The California Highway Patrol's (CHP) 911 system was disrupted after a magnitude 5.5 earthquake in the northern region. Located in the Sierra Nevada, the Lake Almanor resort region was shaken around 4:19 PM PST on Thursday, May 11.
"The 5.5 magnitude earthquake in Plumas County has caused a disruption in CHP Chico Dispatch cell phone 911 lines and are currently ARE DOWN," the agency's Yuba-Sutter area office stated on Twitter.
At the time, they are urging people to dial 530-332-1200 from their mobile devices if they are unable to reach 911 as the problem is being addressed.
On Friday, May 12, CHP Chico Dispatch announced via Facebook that the 911 lines were once again operational.
911 Dispatch Line Was Temporarily Offline
On Thursday, a tremor of a magnitude of 5.5 was felt in the Chester area in northern California. This caused the CHP Chico Dispatch Center to lose access to its 911 mobile phone lines for around 5 minutes. An authorities' Facebook post said that during this outage, all phone calls were automatically routed to the CHP Sacramento Dispatch Center.
The 911 mobile phone lines have been restored and are operational at this time.
Residents of California were cautioned Thursday night to brace themselves for aftershocks. And at 3:18 AM PST on Friday, one was recorded with a magnitude of 5.2, according to the US Geological Survey.
The US Geological Survey said in a tweet that anybody who felt the earthquake with an intensity of 3 or higher would get a text message notice. However, at least one person felt an even stronger tremor and not receiving a text message warning, Fox News reported.
In Sacramento, nearly 160 miles distant, residents said they could still feel the shaking.
Lucy Jones, a former seismologist for the US Geological Survey, tweeted that the 5.5 magnitude quake was the strongest in California since the 7.1 magnitude Ridgecrest sequence in 2019.
Initial reports indicated that the seismic activity had caused very modest damage.
People Felt the Terror of an Earthquake
Restaurant manager Stephanie Hughes told ABC 10 that a lot of broken glass, broken dishes, and broken liquor from an upper floor had been strewn around the establishment. "Everything was shaking. Customers were fleeing onto the lawn," she said.
Dishes and bottles were thrown all over the floor of the Plumas Pines Resort & Bar in Almanor, as seen by photos posted online.
"Due to the recent earthquake and the loss and damage our restaurant acquired, we will be closed tonight and tomorrow morning. We will reassess for the rest of our weekend after we are able to clean up and really determine what was lost!" the restaurant stated on Friday.
In a report by The Sun, an official from Plumas County was cited saying there were no serious or structural damages. Meanwhile, a representative from Pacific Gas & Electric said the utility will be conducting inspections of its facilities.
