RIO DELL >> As aftershocks rumbled and crews worked across Humboldt County to restore water and power knocked out by the powerful earthquake that struck earlier this week, Kevin Mcniece rushed to his former home, hoping to beat a code enforcement team so he could grab some of his possessions before access was blocked.

He was too late. The quake-battered structure had already been red-tagged by the time Mcniece, 37, a sawmill machinist, arrived to try to salvage some of his belongings, including his beloved record collection, worth thousands of dollars

He could only peer helplessly through what used to be his kitchen window at the damage: cupboards blown open, fire retardant stains on the ceiling and shattered glass everywhere.

The house had fallen off its stilts and cracked into three separate pieces. A fire had broken out in the kitchen; water started spewing. He and his cat, Gamora, had scrambled to safety. But now what?

One day after a 6.4 earthquake rocked these rural, redwood-canopied towns, leaving two dead and at least 17 injured, it was clear that Mcniece’s community of Rio Dell, a lumber town built upon the cliffs of the Eel River, had taken the brunt of the damage.

“I became homeless in about 20 seconds,” said Mcniece.

It was a blow this community of 3,400 could scarcely afford. Already battered by the decades-long decline in the lumber industry, nearly three quarters of the children in the school district qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

And now there are dozens of red-tagged structures and numerous residents made homeless just days before Christmas. The total cost of the damage has not yet been determined, officials said. Most of the town is under a boil water order, assuming water comes out of their taps at all. “So many leaks,” said Mayor Debra Garnes, of her town’s fractured water system.

“We had a ham and everything,” Rio Dell resident John Ireland said of his plans for cooking Christmas dinner for his mother, 72-year-old Anita Ireland. “And now we might be on the street.”

Ireland, his mother and her pet pit bull, Sarah, have been living out of her 2007 Toyota Camry since the quake jolted them awake in the early dark hours of Tuesday. They later learned their Rio Dell house had also been tagged as unsafe.

“I grabbed my meds and my blanket, that’s pretty much it,” Anita Ireland said. “We slept in a parking lot last night and probably will tonight, and until some help comes.”

Despite the magnitude of the quake, elsewhere in the county, life was snapping back to routine.

In Ferndale, a Victorian town of 1,300 that is highly dependent on tourism, some had worried that lack of power and the closure of Fernbridge, which was built across the Eel River in 1911 to connect Ferndale to U.S. 101, might deal a devastating blow during the critical holiday season.

But the landmark bridge was reopened by Wednesday afternoon. The power was also back on and illuminating strings of holiday lights.

Caroline Titus, who published and edited the Ferndale Enterprise until she sold it last year and who also owns two Airbnb rentals, said she heard from guests due in for Christmas and New Year’s that they were still coming.

“We’re completely back to normal,” she said Wednesday afternoon. She said just a few windows in town had broken.

Titus said she wasn’t surprised that Ferndale had rebounded so quickly: In a region accustomed to seismic activity, she said all the town’s buildings have been retrofitted. A 6.2 earthquake struck exactly one year ago.

If she had to live through earthquakes, she said, “I’d much rather be here where nothing is going to fall on you” than in a big city elsewhere in California.

Eureka, the biggest city in the region with a population of 26,000, was jolted hard by the quake, with residents jerked awake to tumbling shelves, broken glass and the darkness of an electrical blackout.

The city, once the center of the lumber industry, has grown increasingly reliant on tourism, with cruise ships starting to appear in Humboldt Bay and sending visitors into the streets of its charming Old Town.

Solstice, a boutique in Old Town that sells artisan wares and food, was back up and running within 24 hours, employee Raelina Krikston said. “Honestly, I was kind of hoping for a three-day Amish vacation,” she said. “But the electricity came back on, so, we’re back too.”

Distributed by Tribune News Service.