The largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area in 25 years rumbled through California’s Wine Country, knocking down walls, igniting fires, and sending more than 170 people to hospitals where the staffs had to rally to overcome damage to the medical centers.

The biggest impact appeared centered around Napa, a famous wine-producing region and a major tourist destination in northern California.  The facades on those old brick buildings in downtown Napa – with trendy wine bars and art galleries – are not reinforced and came tumbling down.  One wine bar estimated its losses at US$50,000 worth of bottles, tossed out of its racks by the shaking earth.

Bricks also fell off the courthouse.  And Queen of the Valley Medical Center, a Catholic nonprofit hospital founded in 1958, lost its power for several hours and had to rely on emergency generators while inundated with patients.

The power company raced to repair about a hundred gas leaks and dozens of downed power lines.  Fire destroyed four mobile homes and damaged two others at a trailer park in the area, while crews extinguished blazes in two other residential neighborhoods.