Recovery efforts continue 6 months after Napa quake

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- It's been almost six months since the Napa Valley was rocked by the biggest quake to hit it in nearly 25 years.

The 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck on Aug. 24 in the middle of the night and caused major damage. The recovery is still underway.

The 10 to 20 seconds of violent shaking knocked down buildings and turned Napa into shambles. It's hard to believe that 3:20 a.m. Tuesday morning is the the six month anniversary.

Time may fly when you don't live in an earthquake recovery zone, but when you do it flows like molasses.

PHOTOS: Six months after the Napa quake

Napa Valley businessman said it felt like it's only been two months since the earthquake rattled the region.

Most of the scaffolding around Napa has disappeared. The old courthouse remains a shadow of its former self, as does the Center Building, which dates back to 1903.

The Napa Valley Register is still recovering. It became part of the story after the quake knocked a printing press off its foundation.

"And yet it gives us greater empathy for the folks we write for because their trauma is our trauma," Kevin Courtenay, city editor of the Napa Valley Register, said from the newspaper's new newsroom, a trailer where reporters work shoulder-to-shoulder.

"It feels like an eternity and yet we are still here," he said.

In Napa, federal emergency dollars have kicked in, but recovery takes time and it takes tolls in so many ways.

One local Safeway is still closed. Its former employees now get fewer hours working at another store.

"I just went from 40 hours to 30 hours then down to 20 in a matter of weeks just because of the quake," Napa resident Chris Scheimer said.

Just because of the quake in a small city six months later, forget appearances, the devil still resides in the details.

Click here for full coverage on the South Napa Earthquake.