Cal Poly Humboldt Students and University reaction to the 6.4 earthquake

At 2:43 a.m, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit California’s Northern Coast on Dec. 20. Students living in the dorms at Cal Poly Humboldt (CPH) also felt the shakes. 

“I was dead asleep and woke up, got up, went into the door frame and held on and then I screamed to my roommates ‘There’s an earthquake!'” CPH student Chloe Piper said. “And then I just saw the house rolling.”

Piper wasn’t the only one who was woken up by the earthquake early in the morning. Cello Wickland, CPH student, has experienced two small earthquakes in the past but says that nothing like the one that was felt that morning. 

Cal Poly Humboldt

CPH had sent out an email about the power outage on campus and that it had begun to check if infrastructure had been damaged. They had the J dining hall open to staff, faculty and students from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. President Tom Jackson Jr was present talking to students about the early morning earthquake.

University Police Department Lieutenant Peter Cress said that the campus is equipped with gas valves set to automatically shut off during an earthquake. The valves had to be manually opened in order to start the generators and bring power to campus.

“The challenges we faced were really the safety features in the infrastructure working appropriately,” Cress said. “The facilities management team did an amazing job of getting around campus and getting those valves opened back up.”

Campus phone lines are operating and people can use 911 for emergencies and (707)826- 5555 for non emergency calls to UPD.