February 27:  a freeway in Chile, not Los Angeles

For many people it was no big deal, but at 4:04 a.m. today we were jolted awake by an earthquake. It was enough to make our chests pound more than a little with excitement and fear.

The bedroom is on the second floor, so we tend to feel shaking a little bit stronger than on the ground floor.

Today it was only a 4.4 by the way, not strong enough to cause damage, centered east of Los Angeles around Pico Rivera and 12 miles below the surface. See the USGS [1] Preliminary Earthquake Report.

[2]

Here’s what shakes me up in California. You can’t always tell when an earthquake begins if it’s going to get much, much stronger and last longer, or if is will end in a few seconds after a light shaking. At 4 in the morning, it’s not like you can really tell what’s going on right away.

At 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, we were shaken up a lot more seriously by the Northridge quake. I remember the precise time and date, after all these years, because it was bad enough to be etched in my permanent memories. That one turned out to be a 6.7 on the Richter scale, or more than 120 times stronger than the one this morning.

In the stillness I lay there doing the familiar mental calculus, the what if’s, etc. The electricity had not gone out, as it did in 1994. There was no aftershock within 3-4 minutes, as there always is with a more serious quake.

But what if we were feeling only the faint echo of a really terrible quake hundreds of miles away? What if it was San Francisco that was completely wiped off the map at 4:04 a.m. Should I get up and turn th radio on, or rush to the computer for information?

Then there’s the nasty possibility of foreshocks. The scientists tell us about those — meaning that this little 4.4 could have been the precursor to The Big One which could hit within 10 minutes. Should we jump out of bed, get dressed, moved the cars out of the garage (possible collapse?), and fill every bucket and pot with water for emergency use in case the pipes break when the Big One hits. We have only minutes to react, if this is the harbinger of impending disaster.

As it was I couldn’t fall asleep right away and kept listening for creaks and groans in the building — from settling or shifting. There were none. But after the terrible geological disasters in Haiti (January 12) and Chile (February 27), no one in California can really rest easy all the time. We think we’re prepared for disaster, and we have emergency kits, and know about “drop and cover” etc. But you can never be prepared to awaken suddenly in the night. It really rattles your cool, dude.

—Dan Hooper

Also see:  the Los Angeles Times [3] on-line report updated at 6:30 a.m.

P.S.  The nation of Chile has been struck with three more aftershocks on March 11, two of them very serious. A 7.2 shaker was followed by a 6.7 aftershock, followed by yet another of 6.0 on the Richter scale, all within about 27 minutes. Extensive damage is reported in the city of Rancagua. Pray for the poor and wounded.