California Earthquake Puts Glass Businesses on Rebound

Glass shops in Napa County, Calif., are picking up the pieces in their homes and businesses today after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake rippled through the area over the weekend.

The earthquake struck Sunday morning at 3:24 a.m. PDT, with its epicenter just four miles northwest of the city of American Canyon and five miles south of Napa, according to the U.S. Geology Survey. Napa reportedly absorbed the hardest hit from the earthquake, which was the largest the Bay Area had seen in nearly 25 years.

Damage to the U.S. Post Office building in Napa, Calif. (Photo: Matthew Keys/Wikimedia Commons)

Webster Window and Door office manager Angelina Schmidt walked into her Napa glass and glazing business Sunday to find “stuff everywhere” in the office and ample damage in the warehouse. If there is a silver lining for Webster, it’s that “we’re lucky we didn’t have a lot of windows to replace in the warehouse,” says Schmidt.

Decor Shower Door & Glass Co., another local glass business, wasn’t so lucky in that regard.

“We lost quite a bit of stock,” says Decor project manager Jeremy Jones, though he says his company is sending a truck to its supplier today to replenish the loss.

Schmidt and Jones spent their Sundays working to clean up their respective businesses.

“A friend of ours came in to help us; everyone has been helping everyone—that’s how it’s been,” says Schmidt.

Both Webster and Decor, who staff a dozen employees between their two companies, are working to accommodate for their own employees while helping shore up structures throughout the community.

“Most of our employees have damaged homes,” says Schmidt. “We’re down a lot of people. That’s the hardest part, trying to make everyone’s schedule work … Everything is still kind of up in the air.”

In addition to the clean-up, Jones says he was “out in the field yesterday talking to people and providing quotes.”

The Napa County Board of Supervisors and Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the county Sunday, which remained in place Monday.

“The health and safety of our residents and those visiting our county continues to be our top priority,” Mark Luce, chairman of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement Monday. “County officials remain dedicated to providing emergency and other necessary services as we recover from this incident together.”

As the community works to get itself back to normal, shops continue to sort out their schedule of projects as the list continues to grow.

Jones says Decor’s log of work went out approximately two weeks prior to the quake, so the incoming requests due to damage, which he expects a bulk of to come in today, will have a significant impact on the businesses schedule.

“Customers have been understanding so far,” he says.