'The Whole Store Started Shaking:' Santa Rosa, California Earthquake Wreaks Havoc for Local Businesses

A 4.4 magnitude earthquake rocked Northern California on Tuesday, leaving the shelves of local businesses in disarray. The quake hit Santa Rosa, which sits along the Rodgers Creek fault line, around 6:30 p.m. PST and was followed by an aftershock, according to The Weather Channel. The Santa Rose fire department responded to several reports of gas leaks, fire alarms and stuck elevators, per its Twitter, and revealed no injuries were reported in relation to the quake.

The earthquake might have caused minor damages, but several local businesses reported it left broken merchandise and confused customers. "We were all in the middle of transactions — it was crazy," Abby Volz, a Whole Foods employee, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "I was with another cashier and all of a sudden the whole store started shaking. She reacted really quickly, she dove under the nearest cash register."

According to one Twitter video, the earthquake caused merchandise to fall off the shelves of a local market.

Little shake in Sonoma County today. #molsberrymarket #santarosa #earthquake pic.twitter.com/KC8A7P1dqc

— Midori Verity, Fuel to Fire Accountability Pods (@MidoriVerity) September 14, 2022

In video footage obtained by the Press Democrat, employees of Sam's Market can be seen cleaning broken bottles of top-shelf liquor. "As soon as the earthquake happened everything fell down," owner Praneel Ram said in the clip, adding that a portion of his "highly priced" merchandise was damaged in the quake.