Coast Guard helicopter just flew very low over downtown Ferndale. Just checking on stuff, I’d imagine.

There is a Cal OES SUV cruising Main now. Tuyas and the post office are open and quite a few other businesses. Valley Grocery got cleaned up in a jiffy by owners, family and employees.

There is muddy water covering the street in front of the alley between Portuguese Hall and the Ivanhoe and running in the Ivanhoe gutter. A few fire dept guys inspecting. Not sure the water’s origin but perhaps subterranean.

Valley Grocery, the Palace (bar), and Ring’s Pharmacy are open. I’ve seen a couple retail shops say they’re closed for the day to clean up. I think everyone will probably be open tomorrow for Hospitality Night to go on as planned.

I just want to express my gratitude to the teachers at Ferndale Children’s Center, who brilliantly kept the kids calm and safe until parents arrived. I really can’t say how much we appreciate them.

It takes a discerning eye to tell apart earthquake mess from regular mess lol, but here is a bit of EQ mess from inside my house. Not bad. We were very lucky! Shelves migrated away from walls here and at daycare. Also, water in faucet/toilet is brown/black.

One friend who lives on Centerville Rd wasn’t home, and we’ve encouraged another to drive into town, just to be safe, tsunami wise.

Photo from Ferndale Cemetery by my friend/boss/Chamber president Janet Carney, of an old headstone/obelisk thing moved off its base.

If reports hold of no broken windows on Main Street, that is a stone cold Christmas miracle.

We are alert to possible aftershocks, as many here remember (or were alive for, too young to remember) in 1992.

Much more on X from my mom, former local newspaper publisher. twitter.com/caroline9553...

I except Caltrans will be closing Fernbridge to inspect it.

Power apparently came back on quickly (I left my house and haven’t been back but am getting a WiFi signal).

Daycare teachers were AMAZING. Once the tsunami warning hit phones they decided to dismiss kids, though town is in a safe zone generally.

Update: Things are better! The farmers are exhausted.

americanvillage.substack.com/p/fernbridge...