The 6.1 earthquake that jolted northern California in the middle of the night Sunday upended furniture and scattered broken glass at the Napa Valley Chabad Jewish Center.

“It was very violent—not a gentle rolling quake, but more of a jolting traumatic experience that shocked us out of sleep at 3:20 a.m. and lasted for about half a minute, Rabbi Elchonon Tenenbaum told the Chabad website.

The rabbi, his wife and five children were not injured.

Tenenbaum said he waited outside with his neighbors until daybreak before going back into his home and Chabad center, where power had been lost, to survey the damage. Upended furniture and broken glass prevented him from accessing some rooms, including his office. A disaster recovery fund was quickly established for those wanting to help out.

“I went to check up on people in the area and found that they were in a similar situation,” he added. “Their houses are standing, but everything inside has been ruined. Thank God, this happened in the middle of the night when we were in our beds and not in other parts of our homes, where heavy bookcases fell over.”

The Chabad website reported, “Tenenbaum says that waking up in the middle of the night with his children screaming amid violent banging and shaking helped him picture what life must be like on a regular basis for people living in Israel, where Hamas has been firing rockets from Gaza for much of the summer.”

“It is really surreal,” he said. “There are some stores that are functioning as usual, and others have been completely destroyed for now. Some streets are buckled, and others are just fine. Some people have broken water mains or leaking gas pipes, and others do not.”

Many residents in the area, famous for its wineries, are crying over wine spilled from barrels that were broken from the earthquake.

The largest quake to hit the San Francisco area in 25 years, it caused several injuries, including three who are in critical condition, set off fires and knocked out power.

Napa’s downtown historical areas sustained irreparable damage.

A 6.0-strong earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area wide awake Sunday morning.

At least 89 people were sent to the hospital and Governor Jerry Brown decided to declare a state of emergency.

The epicenter of the temblor was located about nine miles south of Napa wine country, at about 3:20 am Pacific Time, within 44 miles of the San Andreas fault system between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. It lasted about 10 to 20 seconds, depending on where along the state the quake was measured.

Residents were shaken as far south as Santa Cruz, and into the Sonoma Valley. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, an aftershock measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale occurred at 5:47 am Pacific Time, at a depth of about five miles.

Four mobile homes in the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park ignited and burned to the ground. Two others were damaged, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. Elsewhere homes were in disarray, and buildings were partially crumbled. A hospital building itself was damaged, and there were concerns over gas and water main leaks and breaks. Power outages were reported in several counties and bridges were examined minutely for damage as well. Only one overpass in Vallejo on California 37 heading towards American Canyon was found damaged.

Last week the Piraeus, a ZIM Integrated Shipping Services vessel, was blocked blocked from unloading at the Port of Oakland in San Francisco Bay by ‘Free Gaza’ protesters from the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement.

The anti-Israel activists prevented dock workers from doing their jobs for several days, forcing the vessel to circle in the Pacific Ocean until police officers finally blocked the protesters and enabled the process to take place. A similar pro-jihadi effort to “block the boat” failed further up the coast.

A special monitoring system run by the University of Padova in Italy has been installed in the Tower of David heritage site as part of an international project that attempts to use technology to determine the structural weaknesses in an ancient edifice .

The Tower of David is the tallest structure in the Old City of Jerusalem and a famous symbol to residents and tourist, with at least 2,000 years’ worth of history dating back to the First Temple period.

However, six major cracks in the tower raise questions if the structure would be able to survive an earthquake. Israel is located in a region extremely prone to earthquakes, and a major quake could be devastating.

“A major earthquake poses a serious threat and needs to be treated as such,” Dr. Avi Shapira, chairman of Israel’s National Earthquake Preparedness Committee,  told Tazpit News Agency.

“We want to preserve the structures of our past and historical monuments of the Holy Land that are significant to the world.,” he added.

Israel experienced five moderate earthquakes in October, which prompted experts to install a seismic monitoring system at the Tower of David in November 2013.

In a special conference at the Tower of David this week, Italian experts brought their knowledge during unique sessions addressing earthquake monitoring.

“Italy is a world leader in the earthquake monitoring field and conducting research in methodology for effective dealing with earthquakes,” explains Professor Claudio Modena, a Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Padova. “Israel is new to this area, and we believe that sharing our knowledge will help maintain historical structures in the event of a major earthquake.”

Modena, who lives in Verona, Italy, has also investigated historical and archaeological sites in Akko, Tzfat, and Beit Shean.

In wake of the series of small earthquakes that recently hit Tiberias, Kineret Hotels managers are reporting that many dozens of Tel Aviv residents have cancelled their vacations in Tiberias.

Roni Manor, the general manager of the Nof Ginnosar hotel told Makor Rishon that yesterday a group of 25 Tel Avivians called and cancelled their stay this weekend, because “they’re afraid of an earthquake”.

Manor told the group that they’re crazy, “They live in Tel Aviv, the main target of Iran’s nukes, and they’re afraid of some tremors!”

Manor said, the country’s scared, because the media is creating panic.

So we’ll take the other route at JewishPress.com, if you want to go away this weekend (and aren’t going to Hebron for Parshat Chayei Sarah), check it out, you might be able to get good rates right now at a Tiberias hotel.

Another earthquake, at least the seventh in the past week, hit Israel again on Wednesday, this time in Eilat and causing a bit of nervousness but no injuries or damage.

All of the previous recent earthquakes were in the area of Tiberias and the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), in northern Israel.

The temblor in Eilat was measured at 3.3. on the Richter scale and was felt around 3:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. EDT). Seismologists said the unusual number of earthquakes in a short period of time do not necessarily mean that a major quake is on the horizon, but the coincidence of the temblors has re-awakened awareness about a possible disaster in the event of a major quake.

Home Front Minister MK Gilad Erdan of the Likud party told the Knesset Wednesday that a major earthquake could cause the deaths of 7,000 people and injuries to tens of thousands others.

A minor earthquake, the fifth in a week, shook up residents in the area of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) Tuesday morning.

The temblor, which measured 3.3 on the Richter scale and was centered just northwest of the Sea of Galilee, was felt from Tiberias up to the Golan Heights.

It came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered earthquake drills in schools on the same day that two earthquakes struck.

All five of the quakes have been centered near the Sea of Galilee, which is located on the Great Syria-African Rift, which has been the center of several earthquakes, large and small. It is unclear what the string of temblors means for future earthquakes.

Hundreds of people died and were injured in a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in 1927 that centered on the Dead Sea.

The third mild earthquake in a week struck Israel around noon Sunday in the area of Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee and measuring between 3.5 and 4 on the Richter scale. No injuries or damage was reported.

An earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale occurred on the Sabbath in northern Israel, with its epicenter between the Hula Nature Reserve and the Sea of Galilee.

A third earthquake with a 3.5 magnitude occurred late last week, also near Tiberias.

It is not known what the string of mild earthquakes means, and if it is a precursor of a larger earthquake in the region.

The Tiberias region has been shaken by disastrous earthquakes in the past, the largest one being in 1837, when Tzfat (Safed) was destroyed and approximately 4,000 people were killed. In nearby Tiberias, between 700 and 1,000 people died.