Los Angeles hit with earthquake: U.S. Geological Survey

LOS ANGELES –

An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 was strongly felt Monday afternoon from the Los Angeles area all the way to San Diego on the U.S.-Mexico border, swaying buildings, rattling dishes and setting off car alarms but no major damage or injuries were immediately reported.

Monday’s quake was centred near the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Highland Park, about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometres) northeast of Los Angeles’ City Hall, and about 7.5 miles (12.1 kilometres) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt from greater Los Angeles south to San Diego and east to the Palm Springs desert region, according to the USGS community reporting page. A small number of reports were filed from the southern San Joaquin Valley about 100 miles northwest of LA.

It shook a medical building, a live interview on ESPN was interrupted, and the ground swayed in Anaheim, where Disneyland is located in Orange County. Dishes rattled in the storied L.A. neighbourhood of Laurel Canyon, home to many celebrities, and TV news helicopters showed water spilling from an upper floor of Pasadena City Hall, an ornate domed structure dating to 1927 and seismically retrofitted in the 2000s.

But this quake served more as a reminder of what could happen in a state where a huge population lives above active fault lines.

“Having lived through the Northridge earthquake (magnitude 6.7 in 1994), today’s tremor made me flash back to what we know are lifesaving rules during an earthquake: drop, cover, and hold on. It was also a reminder to us all that we live in earthquake country and we need to be prepared,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

The National Weather Service said a tsunami was not expected, and the USGS downgraded its initial estimate of 4.6 for the quake’s magnitude. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it received no initial reports of damage or injuries as it checks infrastructure citywide.

Richard Egan was eating lunch with colleagues on the second floor of an office building near the Long Beach Airport, about 20 miles south of the quake’s epicentre, when there was a sudden jolt. “It got really quiet,” he said, “and we waited for a bigger quake to follow.”

There was rolling for about 45 seconds, he estimated, but with no more shaking, the lunchtime conversation resumed where it left off, said Egan, who has lived through many quakes during his 59 years in Southern California. He rated this one as average.

It struck on the first school day for the Los Angeles Unified School District. At least one high school, John Marshall in Los Feliz, alerted parents that they had evacuated the buildings to check for damage, but didn’t see any immediately.

The quake comes less than a week after a 5.2 magnitude temblor hit southern California and was also widely felt in Los Angeles. That quake caused no injuries or major damage.