Quake Swarm Continues
The swarm of earthquakes off the coast of Florence have continued through the night into early this morning but are not a cause for alarm for coastal communities according William Yeck with the US Geological Survey. Yeck says these types of swarms are not uncommon and usually are limited to a certain period of time and then diminish.
“This is typical of what we have seen in other earthquake swarms. Typically these swarms have lasted 24 hours or a few days. And we’ve seen, throughout the years, similar swarms so that’s where we have seen a number of magnitude 5 and larger earthquakes occurring in a relatively short period of time.”
Yeck says these types of quakes differ greatly from those that can cause catastrophic damage to property.
“This is a transform zone so that means it is strike slip earthquakes occurring which means that the plate is sliding side by side next to each other and in those types of earthquakes we don’t see a lot of vertical displacement on the sea floor.”
Yeck also says that the quakes are occurring in the Blanco Fraction zone on the Juan de Fuca plate far enough away from the Cascadia Subduction zone and would not likely have any effect on the major plate that runs along the coast and through parts of the state.
School COVID
Some of the increases surrounding the coronavirus are cases that involve the school district according to Superintendent Andy Grzeskowiak. He says most are students that are excluded from campus with a laboratory test result and some are those that have had contact with infected persons outside the classroom setting. Grzeskowiak said it is not known whether the illness involving the Siuslaw Basketball. Siuslaw High School principal, Mike Harklerode said if it is determined that the illness is COVId the school will follow established protocols to notify students, parents and the community.
Moratorium to Expire
If you have been holding off renewing your expired driver’s license due to the COVID-19 pandemic your window to do so without penalty is closing. The moratorium on penalties for expired licenses, permits, vehicle registration and handicap placards will end on December 31st. the Oregon DMV is allowing for many of these renewals to be done online through dmv2u.oregon.gov.
Latest COVID Numbers
Lane County Public Health has yet to update its COVID-19 information on its website, but some of the information has been reported by the Oregon Health Authority including 68 new cases for Lane County. There was one new case for the 97439 zip code bringing that total to 820. The OHA is reporting that last week cases of COVID-19, hospitalizations and deaths all saw an increase from the previous week. There was a 50% increase from the previous week and health officials say it is likely a result of thanksgiving travel and get-togethers. There were 226 more hospitalizations over the previous week and 126 deaths reported.
