Police in Nevada say they have found the first fatal victim of last week’s California earthquake – who was crushed by a jeep – 150 miles from the epicenter.
And Bay Area residents are preparing earthquake survival kits as seismologists say they have measured 1,289 tremors over magnitude 2.5 – strong enough to be felt – since last Thursday’s quake.
Meanwhile a US Navy air base remained closed to non-essential personnel as crews repaired damage and checked if buildings were safe.
The 56-year-old man was found dead underneath a jeep that had fallen off its jacks and pinned him
The 56-year-old man, who has not yet been named, was found pinned underneath a jeep in the small Nevada town of Pahrump near the border with California on Tuesday.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Department said authorities were called to the scene at the rural property on the outskirts of the town at 1pm.
Sergeant Adam Tippetts said the position of the man’s body and nearby tools suggested that he had been working on the vehicle when it fell off the jacks.
The property on the outskirts of Pahrump in Nevada’s Nye County, where the only victim of last week’s California earthquake was found yon Tuesday
The man was last seen alive at a local gas station the day before the earthquake.
‘This is what we believe is an earthquake-related death,’ Tippetts said, stressing that the jeep had been safely mounted on the jacks before than man began working under it.
Parhump is roughly 150 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 6.4 July 4 Independence Day quake near the southern Californian town of Ridgecrest.
The dead man’s identity was being withheld until his next of kin were informed.
Nye County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Adam Tippetts announced the discovery of the dead man in a video statement
Meanwhile, the sprawling Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake remained closed on Tuesday, nearly a week after the quake.
Teams had so far surveyed just 10 per cent of the 1,200 facilities at the base, spokeswoman Margo Allen said.
It was unclear when personnel and their families will be able to return.
Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake remained closed to non-essential personnel on Tuesday
Water and gas service had been restored at the base, but engineers were ensuring buildings were safe to enter.
The shaking cracked walls in a chapel and school and brought down commissary shelves, Allen said.
‘Everything came off the walls. There’s a lot of cleaning up that still has to happen,’ she said.
One person sustained a minor foot injury.
Retired F-4 Phantom (right) and F-6 Skyray (left) fighters parked at the entrance of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, which was still shut to non-essential personnel on Tuesday
The US Geological Survey said it had recorded 5,714 aftershocks over magnitude 2 over the past week.
1,289 of those were over magnitude 2.5 – strong enough to be felt – and 28 over 4.5, almost violent enough to damage buildings.
That has prompted residents of the San Francsico Bay Area, far north of Ridgequest, are making sure they have everything they need in case a big earthquake strikes and they have to evacuate, Kron 4 reported
‘It’s not that I want to be afraid, I want to be prepared,’ Darlene Rose Demaria said.
‘I made sure that I have low denomination bills, as well as masks as well as some clothes’ in her car, she said.
Crews work on repairing a section of highway 178 in the aftermath of the California earthquake
‘With all the earthquakes, it really changes your mind,’ said fellow resident Tony Nee.
‘People react when they feel the disaster,’ said Jeff Tateosian, who has run a disaster supply shop in Burlingame for the last 25 years, selling packaged food that keeps for 25 years.
His ready-made emergency ‘grab and go’ kits contain food, water and medical supplies as well as ‘Light sticks, night-time body warmers to keep you warm,’ said Tateosian.
‘With any disaster, not just earthquake, you need to be able to get out when you need to get out,’ he said.
‘Wildfire comes, you gotta rush out, you grab you disaster grab and go kit and at least you’re gonna to survive for at least the next 72 hours with food water medication.’
‘Don’t procrastinate, get prepared,’ Tateosian said.
Ridgecrest residents take photos at a recent fault rupture following two large earthquakes in the area