2022 brought a sweemingly unending torrent of news in Humboldt County, so much so that sifting through it to find the year’s 10 biggest stories necessitated breaking conventional bounds and adding two bonus entries. It helps that items 11 and 12 on this list are resoundingly positive news — which we can safely say we all need a lot more of these days. As we present our Top 10 stories of 2022, we’ll first note a few omissions. The fall of Roe, the conclusion of the Eureka Police Department’s texting scandal, the approval of a historically massive fish farm on the Samoa Peninsula and the Lightning Complex Fire that encircled Willow Creek for more than a month all failed to make the cut this year, underscoring what an absolutely wild year we’ve all had. As we enter 2023, take a moment to reflect and look back on 2022, and let us know what we missed. And let’s all hope the coming year builds on the successes of this year while leaving the discord and division behind. Thadeus Greenson No. 1 Earthquake If there is a single moment from 2022 most of us will remember in 20 years, it’s likely 2:34 a.m. on Dec. 20, when the earth began to shake. While Humboldt County has seen far more damaging earthquakes, this one rocked the county with a force that could be felt far beyond its borders, with shaking reportedly felt in the San Francisco Bay Area, north to Oregon and east to Redding. It knocked out power countywide, with abundant reports of broken possessions and shattered nerves. Ultimately, though, it was the Eel River Valley that felt the brunt of the quake’s force and saw the most damage. Rio Dell was particularly hard hit, with dozens of homes red tagged and its water system damaged so severely it was inoperable for days, leaving residents using portable toilets and drinking bottled water. As 2022 comes to a close, officials were still working to finalize a damage estimate and determine how many homes countywide were no longer safe for occupancy. But to those who lived through it, there was little doubt the quake would reverberate in their memories for a long, long time. Thadeus Greenson No. 2 Harnessing the Wind The first steps in a long road to producing wind energy off the North Coast took place at the beginning of December,…