Patterico's Pontifications

7/29/2008

Major Earthquake (UPDATE: Sort of!)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:11 pm



A few minutes before noon we had a significant earthquake here in L.A. I was questioning jurors in the Compton courthouse when it hit. It lasted a good 30 seconds and the shaking was similar to the Landers quake of the early 1990s. All is fine with me but I am having trouble placing cell phone calls to check on my family.

UPDATE: Preliminary reports are a 5.8 centered near Chino Hills, with no significant damage. Far closer to L.A. than the usual desert quake, which explains the strong swaying for such a relatively middling quake.

UPDATE x2: Wife and kids OK.

UPDATE x3: End result was a 5.4. Really only moderate, but it felt big at the time.

56 Responses to “Major Earthquake (UPDATE: Sort of!)”

  1. Keep us posted and I hope everyone is okay.

    DRJ (0af395)

  2. Jeeze — press reports are that it was only 5.6. Calm down and go back to work [rest of comment deleted.]

    WLS (8b22c0)

  3. It was as Pat described. I’m only about 5 miles to the east of the courthouse, and it was a side-to-side shaker, but then we got two or three verticle jumps (I hate those), and then some more s x s. It was a good one.

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  4. My prayers are with everyone. My mother lives in Pasadena and works downtown, and have not been able to reach her.

    JD (75f5c3)

  5. It is now a 5.8, with minor property damage. No injuries being reported on the news…

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  6. Water main break in City Terrace, with cracked pavement.

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  7. Some damage to a freeway interchange in Santa Ana Cnyn, between the 231 (?) tollroad and the 91.
    Not very far from the e-center (less than 5-miles).

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  8. Yet another reason to deep six cell phones. Not too bad where I am — which isn’t far from Culver City. Kind of a steady roll. But it will be awhile before we learn exactly how much damage was done.

    David Ehrenstein (21c975)

  9. ABC News just reported that USGS has down-graded to a 5.4!

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  10. The cell phone network is apparently overloaded to the point of uselessness. Try a landline.

    Pablo (99243e)

  11. It’s been reported as a 5.6 down here. Because it was a rolling quake it managed to sway me.

    Alan Kellogg (7ee5ba)

  12. Now, there will be “Breaking News” for the next three days about an event that happened an hour ago and lasted for all of 20 seconds.

    Ed (59b337)

  13. My daughter is stuck on the 28th floor downtown LA. She says the quake was downgraded to a 5.4, but there are 3.8 aftershocks.

    Breitbart is reporting that it was more of a sharp jolt in Orange County. Police Detectives at a gang conference in the Anaheim Marriot doing the reporting.

    PCD (5c49b0)

  14. 10, Yeah, Ed, people have to get it out of their system. I still talk about the Landers/Big Bear quake. Nothing like watching the walls of your house wobbling back and forth like silly putty and your cat begging to go back to Nebraska.

    PCD (5c49b0)

  15. Look what global warming and/or Bush has done now!

    liontooth (0edfdb)

  16. 13, No, I thought Michael Moore or Rosie O’Dumbass fell on their fat…

    PCD (5c49b0)

  17. I cant imagine any terror worst than the earth under you wobbling like a wave. It’s horrible. My prayers to all you out there. Just don’t panic.

    love2008 (0c8c2c)

  18. 27 aftershocks so far.

    It was a corkscrew feeling out here.

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  19. Today is the first day of the three-day California Bar Exam. Is this God’s way of saying we have enough lawyers already in the golden state?

    Autodidact (9c6835)

  20. 28th floor…
    One of the complications of the quake code, is that the elevator doors can’t be accessed, and it takes forever to get the system back to normal where those emergency doors are held in their open position. This is to keep people from being trapped in the elevators during subsequent shakes.

    I can imagine that it is a long walk down – but why would you need to if the building is not damaged?

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  21. So how does this work, I know nothing about earthquakes. Never been in one and the very idea terrifies me.

    I know it usually is a big one followed by lesser aftershocks, but does it ever happen that a moderate earthquake presages a truly major one? Can everyone breath a deep breath because the geological tension has been released relatively harmlessly for now, or is there a chance it is just warming up?

    I’m sitting in a house built in 1923 with little actual structural improvements over the years beyond the meaningless like wiring, plumbing and drywall, sitting on piers sunk into shifting soil, so that every couple of years I have to get various cracks patched and painted and doors sanded down just as a matter of course. Even a minor earthquake would make the whole thing just shatter I suspect with the piers shifting every which way. Luckily I live in Austin, but if there is ever an earthquake here, it’s been fun talking to you all, see you on the other side.

    Aplomb (b6fba6)

  22. UPDATE x2: Wife and kids OK.

    EXCELLENT. Happy to hear that, Mr. P…

    I had no doubts, since no injuries had been reported, but it’s nice to know.

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  23. but does it ever happen that a moderate earthquake presages a truly major one?

    Yes. The usual chain of events in that case is that the milder earthquake “shakes something loose”, triggering the bigger one.

    The first one doesn’t have to be very powerful, either. There’s a roughly 5% chance of that happening in any given quake.

    Can everyone breath a deep breath because the geological tension has been released relatively harmlessly for now, or is there a chance it is just warming up?

    No, because the “big one” can be delayed by up to 24 hours. The longer we wait without another quake, the greater the chance that it is “all clear”.

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  24. A comment of mine answering Aplomb has disappeared.

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  25. Whoops, there it is.

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  26. Aplomb…
    You should ensure that your house is bolted down to the foundation, such as it is. This is the major problem of old, pre-code, housing: A major tremblor will just displace the house laterally until it falls off the foundation.

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  27. Aplomb #20,

    You’d be surprised how well built those 1920’s pier-and-beam houses are. You’d get a lot of cosmetic damage but I wouldn’t give up on the structure.

    Autodidact #19,

    I don’t know if it’s a message to future lawyers but I think we have a commenter here, bridget, who might be taking that exam. She’ll have some good stories to tell. There was a fire in the building when I took the Texas bar exam but no one would leave the room because the rules said your test was over if you left the room at any time other than during a designated break.

    DRJ (0af395)

  28. Good news Patterico.

    Drum, will talk about Landers another time. I’ve got a kid to worry about. The 15th can’t come soon enough. I’m moving her to Iowa.

    PCD (5c49b0)

  29. Watching Fox on the sat-feed:
    By the end of the day, if current activities continue, they should have aired an aerial shot of every major structure in the SoCal basin, without (so far) finding any damage.

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  30. PCD,

    I bet she’ll be especially glad to get home, and let us know when she gets out of that building.

    DRJ (0af395)

  31. As a So Cal native and a former TDY resident of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, I have come to regard earthquakes as the reverse Karma of tornadoes. Trailer parks easily survive earthquakes.

    C. Norris (80e017)

  32. I work in OC near Diamond Bar–we thought it was an explosion. I thought we were right at the point of the building coming down around us. Some folks were screaming, I saw people running–the biggest jolt I’ve felt. We closed for the day due to aftershocks and safety concerns.

    Patricia (f56a97)

  33. If any building in SoCal suffered terminal damage,
    we can only hope it would be the “Taj Mahal” of the AQMD in Diamond Bar.

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  34. Once again, I hope everyone is okay.

    The jury dynamics should be interesting if Patterico’s jury trial goes forward. For one thing, I bet that jury panel has really bonded like few other panels. In addition, it’s fun to imagine some of the things Patterico might have been saying to them when the earthquake hit.

    DRJ (0af395)

  35. Erdbeben ist kein man’ s-Freund. Gott schützt seine Leute. Amen.

    love2008 (0c8c2c)

  36. My wife and kids are OK, too.

    Of course, we live in Pennsylvania . . . .

    Dana R Pico (556f76)

  37. So was the trial recessed for the day??

    MOG (c949f7)

  38. Kate Hutton is teriffic. She answers questions cleanly, specifically and refuses to give into the press’ demands for hysteria. I wish there were more people like her in every official capacity.

    David Ehrenstein (21c975)

  39. My daughter has gotten out. I believe God is telling her to get the Hell out of LA.

    PCD (8573a3)

  40. Today is the first day of the three-day California Bar Exam. Is this God’s way of saying we have enough lawyers already in the golden state

    As DRJ said, bridget (a fellow commenter) is TAKING that exam…

    She arrived yesterday afternoon/evening, and is indeed there.

    So, you know…

    Ca it with the quips like that?

    As a note, no I’ve not heard from her yet, but I hope that she checks mail on her Blackberry soon as she is able…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  41. PCD,

    Thanks for the update. That’s good news and I can imagine how much better you feel.

    DRJ (0af395)

  42. Good to hear, PCD… Glad she’s ok.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  43. MOG

    What, you can’t walked down the hall and ask him?

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  44. Whew,
    Can’t even wrap my head around earthquakes. At least you can see a hurricane comin’. Glad that you and yours are OK.
    Ever think about moving? Just a question.

    paul from fl (4dd8c4)

  45. Now, there will be “Breaking News” for the next three days about an event that happened an hour ago and lasted for all of 20 seconds.

    There was such breaking news during the Landers quake.

    Michael Ejercito (a757fd)

  46. MOG does not work in Compton.

    We resumed the trial at 1:30 or close to it. That’s enough chatter about that.

    Patterico (d99d26)

  47. Sucks I missed the quake. I was on the freeway and didn’t feel it.

    TLove (b8e7b4)

  48. TLove,

    There’s always the next one …

    DRJ (0af395)

  49. Glad that you and your family are ok Patterico. Hopefully everybody else is too.

    G (c0157b)

  50. I missed the last big one too. I kind of like to feel these smaller earthquakes.

    TLove (b8e7b4)

  51. I’ve lived in L.A. and the L.A. area for 7 years now and that was the first quake I’ve ever really felt. Once was enough; I didn’t like it.

    Fritz (05efff)

  52. Does everyone do the same thing? You sit and wait while the shaking gets worse. You avoid the door frame because that only confirms that the whole thing is moving in a serious direction. Just sit tight. Finally, you get up and hover in the doorframe because, well…you’re supposed to.

    Today was a slice of Northridge. A tiny slice…

    Vermont Neighbor (31ccb6)

  53. Yesterday was NOTHING compared to Landers/BigBear. I remember trying to get to our childrens’ bedrooms. Not only was the cement slab of the house acting like the ocean with big waves, the walls were like silly putty on a hot day. My then wife caught our son in mid air as he was bouncing 3 feet above the mattress in his crib. That was during the Landers quake.

    While we were deciding not to go to church after the quake, the Big Bear quake hit. I didn’t see my Nebraska born cat for 3 days.

    I get a call from my Uncle in Phoenix. He wanted to know if we felt the quake they had in Phoenix. He was nutzo about the water being splashed out of his pool. He couldn’t believe that we went through 2 quakes in 3 hours and that our house was still standing.

    Next we get a call from Las Vegas. The maid of honor from our wedding wanted to know if we felt the quake or if that was that more A Bomb testing in the desert that she felt.

    We couldn’t get calls out to Wisconsin and Iowa to tell family that we were all right for 2 days.

    Now, one last Big Bear rememberance. My now ex-wife’s brother-in-law’s brother and family were at Big Bear. He figured after 3 hours after the Landers quake it was ok to try to call his family to let them know they were ok. He had to walk quite a ways to a pay phone. When he and one of his children got to the pay phone, the Big Bear quake hit. They held on to the pay phone’s pole for dear life, LITERALLY.

    That was rememberances of people who lived through it. I still remember shots of the fallen freeways and of the cop’s motorcycle from the cop who died going over a sections that collapsed while he was on it.

    I think that’s quite enough earthquake remembering now.

    PCD (5c49b0)

  54. That was rememberances of people who lived through it. I still remember shots of the fallen freeways and of the cop’s motorcycle from the cop who died going over a sections that collapsed while he was on it.

    That was the Northridge quake. I remember having been in Ventura the day before the quake and returning to SD via Valencia (my visiting parents wanted to hit the swap meet). That route took us under the overpass that would collapse some 16 hours later.

    I slept right through the quake, but that freaked me out a little.

    Pablo (99243e)

  55. Mt earliest memory of a quake is from almost thirty years ago. We had just moved from upstate NY to SoCal…

    We were living in an apartment complex in San Bernardino, and I was at the clubhouse playing pool with the office manager (flirting just a bit), when the long shot I was making towards the opposite corner missed because the cue ball veered sharply off course. I looked at the table, somewhat surprised, when she pointed out the swinging light fixture overhead and said, “Didn’t you just feel that?”

    I honestly hadn’t.

    She was always just a little snippy with me after that, I don’t know why…

    Drumwaster (5ccf59)

  56. 55, Drum, you just weren’t sensitive enough for her.

    PCD (5c49b0)


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