Dozens of Aftershocks Rock North California; Explosion Rocks Illinois Metal Recycling Plant
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>COSTELLO: All right. This just in from our affiliates KTVI and KTLR. There has been an explosion at a metal recycling plant in Granite City, Illinois. That's right over the border from St. Louis, oddly enough. Two deaths have been reported. A bomb squad is heading to the plant. Of course, I'll bring you more information as it becomes available. But, again, there's been an explosion at a metal recycling plant in Granite City, Illinois. Two deaths reported. And the bomb squad is heading to the plant right now. In other news this morning, people in Napa Valley begin to assess the damage from a strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake. And dozens of aftershocks are still rocking the area this morning. Right now, thousands are without power. Schools remain closed. About 100 homes have been damaged and are unsafe to enter. Dan Simon is live in Fairfield, California, with more for you. Good morning.</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. We're actually in downtown Napa. And it's just a disaster zone. You see behind me this rubble. This is a building, a historical building in downtown Napa, just crumbled, you can see all these bricks on the ground. On the bottom was actually an outdoor cafe. On the top, you had offices. It's been about 24 hours now since the event occurred. And we still don't have a full understanding in terms of all the damage.</s>SIMON (voice-over): The cleanup effort in Napa continues this morning while crews work to restore power to thousands left in the dark after Sunday's earthquake. The first moments of the powerful quake caught on camera, rattling residents out of their sleep at 3:20 a.m.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an earthquake.</s>SIMON: Striking the Bay Area at a whopping 6.0 magnitude, the strongest felt here in 25 years.</s>MARLOW DANIEL, NAPA RESIDENT: This just kept going and kept going and kept going. And I felt like I was on a raft in the ocean almost.</s>SIMON: In downtown Napa, just six miles southwest of the epicenter, historical buildings and homes sustained heavy damage. Pieces of this courthouse and other structures crumbled to the ground, authorities reporting over 100 injuries, including a young child seriously hurt when a fireplace collapsed.</s>ELISE MARTINEZ, NAPA RESIDENT: I was in shock to see people's homes, people's offices on the floor and crooked, and to know that this is life changing.</s>SIMON: Business owners in the famed wine country also reporting being hit hard. Hundreds of gallons of wine spewing from a crack in this storage tank.</s>GAVIN NEWSOM, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: A wine maker right across the street from us, they were devastated. Dozens and dozens of their barrels collapsed.</s>SIMON: Fires broke out following the quake, destroying dozens of homes. Broken water mains hampering firefighters' efforts to extinguish the flames. Fire crews having no choice but to let these mobile homes burn to the ground. Experts now warning residents of aftershocks.</s>JOHN PARRISH, CHIEF OF THE CALIFORNIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: We think there's probably over 50 or 60 aftershocks now, the largest one being a magnitude 3.6. We do think the aftershocks will continue for several weeks.</s>SIMON: Now, the Napa Valley wine industry is still in the process of taking stock of all the damage, but we know that some wineries, the loss will be very significant, Carol. Right now, though, the main concern is really with the infrastructure, making sure they get all the power back on. But we're told from PG&E, pacific gas and electric, that power for most of the residents has been restored. At one point, you had 70,000 without power. At this point, only 150 customers don't have power at this point. So pretty quick work by the utility crews. Also of course trying to make sure that there are no gas leaks and that the water mains get repaired, as well -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Absolutely. Dan Simon reporting live from Napa this morning. I want to bring in David Oppenheimer. He's a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Welcome, sir.</s>DAVID OPPENHEIMER, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: Thank you for inviting me.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. This is the worst quake in 25 years in California. It took place along a little-known fault line, not the San Andreas Fault. Why is that so significant?</s>OPPENHEIMER: Most people are used to the steady drumbeat message that we give the public to be prepared for earthquakes. We talk about the fault that most people are familiar with, the San Andreas, Calaveras, the Hayward. These faults are capable of magnitude seven, sometimes magnitude eight earthquakes. But the magnitude scale is an algorithmic scale. So, for every magnitude eight, you have 10 magnitude sevens, and you have 100 magnitude sixes. So, yesterday, we saw a magnitude six. And they're, by the nature, much more frequent and are going to be occurring on little-known faults because they're just trying to take up the stress related to the motion of the Pacific and North American plates.</s>COSTELLO: We always hear about the big one coming. Could this quake because of where it occurred trigger a larger quake, a bigger quake, a stronger quake?</s>OPPENHEIMER: Well, it's always possible that this is a foreshock. We know when we study earthquakes that about 5 percent to 10 percent of all main shocks are preceded by foreshock. As time progresses, the likelihood goes down. So, immediately after the earthquake, there was a 54 percent probability that this of a foreshock. At this point, a day later, we're down below 30 percent, and actually if we -- we'll be releasing updated statistics this morning. I think the numbers will fall further because this is not a very robust aftershock. So, it's possible, but probably unlikely.</s>COSTELLO: David, thank you very much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.</s>OPPENHEIMER: You're welcome.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, ISIS is surging in the chaos of Syria, slaughtering and enslaving anyone in their way. Now, President Obama is considering hitting them back with airstrikes in Syria. We'll take you live to the Pentagon, next.