wave of aftershocks. here is a look at the seismograph. this is what we saw as the quake happened this morning, around 2:30 this morning. of course a lot of shaking going on. this is centered in the ferndale area of humboldt count near eureka. no tsunami alerts were issued after the quake. at least two people have been confirmed with injuries. one person with a hip injury, the other suffering from a head injury. both expected to be okay. at least 71,000 customers are still without power this midday and pg&e has activated its emergency response plan. also, the quake closed several schools for the day in the surrounding area. >> this is new daylight video showing the damage that happened outside a home in ferndale. you can see several pots were knocked over on the patio. also video from inside that same home. many items toppled, the homeowner there tells us that was her coffee bar on the gr dam.e is minor, but here is what she told us this morning. >> the things that have fallen over in our old victorian, you can tell the pattern of north to south shaking. it was a big one. it lasted for a while, it seemed, and you just run through your mind, is this going to keep going, is this going to end. it felt like turbulence like on an airplane, like intense turbulence. >> from homes to businesses, this is what happened inside one store in eureka. so not even the epicenter. numerous items fell from the shelves. we want to check in with meteorologist kari hall, who is watching the fault line. it is shocking to see how many aftershocks. >> it's just lighting up the screen. the yellow dots indicate where we had aftershocks. the big one was the initial earthquake, the 6.4, and if it happened within the last hour it turns red. so we are seeing a lot of reports there since it happened at 2:34 this morning. right now the number of reports is up to 286 aftershocks. so we'll continue to have more shaking there. we not only had it in that area where we felt the shaking, but also around parts of the bay area there were some reports of people feeling the shaking this morning. most likely after getting that shake alert app. but this all happening on the san andreas fault that runs the length of california. then when we get to the eureka area, that's at the end of the san andreas fault. at the end we have a lot of mountains that meets up with the pacific plate, the north american plate. it's an area where you have a lot of faults coming together. for more on that, i talked to the usgs research geologist to tell me more about the san andreas fault and where that earthquake happened. >> yeah, absolutely, it's an interesting area where the end of the san andreas meeds the zone, the big oceanic plate. that's why there's volcanos to the east. they're fracturing and earthquakes like this are pretty common. in fact, there's been several earthquakes of this magnitude, at least 40 in the past century about this size. >> and it seems like a lot of people in the bay area felt it as well. was that also something that we typically see with an earthquake of this magnitude? >> yeah, absolutely. the strongest shaking, of course, was pretty close up in the greater eureka area. but the shaking really extends across northern california and lots of folks got early warnings on their phones or through apps and were able to anticipate that shaking ahead of time. but as you can see from these images, plenty of shaking occurred in this one. >> we talked about so much more, including how long these aftershocks may continue. mike, you've been watching the impacts on the roads. >> we have. you're talking about continued aftershocks so there's continued concern because the area right here, fern bridge is one of the major issues we were talking about earlier this morning. i'll explain why. because ferndale is right here, west of highway 101, but separating those two areas is a river. this bridge that crosses it is a historic bridge, but i want to show you a picture the cal tran team took and tweeted it out. there's damage on the bridge. i think we have a picture to show you that came out over social media. you see there's damage to the roadway itself. we don't know if there's damage to the bridge. this appears to be where it makes landfall on earth side, i understand, of the bridge there is similar damage. we certainly don't want to have cars driving over this until we understand whether or not that is an issue for the bridge structure itself. it's been there since 1911. they'll check on that. that's one of the access points to and from the communities west of highway 101 and acros river. with that cut off, you have to go down to rio del. it looks like a more modern bridge. i don't know the details, but it is open, from what i understand. the problem is getting here from ferndale or the other direction, you have to take areas like blue slide road, which comes alongside, parallel with eel river. somewhere along this stretch there was some hill slippage, so they had to close it for possible damage to the roadway. with recent rains they have to keep checking and make sure they can keep everything under control in the area. there is one-way traffic control, but a delicate situation there as we don't know what the situation is going to mean for the hillside or the bridge to ferndale. caltrans district supervisor has crews on scene assessing roadway damage, as well as the bridges in the area. not just the ones i've talked about, but a circumspect view. you see why this entire community is without power and probably without a lot of cell phone as well. these are communities that are isolated right now. back to you. >> thank you, mike. today some people got a few seconds notice about the earthquake through the my shake app. not just in humboldt county, but also here in the bay area almost 200 miles away. here is a spokesperson with the california office of emergency services with why. >> part of the reason why the my shake app delivered alerts to the bay area is a combination of a threshold being made, which is above a 4.0 magnitude earthquake, but also the relative shaking. we want to alert people who may experience strong shaking and the original estimation was that the shaking may arrive all the way down to not only the north bay area, but also the sacramento area. >> california's my shake app is the first that can not predict an earthquake, but give early notice, give a few seconds' notice, which is long enough for transit agencies to slow down trains and long enough for people to drop, cover and hold on. according to osha, most earthquake injuries happen when people are hit by flying debris or trying to move while the ground is shaking. if you download the my shake app, you can get alerts and tips on how to be prepared. we're waiting to hear from officials from the state. this is from the california governor's office of emergency services. california geological survey, chp, caltrans are coming together to give us an update to the state's response to the quake. we're watching and waiting for that to begin. as soon as that begins, we're going to bring that to you live in its entirety. we're waiting for that. and always remember you can download our free nbc bay area app. this is a great time for you to do that because you get alerts sent straight to your phone and you'll get the information as soon as it happens. also it's free to stay informed with any damage of the aftershocks by nbcbayarea.com. you can also access our earthquake tracker and receive fresh updates as we get them. so switching gears now to our other big story this morning, cnbc is reporting that elon musk is actively looking for a new ceo to replace him at twitter. >> scott mcgrew, what does musk have to say about that? >> i don't know exactly how to quote him, marcus, because musk used emojis in his response. so i guess in a statement the current ceo of twitter said, quote, laughing smiley face. musk has polled twitter users whether he should quit. millions have said, yeah, he should. musk originally said he would honor the results of the poll, but has since backed away from that promise. whether he's ceo or not, musk will still own twitter and be responsible for its expenses. shares in musk's other company, tesla, has hit brand new lows this morning, after investors begin to suspect musk is in no hurry to step down from twitter. tesla investors think of twitter as an unnecessary distraction. also, musk making explosive new claims, the fbi paid twitter to quash content. but the evidence twitter is offering does not support that claim. we have reached out to the fbi for its reaction and we will delve more deeply into that claim tomorrow morning on "today in the bay." but, again, what musk is saying and the documents he's pointing to as proof don't agree. >> thank you very much, scott. well, a car plunges off an east bay hillside. ahead, authorities are piecing together more about what may have happened there. >> reporter: a surge in respiratory viruses stressing the supply of over-the-counter medicines. the two major drug stores are limiting purchases of pain relievers. >> could this be the coldest christmas in 40 years? the major winter storm which is expected to disrupt holiday travel and could bring record cold to much of the u.s. a climate scientist explains how this cold outbreak is connect wd this cold outbreak is connect wd the rapid warming of the why do dermatologistss woworldwide rerecommend la r roche-posayay? effectivive skincarere lilike la a roche-posasay double repepair faface moistururizer delivers d double-actition to help rerepair skin'n's barr and prprovide 48-h-hour hydratn fofor healthy-y-looking sksk. la rocoche-posay.. we're still monitoring, waiting for that press conference to begin from state officials. of course this is in response to that 6.4 earthquake we had this morning up in humboldt county near eureka. of course a lot of people have been talking about that this morning. there is some damage up there, two injuries we know about. we are waiting to get word from the state agencies surrounding that and the response to that. we will continue to monitor that. and as soon as that begins, we're going to bring that to you live. we do have new details for you. this is in a deadly overnight crash in the east bay. it happened a little before 1:00 in the morning when a car plunged off of grizzly peak boulevard in oakland. authorities say an unidentified female passenger died. a male driver was transported to the hospital. alcohol is now believed to have been a factor. police say the driver is facing criminal charges. no other cars were involved. happening today, a teenage suspect linked to a high-speed chase that killed a peninsula couple is expected to appear in court. the judge may decide whether or not to release him to his parents. the crash happened last month in redwood city and investigators say the car that that 17-year-old was driving collided with another car and killed grace spiridon and greg ammen. officers arrested him at the scene and later arrested a second suspect, 23-year-old kyle harrison. investigators believe they were racing each other at speeds of more than 80 miles per hour on el camino real, a surface street. the couple's 7-year-old twin daughters did survive. harrison has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody. the family tells us they have written a letter to the judge asking that the 17-year-old suspect also remain in custody. it's not clear at this point whether he will be tried as an adult. two of the nation's major drug stores are now limiting the sale of pain and fever relief medication for children. nbc bay area's bob redell is live in dublin. i know these restrictions are the latest response to one of the worst flu sewns we've seen in years. >> reporter: they're restricting you to two pain relief and fever medications. walgreens also limiting purchases to six over-the-counter pediatric fever medicines for online sales. the drugstore chains are facing supply issues and high demand with the country, as you mentioned, experiencing one of the worst flu seasons in a decade. we spoke with dr. peter chen hong, a disease specialist, who tells us there's three main reasons why the flu season is particularly bad this year. >> the first is that we haven't seen a lot of flu in the last almost three years, so it leaves our population more vulnerable. the second reason is that the type of flu that's circulating now, the main one, is 3n2, is particularly notorious for causing very serious disease, particularly in the elderly and hospitalizations. number three, not a lot of people have gotten vaccines, about 20% less than this time last year. >> reporter: so when should you go to the hospital? dr. chen hong says when you're having trouble breathing, if you're having trouble going up the stairs or across the room. in a pulse oximeter showsbelow 93%. reporting live, bob redell, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. california officials right now giving us an update on the state's response to that 6.4 earthquake in humboldt county. let's take a listen. >> we know at this point at least ten people were called for emergency services, two of those injuries we've reported already this morning, a head and hip injury. both seem to be minor at this point. >> i'm the director of the governor's office of emergency services here and wanted to just take a minute and provide a little bit of an update on the earthquake this morning, the 6.4 magnitude quake that occurred at 2:34, about eight miles offshore of ferndale, california, which is up in humboldt county. obviously a relatively strong earthquake and it was felt widely, as far east as reading and as far south as in the bay area. i'll start off by saying it's interesting to note that the earthquake early warning system, which is the new system that we have, was able to actually push out alerts ten seconds in advance of the earthquake shaking to some 3 million people in northern california. and so i was really happy to have given individuals an opportunity to drop, cover and hold, or get to a place of safety within that ten-second timeframe and the system did operate as we had hoped and we've been working to design. the impacts from the quake really are centered in humboldt county, predominantly around the towns of ferndale and for tuna and rio del. it's not an area where they're strangers to earthquakes. they've had pretty good sizable earthquakes in this area in the past and, you know, we're happy that this one wasn't as large as it could have been and we've seen in the past. but, still, we have seen this one resulting in damage, both structural and non structural. when i say structural damage, we're talking about damage to homes, damage to critical infrastructure and lifelines, so water, power and gas lines. at this point there's some 71,000 people that still are without power and pg&e, we're working closely to get the power restored into the area and making sure they've got all the resources to be able to do that. and non structural damage. it's things like, you know, your plates, your bookshelves, tvs, things that are on the shelf that could fall over that aren't bolted down. and, unfortunately, it's the nonstructural items that create a danger for people, short of a house collapsing on you or a building collapsing on you, the potential for having a bookshelf come over or something come over and injure you is high. so we've had some injuries associated with this particular event. we're still assessing the total numbers. i have no confirmed reports of fatalities as of yet. but we do know that we've had some injuries that range from minor to moderate, and most of those were, again, from nonstructural kinds of situations. and the infrastructure, we'll talk about it. i have a few speakers today. we'll talk about some of the infrastructure, both damage to roads and bridges, which are obviously critical lifelines in the area and have sustained some damage and they're being inspected currently. we're here at the state operation center where behind me you'll see representatives of a number of state agencies that are here coordinating the state's response effort to the earthquake up north and to humboldt county. really, the role here is to provide whatever resources or commodities, mutual aid assets, whatever the local government and our tribal governments in that area need to be able to address what their immediate needs are. so we have supported them with some mutual aid fire assets and we have pre-positioned some commodities for humanitarian efforts, things like cots and blankets and comfort kits, should they be needed as the day goes on. we know there's a storm coming in. we're working closely with the national weather service and we're monitoring the circumstances there for individuals that may be out of their homes as a result of this and we want to make sure red cross is directly involved, and sheltering items that are necessary are opportunities that are taking place that damage assessment will be ongoing through today and into tomorrow and the next few days. earthquake damage is always a little more difficult to find because you have to get in and understand what the foundation looks like, where the cracks may take place and that will also drive what the overall damage assessment is and what it means for us from the standpoint of seeking any additional assistance for disaster aid. important to note that following the 6.4, we've had up to 80, now, aftershocks. the largest being a 4.6, which happened in and around rio del. it appears they have sustained some of the hardest hit areas, but there's still assessment going on in ferndale, which is also close to the epicenter, and we do know there was some water main breaks in the town of fortuna. the tsunami center in alaska advised that there was no threat of a tsunami because the earthquake was offshore. and so it's important to note that, and so we don't expect that to be the case. so that's kind of where things are at right now. the state operation center on this end will continue to be operational through tonight, into tomorrow, or as long as it takes to ensure that all of the resources that are being applied are being done and we help the folks there navigate through this particular situation. we know that with the aftershocks individuals will maybe feel a little uncomfortable about being back in your home. your home is liveable, if you can get in, you understand just like anything, if you feel like the earthquake happening again, aftershock, drop, cover and hold. find a safe spot in your home to get to. please remove all that nonstructural stuff or bolt it to the wall or secure it in some fashion so it's not above you, should something fall over. so you want to make your home as safe as possible through this period of time. and of course if you have any emergencies or need any assistance, to call local authorities to be able to provide that assistance to you. the responders up there are pretty busy, so, you know, make sure that if you need them it's something that you need them for when you call them. but this is a one-team, one-fight effort, local, state folks all working together to be able to help out the community there. so, with that, i'm going to turn it over to tony traveras with caltrans who is going to talk about some of the assessments to the bridges and the roads. >> thank you, director. i'm the director for the california department of transportation, caltrans, and i would like to just mention a little bit about the infrastructure, the state highway system up there in the humboldt county area. we have dispersed an almost dozen person strike team to go out, inspect all the bridges, the major structures and roadways throughout humboldt county. we have bridge engineers, we have specialized engineers and bridge inspectors that are helping us with this work. so far, we've identified one bridge, the fern bridge, which is on state route 211, connects ferndale to u.s. 101, which has suffered some damage. with that bridge, we have traffic closed at this time on that bridge. we are allowing emergency vehicles to pass across that bridge through traffic control. i also want to mention that i've issued a $6 million emergency director's order to the district 1 director in that area to bring a contractor on board as quickly as possible. we have selected myers and sons to be that contractor. they are currently mobilizing their equipment and resources and personnel to actually be on site by later today and begin the reconstruction work on that bridge. most likely, just my thoughts going forward, most likely we will shore that bridge and get it ready and open to public traffic and then commence with the final repairs of the bridge. also want to mention, we are working very closely with regional and local authorities up there on the inspection of their facilities as well. this is a one-team effort, as the director mentioned, and all of us here at the state agencies are working closely with our local partners in the humboldt county area. one last item i would like to mention as well is that caltrans has various facilities in the area. we are making those facilities open to bring in resources to assist with any of the needs of humboldt county. so we're working very closely with the state agencies to bring in commodities and other items that may be needed for the people in humboldt county. so that concludes my comments. i would like to turn it over to cindy from the california geological survey. >> i'm with the california geological survey department of conservation and i'm also chair of the california earthquake clearinghouse which was last activated for the 2019 earthquake, which was also a 6.4 and a 7.1. today's earthquake was about two miles offshore. it was about 15 miles southwest of ferndale. the earthquake was on what's called the gorda plate. it's a complex area offshore where we have the pacific plate, the north american plate, which we're on here, and some small pieces of other plates as well. the area over the last century has had about 40 earthquakes that are magnitude 6 to 7, so it's not unusual for us to have earthquakes of this size in this region. as the director said, we had about 80 aftershocks. there were three of them magnitude 4.6, 4.0 and 3.9, which were the largest at this point. we have sent some scientists out in the field and likely there are other scientists out there as well, as well as engineers, starting to get a reconnoissance feel of what kind of damage and features are out there, and we will be sending more people out there, if needed, to document the characteristics of this earthquake. part of what the clearinghouse does is help sort out and connect people who are doing that research and make sure that we have a platform to provide that information out to others. it's a key part of providing intelligence after an event to the state operations center. there was no tsunami. the fault motion for this was a side-by-side motion, so there was no possibility of lifting up and even causing a small tsunami. i think that's about it. oh, the usgs has also put out, and this is very helpful, what they call an earthquake forecast, an aftershock forecast. this will be changing by the hour. when i last looked at it, there is approximately a 13% chance within the next week of a magnitude 5 or larger.