Los Angeles residents who were disappointed when their last earthquake was downgraded from a 4.7 to a 4.4 on the Richter scale got the adventure they craved when a 5.1-magnitude shaker hit the city Friday night. The earthquake, the epicenter of which was one mile east of La Habra — 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles— began at 9:09 p.m. local time and lasted around 30 seconds, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The effects included 2,000 customers left without power, 50 people displaced due to housing damage, seven water leaks, and a rockslide that closed Carbon Canyon Road in northern Orange County and caused a car to overturn.
Dodger Stadium was in the sixth inning of the Angels-Dodgers when Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully called, “A little tremor in the ballpark. I am not sure if the folks felt it, but we certainly felt it here. A tremor and only that thank goodness.”
While no fatalities or major injuries have been reported, Mayor Eric Garcetti reminded his city to be prepared, especially since the earthquake was the second one in two weeks. Indeed, Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones told the Los Angeles Times that, given the magnitude of the aftershocks this time around — at least two were reported at 9:11 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. — there’s a five-percent chance a larger tremor is on the way “in the next few hours or the next few days.”
