Magnitude 5.9 quake strikes along California-Nevada border

SAN FRANCISCO — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 rattled the California-Nevada border Thursday afternoon, with people reporting feeling the shaking hundreds of miles away, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

The earthquake struck at 3:49 p.m. in a region about 250 miles east of San Francisco and south of Lake Tahoe. Its epicenter was 4 miles west-southwest of Walker, a California town of fewer than 900 residents. It was followed by aftershocks, with at least a half-dozen of magnitude 4.0 or greater, the USGS said.

“The ground was shaking pretty bad, and then everything started falling,” said Carolina Estrada, manager at the Walker Coffee Company. Syrup bottles broke, dishes fell to the ground and the roof of the shop caved in a bit.

“We ran out of the building,” Estrada said. But the shaking continued, and “boulders the size of cars” fell onto nearby U.S. 395, she said.

Cars were struck by rocks, but nobody was injured, the California Highway Patrol reported.

At one point, rockslides closed about 40 miles of the interstate, a major route through the northern Sierra Nevada, authorities said. Portions of the interstate were later reopened, but crews remained at the scene in case of aftershocks, according to the California Department of Transportation.

In Nevada, Reno City Hall was evacuated, Mayor Hillary Schieve told the Reno Gazette Journal. “It shook pretty good,” Schieve said.