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A powerful July 4 earthquake in the Southern California desert may have killed a man in neighboring Nevada, authorities said Tuesday.
This would be the first death related to the magnitude 6.4 earthquake near Ridgecrest that would have been felt from afar.
The Nye County Sheriff's Department said MPs found Tuesday a 56-year-old man, stuck under a jeep in Pahrump, about 241 km from the earthquake's epicenter. The man was last seen alive at a local gas station the day before the earthquake.
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It is believed that the man was working on the jeep, which apparently fell off his clutches when the quake struck, Sgt. Adam Tippets said. The name of the man was not immediately published.
No other deaths or serious injuries were associated with the earthquake or magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck the same Mojave Desert region on Friday. However, earthquakes blocked highways, cracked buildings, and gas pipes that caused several house fires. A sprawling naval base near Ridgecrest remained closed to non-essential personnel Tuesday as the army sought to determine the damage.
The teams had so far polled only 10 percent of the 1,200 installations at China Lake's naval base, spokeswoman Margo Allen said. It was difficult to know when staff members and their families could return.
Water and gas services have been restored at the base, but engineers are ensuring that buildings can enter safely. The shaking walls in a chapel and school and lowered the shelves of the commissioners, Allen said. "Everything has fallen off the walls and there is still a lot of cleaning work to do," she said.
One person suffered a minor foot injury.
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According to officials, most employees live off base, mainly at Ridgecrest. Some staff members were evacuated to the Naval Base in Ventura County. Officials were still taking stock Tuesday of the damage in communities outside the base. It may still be several days before the water service is re-established in the small town of Trona, where civil servants would be trucked to washrooms and portable showers.
President Donald Trump said Monday an emergency in California because of earthquakes, paving the way for federal aid. The statement authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
The great earthquakes were followed by thousands of small aftershocks. The US geological survey has announced that aftershocks will subside and that the probability of a new earthquake of magnitude 4 or greater will also decrease.
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