RIO DELL, Calif. — Combing their homes with flashlights in the darkness, residents of the rural communities of the Eel River Valley could only sense what damage Tuesday’s earthquake had brought to their lives five days before Christmas.
Homes littered with shards of glass. Framed pictures broken on the floor. Cups and keepsakes in pieces beside them. Bookshelves and kitchen cabinets emptied.
By first light though, the devastation became apparent. Front porches had collapsed. A building caught fire. The beloved, multi-arched Fernbridge, a 1911 Humboldt County landmark and veteran of past earthquakes and floods — its guardrails bent, evidence of the fierce shaking — was closed by the California Department of Transportation.
