2014 South Napa earthquake location. At least twelve aftershocks followed, including one of magnitude 3.9. The earthquake was the largest earthquake in the Bay Area since the magnitude 6.9 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency due to the severe damage and the possibility of aftershocks. President Obama declared a major disaster for Napa and Solano counties. Several older commercial buildings in downtown Napa showed signs of extensive external damage even though many had been retrofitted for earthquake safety protection. The Goodman Library, Napa County Courthouse Plaza, Sam Kee Laundry Building, Downtown U.S. Post Office, Alexandria Hotel and Annex,
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake Beroza, a seismologist with Stanford University, made several distinctions regarding the 1906 and 1989 events. Near Loma Prieta, the 1906 rupture was more shallow, had more strike-slip, and occurred on a fault that was near vertical. The 1989 event's oblique-slip rupture was at 10 km and below on a fault plane that dipped 70° to the southwest. Because much of the slip in 1989 occurred at depth and the rupture propagated up dip, Beroza proposed that the overlying San Andreas Fault actually inhibited further rupture and also maintains that the occurrence of an event at the location that was forecast