Stamp and Collectibles store in Napa, Calif., after Sunday morning’s 6.0 earthquake. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

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A building in Napa, Calif., is badly damaged after a 6.0 earthquake. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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Police officers exit a damaged building in Napa, Calif., after Sunday morning’s 6.0 earthquake. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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A woman looks at the damaged windows of the main post office in Napa, Calif., after Sunday morning’s earthquake. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

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The top corner of a building is exposed after Sunday morning’s 6.0 earthquake centered near Napa, Calif. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

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Bricks and fallen rubble cover a car parked near the old courthouse in Napa, Calif., after Sunday morning’s 6.0 quake. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

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Bricks can be seen in the street after a building was damaged during Sunday morning’s earthquake centered near Napa, Calif. (Ellen Knickmeyer / Associated Press)

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Residents survey the damage to a historic building in downtown Napa after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area at 3:20 a.m. (Peter DaSilva / EPA)

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Store owners stand near broken glass in downtown Napa, Calif., after a 6.0 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area early Sunday. (Peter DaSilva / EPA)

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Residents survey the damage to buildings in downtown Napa, Calif., after Sunday morning’s 6.0 quake. (Peter DaSilva / EPA)

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A man sweeps broken glass from store windows in Napa, Calif., after Sunday morning’s 6.0 earthquake. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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A resident checks out damage to a building at 3rd and Brown streets in Napa, Calif., after Sunday’s 6.0 quake. (Lyall Davenport / Associated Press)

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A CHP officer directs traffic away from a buckled section of California 12 after Sunday’s quake, which was centered near Napa. (Peter DaSilva / EPA)

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Napa, Calif., residents in bathrobes check out damage on their street after Sunday’s quake. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

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Caltrans crews assess damage to a California 37 overpass in Vallejo after Sunday morning’s 6.0 quake. (Lee Romney / Los Angeles Times)

By Matt Stevens

Aug. 25, 2014 2:14 PM PT

The destructive 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Napa County, California, that injured scores of people, ruined historic buildings and buckled streets may have caused as much as $1 billion in damage, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated.

Centered about nine miles south of wine country’s Napa at 3:20 a.m. Sunday, the earthquake was the largest to strike the Bay Area since the 6.9 Loma Prieta temblor of 1989, the USGS said, and it lasted 10 to 20 seconds.

So far, 49 buildings had been red-tagged, and more than 100 had been yellow-tagged. The earthquake also set off 50 fires, one of which destroyed six mobile homes.

Susan Garcia, a spokeswoman for the USGS Earthquake Science Center, said the economic hit caused by the quake is more likely to be in the “several hundreds of millions.”

Officials were still in the process of assessing the city’s infrastructure and did not yet have a damage estimate, which will be needed as they press for a federal disaster declaration.

At least 65 aftershocks have rattled Napa and its surrounding areas since the earthquake struck.

Also on Monday, PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said power had been restored to all of the approximately 70,000 customers who were left in the dark as a result of the earthquake. The company had also responded to all of the more than 400 calls about gas odors, he said.

Twenty customers in Napa and Sonoma counties were still without gas service because damage prohibited workers from restoring it safely, Smith said. Company workers also were going door-to-door to double check gas structures – a process that could take days to complete.

Crews were also working to fix 90 leaks in the water system as hundreds of customers waited for their service to be re-connected.

“I can tell you that with 10 crews, we’re doing our level best to get everybody back and fixed as quickly as possible,” Public Works Director Jacques LaRochelle said at an afternoon news conference.

“I can tell you that with 10 crews, we’re doing our level best to get everybody back and fixed as quickly as possible,” Public Works Director Jacques LaRochelle said.

The CHP reported that California 121 at California 29 was damaged, with cracks that could cause flat tires. The CHP for the Solano district dispatched its graveyard shift immediately to search for damage and quickly found it: An overpass in Vallejo on California 37 headed toward American Canyon showed several areas where the roadway had separated and concrete had crumbled.

According to the USGS, the earthquake occurred within 44 miles of a set of major faults along the San Andreas fault system that forms the boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.

As of Monday morning, more than 39,000 people in 600 ZIP codes had self-reported feeling the earthquake, a USGS online survey said. The largest number of reports came out of the 94111 ZIP code in San Francisco, while the most violent shaking was reported in Yountville, Calif.

Follow the reporter on Twitter: @MattStevensLAT

Napa, Calif., earthquake: Economic hit could reach $1 billion

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