Californica a bit rattled by week's worth of shaking

Associated Press
Jun. 17, 2005 03:25 PM

LOS ANGELES - Four significant earthquakes have jolted California in
less than a week, and residents across the state are a bit shaken.

It's not that the quakes - two off the Northern California coast and
two in the sprawl east of Los Angeles - have done much damage. It's not
even that seismologists warn the cluster foreshadows a catastrophe.

After several years of relative seismic calm, the quakes are more a
not-so-gentle reminder that the ground is never as solid as it seems
here. And that is sending some residents to the store for survival kits
and canned goods, while others are thinking about new insurance
coverage and how to safely evacuate themselves and calm their pets.
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The shaking began Sunday morning with a magnitude-5.2 temblor in the
Anza area of Riverside County, about 90 miles southeast of downtown Los
Angeles. That was followed by a magnitude-7.2 quake Tuesday night under
the Pacific Ocean off Eureka - an unrelated incident that really got
people talking after it prompted a tsunami warning.

Thursday brought two quakes that were 10 hours and about 700 miles
apart: one of magnitude 4.9 in San Bernardino County and a late-night
magnitude 6.6 also centered off the Northern California coast.

As groups of quakes often do, this week's action brought murmurs of the
"Big One" - the kind of quake that moves mountains and levels cities.

"I think we're on our way to the Big One," said Jacki Breger, 61,
executive director of a Los Angeles charter school who promises that
come fall classes, her school's emergency plans will be overhauled. "It
makes me really nervous with so much quake activity."

Marian Garcia, 24, isn't taking any chances. She's stuffed two
backpacks with sweaters, shoes and canned food and her 4-year-old
daughter Natalie now sleeps with her instead of in her own bedroom.

"In case we have to get out there, I want to be close to her," said
Garcia, who works at a downtown Los Angeles flower stand.

Phillip Mookerdam, co-manager of the Supply Sergeant store in Santa
Monica said customers began walking into his store within half an hour
after the magnitude-4.9 quake rattled the region.

"They started calling and walking in, asking whether we carry survival
kits," he said.

Sales of those kits - which include solar-powered radios, dry food,
water, flashlights and a first-aid kit - have been brisk, Mookerdam
said.

In Crescent City, where the 7.2-magnitude offshore earthquake triggered
a tsunami warning, some residents also have been stocking up.

Ray's Food Place has seen an increase in sales of canned foods,
batteries and water, manager Jeff Wheelon said. People were afraid that
a major earthquake or tsunami could lead to road closures or shut down
water and electrical systems.

"They want to be able to be more self-sufficient in case roads close
and they can't get to the grocery store, or in case the groceries can't
get to the stores," Wheelon said.

After Sunday's quake, Riverside resident Christopher Loria went out and
bought straps to secure his china cabinet to the dining room wall.

"I was a little embarrassed to buy them because I thought people would
think I was doing it just because of the quake," he said. He said he
felt vindicated after Thursday's quake.

Elsewhere in Southern California, some owners took their dogs to the
veterinarian for tranquilizer shots.

"The ones that are frantic are usually the ones with owners that are
frantic too," said Marilyn Lilla, 58, an employee of the General Dog
and Cat Hospital in San Bernardino.

Some studies suggest that the San Andreas fault, which leveled much of
San Francisco in 1906 and extends more than 800 miles through
California, may be about to release pent-up energy. But that's not a
consensus opinion - earthquakes just aren't that predictable and a few
jolts don't necessarily mean that a huge quake is imminent.

"We don't know whether the Big One is coming," said Tom Jordan,
director of the Southern California Earthquake Center.

The last major rupture on the fault's southern portion was 1857.

The flurry of quakes typically leads homeowners to buy earthquake
insurance, which only about 14 percent of homeowners currently have.

Though it's too soon after the latest quakes to know for sure,
"earthquakes do trigger an interest in earthquake insurance," said Stan
Devereux, spokesman for the California Earthquake Authority in
Sacramento.

In the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake in 1994, the number of
homeowners who purchased quake insurance policies rose to 29 percent,
said Pete Moraga, spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of
California, a nonprofit trade association that represents insurers.

Thursday's Southern California quake was the first for North Johnson,
manager of the minor league Cucamonga Quakes, and several members of
his Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim farm team.

The shaking was all that the players and many in the crowd of 3,172
talked who watched the home team lose 6-3 to the Modesto Nuts on
Thursday night.

"For those of us who aren't from here," the Virginia native said, "it's
a bigger experience."