manuel baroqoit who told him this was scary. >> i thought my house was going to fall down. >> reporter: we first firsthand the impact of the magnitude 6.4 quake, which struck humboldt county near the oregon border just after 2:30 this morning. >> i woke up to this. >> reporter: darren gallagher says when he walked outside his home in rio del. >> i opened my porch and it fell off. a dirt bike is holding that in. >> reporter: the road buckled near ferndale, a town of 1,300 residents to the epic center. >> we're talking about damage to homes. damage to critical infrastructure and lifelines. so water, power. >> reporter: but as powerful as this jolt was, the damage could have been much worse. hitting 11 miles beneath the surface. >> when it's released further down into the earth, some of the energy has a chance to die down. >> reporter: most buildings held steady. >> you could fall over that are not bolted down. short of a collapse building on you or a building collapsing on you. but the potential of having a book shelf is high. >> reporter: perhaps most unsettling is that the 6.4 tumbler