A 4.4 magnitude earthquake was strongly felt Monday afternoon from the Los Angeles area all the way to San Diego, swaying buildings, rattling dishes and setting off car alarms, but no major damage or injuries were immediately reported. Monday’s quake was centered near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park, about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles’ City Hall, and about 7.5 miles (12.1 kilometers) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Quick Read
- Earthquake Overview: A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck near Los Angeles on Monday, felt strongly from LA to San Diego, swaying buildings and rattling items but causing no major damage or injuries.
- Epicenter & Impact: The quake was centered in the Highland Park neighborhood, about 6.5 miles northeast of Los Angeles’ City Hall, with tremors felt as far as Palm Springs and the San Joaquin Valley.
- Public Reaction: The quake interrupted a live ESPN interview, shook a medical building, and caused minor disruptions such as shampoo bottles falling off shelves in stores.
- Structural Effects: Water leaked from Pasadena City Hall, leading to a safe evacuation of 200 employees, while no significant damage was reported in iconic structures like the Rose Bowl.
- Emergency Response: Los Angeles firefighters surveyed the city and found no significant damage. The National Weather Service confirmed no tsunami was expected.
- Preparedness Reminder: The quake served as a reminder of California’s seismic activity, prompting officials to emphasize earthquake preparedness.
- School District Impact: The quake occurred on the first day of the new school year for Los Angeles Unified School District, with schools evacuating to check for damage but reporting no significant issues.
- Recent Activity: This follows a 5.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Southern California less than a week earlier, also causing no major damage or injuries.
The Associated Press has the story:
Quake felt from LA to San Diego, swaying buildings & knocking items off shelves but no big damage
Newslooks- LOS ANGELES (AP) —
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake was strongly felt Monday afternoon from the Los Angeles area all the way to San Diego, swaying buildings, rattling dishes and setting off car alarms, but no major damage or injuries were immediately reported. Monday’s quake was centered near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park, about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles’ City Hall, and about 7.5 miles (12.1 kilometers) 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 (160) 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 LA neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, home to many celebrities, and photos on social media showed shampoo bottles and other items littering the floor of a Target store in LA.
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. Pasadena public information officer Lisa Derderian confirmed that the water leak was caused by the quake. About 200 employees safely evacuated from City Hall, and one person was rescued from an elevator, she said.
There was no obvious damage to Pasadena’s century-old Rose Bowl, but an engineer will do a full assessment, Derderian said. There was no immediate assessment of the city’s 1927 Central Library, which was closed in 2021 for a pending seismic retrofit. “We have not gone inside there to look at it,” she said.
Los Angeles firefighters from all 106 stations surveyed the 470-square-mile (1,217-square-kilometer) city and found no significant damage, spokesperson Margaret Stewart said in a statement. The 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,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “It was also a reminder to us all that we live in earthquake country and we need to be prepared.”
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. Richard Egan was eating lunch with colleagues on the second floor of an office building near the Long Beach Airport, about 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) south of the quake’s epicenter, 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.
The quake struck on the first day of the new school year for 540,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Many schools felt the quake, and 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. “We have not received reports of any injuries or significant damage to our facilities,” district Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in a social media post. 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.
