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The extent of the damage from Friday's quake to the infrastructure of Ridgecrest - a desert city of about 30,000 people - remains unclear.
"The situation awareness is sketchy because the power is out and there is not a lot of light," Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California governor's emergency response department, told reporters.
David Witt, the Kern County fire chief, said that no major building collapses were known of, but authorities were searching the area.
"There's so many calls for help that we have a backlog of calls," Witt told reporters about two hours after the quake.
On Thursday the city experienced several structural fires and some homes were destroyed, but no major injuries were reported.
Dozens of aftershocks measuring over magnitude 3.0 hit near Ridgecrest following Friday's quake, including three of over 5.0 magnitude.
"This was definitely stronger shaking and unfortunately it looks to be pretty high levels of shaking in Ridgecrest," Lucy Jones, a seismologist for the USGS, told reporters on Friday.
"That's why we keep on saying 'one in 20 chance,' well this is the 20," Jones added, referring to comments made earlier on the chances of having an aftershock larger than Thursday's earthquake.
There is a 5-per-cent chance that a larger earthquake will follow Friday's quake, which would likely occur within a day, Jones said.
"The situation awareness is sketchy because the power is out and there is not a lot of light," Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California governor's emergency response department, told reporters.
David Witt, the Kern County fire chief, said that no major building collapses were known of, but authorities were searching the area.
"There's so many calls for help that we have a backlog of calls," Witt told reporters about two hours after the quake.
On Thursday the city experienced several structural fires and some homes were destroyed, but no major injuries were reported.
Dozens of aftershocks measuring over magnitude 3.0 hit near Ridgecrest following Friday's quake, including three of over 5.0 magnitude.
"This was definitely stronger shaking and unfortunately it looks to be pretty high levels of shaking in Ridgecrest," Lucy Jones, a seismologist for the USGS, told reporters on Friday.
"That's why we keep on saying 'one in 20 chance,' well this is the 20," Jones added, referring to comments made earlier on the chances of having an aftershock larger than Thursday's earthquake.
There is a 5-per-cent chance that a larger earthquake will follow Friday's quake, which would likely occur within a day, Jones said.
