LAist: 5.4 Earthquake Strikes Southern California*

kahunna

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:12:38 -0800

I blame Al Gore.

bbkong

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:07:10 -0800

Meh. That was a little one. A little bit of rock, but no roll in Eagle Rock. I'm just surprised no one's blamed Bush or global warming yet.

Elise Thompson

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:33:21 -0800

ben: it all depends on where you are. Sometimes inside is safest and sometimes it's a death trap. After Northride I would say get the hell out of "Dingbat" apartments (apartment over a carport).

kahunna

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:06:44 -0800

I was on the 2nd floor in one of the newest (thus, safest?) buildings in Pasadena at 888 Walnut St. Lots of action since its on rollers! BTW - it was first reported as a 5.6, then a 5.8 (then ultimately a 5.4), FYI.

benh57

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:36:31 -0800

@Elise: No, do NOT get out of the house. The only people who DIED in Whittier were ones who ran out of the buildings, to have brick facades fall on them. (except one guy in a car, i believe) Stay put. Do NOT run out of the building.

Johnny

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:35:26 -0800

Was on the 9th floor of the old Unical building now the LA Center Studios. Rolled and slid side to side a bit. Felt like a long time. My first real good quake. I was on a boat for the Whitter and in Vegas for the Northridge.

meesha

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:15:37 -0800

Maybe I'm just a data nerd, but I highly recommend everyone who commented here to go fill out the "Did You Feel It?" survey at the USGS site: http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/ It's pretty quick, and you can do it anonymously, if you like--though they do need the zip code of your location at the time of the quake. Your experience can help science! (Incidentally, I was at an appointment in Marina Del Rey and the whole building rocked like a boat for a minute or so. Fun!)

bluewitchbaby

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:12:36 -0800

First thought: My neighbor needs to lose weight, jeez. He's stomping around up there... Second thought: That's not my neighbor Third thought: Dang it, I am not wearing a shirt. Hooray for my first topless earthquake. Sure beats the time I was sleeping over at my best friend's house in Northridge...the night of the Northridge earthquake... ~P

BingosDingo

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:37:49 -0800

AT&T reports, via Fox News, that their services are designed to automatically restrict calls to "emergency only" (police, 911, & hospitals) when a certain threshold of call volume is met. Apparently that threshold was met within minutes of the quake. I don't subscribe to AT&T, but considering their service base (quite large) it seems like a good policy. Here in Marina del Rey it felt like a heavy vehicle going by. That lasted for about three seconds. Then the shaking ceased. Five seconds in it got quite a bit stronger. Felt like a rolling wave. Lasted less than two minutes. Likely the result of all of the alluvial soil between here an Chino Hills. Dr. Hutton of CalTech/USGS states that this was a thrust fault quake about seven miles below ground level. She says there's a 5% probability that it was a fore-shock.

BRATMix

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:21:05 -0800

Burbank report: Was proofing a mashup in my car. Got to a bassy part, and the car started shaking. For a second, thought I had too much bass in the mix. :) If you have a choice, ride out an earthquake in a parked car. Fun!

Lindsay William-Ross

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:18:20 -0800

that was pretty intense here in NoHo. strange how the "intensity" maps Dr. Hutton was showing in her press conference seemed to illustrate that the area where it was felt stopped barely outside of the city center on the Northwest end. it also seemed to last fairly long--long enough for me to go: WTF?--> OMG, EARTHQUAKE!-->get in doorway (trigger reaction)-->repeat "oh my god!" 10x-->listen to a couple of things fall-->realize it's ending. the best info to be had was on Twitter--funny to see all my LA peeps there and on Facebook with earthquake-related status updates. LATimes.com was down, so way to go LAist! heard a water main broke at the CSULA campus--anyone know anything about that? most news channels are doing really lame reporting (shampoo bottles on floor, stoners at Amoeba "wigging out," and CNN patting themselves on the back).

tp4free

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:16:35 -0800

nothing like the loma prieta 7.8 in '89 up in the bay area. now that was scary.

Callie Miller

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:09:17 -0800

Was on the 36th floor of a building on rollers in downtown LA. I've been through many, many earthquakes and this was by far the least fun place to be during one. I'm still shaking.

Ali Miller

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:06:22 -0800

omfg earthquuuake...felt it for about 20 seconds in weho!

Andy Sternberg

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:04:52 -0800

my first quake. wowza

Elise Thompson

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:03:30 -0800

Don't ever be disappointed with an earthquake is not exciting enough. It can always come right back a million times stronger. I used to enjoy them, now after Northridge all bets are off. It used to be the rule to get in a doorway, but the door can slam shut on you. The only people who survived Northridge Meadows collaposing jumped out the windows. So get out of the house with good shoes and avoid power lines. Ironically, many of our emergency responders are at an earthquake training today.

Brock

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:02:07 -0800

yikes. hope you're all ok, SoCal-ers. for some reason, it's day like this that make me miss living down there. sigh.

Steve Ruiz

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:57:01 -0800

Grrr... I'm always out of town when these happen!

kristinester

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:55:51 -0800

sunset and wilcox, fifth floor. The swaying is what freaked me out. I'm a native so I'm used to this, but I've never been so high up or felt it sway to and fro so much. Although I gotta say, it was pretty entertaining watching the transplants react. One dude from Jersey grabbed his laptop and ran downstairs as fast as he could. Forgot his keys. But he was gone. Probably at lax now on the first plane back to the east coast. Another great transplant reaction, "Is it still shaking or is it just me?" Strangely enough my parents in Corona (about 8-10 miles away from the epicenter) barely felt anything, while I'm hearing about people in San Diego feeling it.

Cody Fogh

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:49:28 -0800

Hollywood was shakin pretty good.

chimichanga

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:48:15 -0800

I felt it here in Gardena! Funny that I was reading something about earthquakes at the time it happened.

thepurplehearted

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:46:49 -0800

I'm in Walnut, and that hit pretty hard. My huge foam backed Spiderman poster fell over.

airickoo

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:45:08 -0800

I'm down in Santa Ana and our building shook for a good minute and a half or so..

AlyC

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:43:46 -0800

I was on the 8th floor of a builing on rollers and that earthquake was scary! I'm a CA native and have felt my share of earthquakes but that was my first one experienced in a high rise. Our building, located near LAX, was rolling for at least 5 minutes. I booked it down the 8 flights of stairs as soon as I realized the rolling wasn't ending any time soon. But as freaked out as I was, I felt really bad for the window washers who had been cleaning the 10th floor wondows at the time.

jdAWg

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:42:02 -0800

I'm with you on that emoney...sign me up for part 2...good times...

mjo

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:39:33 -0800

yikes, not a fun two days, first a stabbing and then an earthquake! on the 22nd floor in Century City...everyone is nauseous.

davet

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:39:04 -0800

earthquakes are big news, but would rather read about audrina partridge, lol. i'm a fan of the show and glad to know what she wears around the house. dave gocalifornia.blogspot.com

90039

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:36:11 -0800

its funny that AT&T,which they say has more bars in more places...is having connection problems. .. my texts seem like they are sending...but phone calls are not working... its like they only have one tower and its located in chino hills. what gives? so much for reliability.. when everything started to shake...i just walked outside. i love reading about how non california natives react to earthquakes....great reading

Emoney

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:35:40 -0800

Smack in the center of downtown LA, 7th floor and surrounded by windows. The creaking was more unnerving than the earthquake itself. I'm not a California native, but I was a little disappointed. I had more of a, 'That's it?' response. Ready for the next.

sithandra

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:31:59 -0800

Goody, goody, earthquake tales. I've experienced the '71(yes I'm old), '83 '87 '92 and '94 earthquakes. This one was a breeze. Earthquake veteran: '71 San Fernando Valley '83 Coalinga '87 Whitter Narrows '92 Landers/Big Bear '94 Northridge '08 Chino http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/historical_state.php#california

panasonicyouth

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:30:38 -0800

6th floor building on Sunset and Wilcox. Our building was still creaking/swaying 15-20 minutes after the quake, which made the experience creepy instead of fun. :(

G Pro

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:29:29 -0800

Reporting from Glendale, it was severe enough for us to evacuate the building (being on the 9th floor may have amplified it). Some strong shaking.

misterjohnnie

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:20:17 -0800

We felt rolling here where I am in Beverly Hills that lasted about 15 seconds. No damage, no injuries that I know of.

christina

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:18:00 -0800

i'm also in pasadena and it hit pretty hard here. i jumped under my desk and it seemed endless. ugh. i hate earthquakes.

csharp7

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:16:58 -0800

In a basement in West LA. My office had a good laugh about it from our posts in all our doorways. Cell service outages are annoying though. Especially if it's going to be on the news in the rest of the country.

blazingshark

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:16:17 -0800

i don't care for those odds. and that was not a fun way to wake up from a nap. =(

brainylagirl

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:15:49 -0800

Oh, our bldg is in the Miracle Mile.

chris76

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:13:55 -0800

in el sereno, a long wavy one. it was kind of bizarre how long it rolled on. well, the cat is back on her perch, so i suppose everything is back to normal.

Angel Magaña

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:13:33 -0800

Pretty strong in OC, near the Orange Crush. We are on the second floor of a 2 story building and it was swinging and rocking pretty hard.

brainylagirl

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:13:08 -0800

Up on the 9th floor of a 12 storey building, built on rollers to sway during an earthquake. Lots of swaying, so difficult to tell when the actually stopped moving (as opposed to just our bldg find equilibrium). I didn't seek cover. It was a weird sensation being up high during an earthquake -- not the usu. rumble-jolt I'm used to being closer to the ground. Perhaps this was an S-wave, as opposed to T-Wave event, though.

Royps

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:12:31 -0800

My 10th floor office in a Koreatown high-rise on Wilshire was definitely swaying for close to a minute. I'm a SoCal native, so I've been through my fair share of quakes, but never this high up off the ground. Definitely a strange sensation. Kinda freaking out a little bit too- most of my family is in the Diamond Bar/Chino Hills area. It's been pretty impossible to get a hold of anyone out there for the last 40 min.

Rocktageous

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:12:30 -0800

Lots of transplants in my Beverly Hills office were/are freaked out.

Ross A. Lincoln

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:09:58 -0800

Felt it like crazy in Pasadena. Felt like it was 15 seconds. Also, i've lived in CA for a long time and this is my first real earthquake. I hated it. BOOO earth with mankind killing abilities.

icmags

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:09:43 -0800

Ok, so I lied...it's intermittent, my unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile's working, my co-workers on T-Mobile are not able to make calls.

phdiaz

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:09:35 -0800

We have 3 women visiting from our Ohio office - they thought it was a bomb and took off running down 2 stairs. They're still a bit shaken up...but yeah, we welcomed them to CA

gerryblock

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:09:34 -0800

OMGWTFBBQ! On the 4th floor of a building in Culver City we had some good side-to-side shaking for about 10 seconds.

polaroidgirl

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:08:08 -0800

I am on the 3rd floor of a building in Sherman Oaks that had to be rebuilt after the Northridge quake. It felt pretty significant here... weird thing is just this morning as I was coming in to work I had a fleeting thought about how I hoped to never be in this building during a quake since much of the reconstruction around here leaves me with doubts. A friend of mine lived in a redone building around the corner from here and when you walked the halls they were obviously not even close to being level. Anyway, it felt like it went on forever - we were standing in the doorway having a conversation as it continued.

thurmanoliver

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:07:26 -0800

There is a one in 20% chance that this was a foreshock to a larger quake? that makes zero sense, i am assuming i should remove the percent sign?

Damien Newton

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:07:25 -0800

So, that stuff about pets knowing first seems true. My cat FLIPPED OUT about two minutes before things started shaking. Happy to report here at Streetsblog we're all ok. We being me and the cat. The bobblehead collection is still angry.

icmags

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:07:06 -0800

A quick survey of my co-workers has Verizon and T-Mobile phones working while Spring and AT&T phones are down. Hopefully that earthquake relieves whatever pressure's building up on the fault line for a while.

KevCheng

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:06:46 -0800

Felt here in Century City - 37th floor. A bit of rolling and lots of swaying.

freakshowlee

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:06:38 -0800

My first, too, Farley. Wheeee! Woke me outta bed. And I hate waking up any earlier than noon.

shanaynay11

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:05:33 -0800

Here in Venice, our office rolled side to side for what seemed like an eternity (45 sec??) - we all just walked outside and looked at our neighbors and pretended to surf the rolls :)

WagonMonster

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:05:27 -0800

I'm on the 5th floor of the Water Garden in Santa Monica and we shook a LOT.

Julie Wolfson

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:05:10 -0800

Whoa- we felt it here in Hollywood. The house shook, but nothing fell down.

grendel20

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:04:41 -0800

Didn't even feel it, here by LAX.... used to the ground shaking from planes, I guess.

Matt Vannucci

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:03:25 -0800

Brentwood side-to-side as well! I totally froze, didn't follow the lead of everyone by getting under the desks! This forced me to look into my emergency kit and noticed the water bottles in there are all caving in with dates of 2003. Wake up call!!!

Farley Elliott

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:02:55 -0800

BOOM! My first earthquake. Welcome to LA.

Caroline on Crack

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:02:25 -0800

I'm on the 3rd floor of a building in Santa Monica and that felt like a lonnnng one. What's funny, or sad, is that we didn't know what to do but just stand around and wait for it to end. Jumping under desks don't work, right?

Jeremy

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:01:02 -0800

There was some up and down downtown, but that could have just been amplified from being 37 floors in the sky.

Kokrra

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:59:57 -0800

yep....pretty funny and scary

db

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:59:42 -0800

Here in Monrovia it was a slow roll for a Good Long Time. Probably 45 seconds or more. It didn't knock anything down, but there was significant movement.

danwuh

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:56:05 -0800

A short but side to side shaker down here in Santa Monica - hope those folks in Chino are doin' ok.

BartlettPears

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:55:34 -0800

I didn't think it was that big. I was actually going outside to hit the water pipe and the door started shaking, and I just thought it was the washing machine moving, but then the whole house started to follow. fun times.

90039

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:55:05 -0800

rock n roll!