Thousands of Southern California residents reported feeling the magnitude 4.4 earthquake, which struck at 12:20 p.m. roughly 2.5 miles south, southeast of Highland Park, and west of Pasadena.
According to KTLA viewers, the quake was felt from Los Angeles’ westside to the Inland Empire, with many sending us scary videos.
In much of the clip, the temblor, which was initially described as a magnitude 4.7 before being lowered to a magnitude 4.4, is seen scrambling as their homes shake.
Outside, many home surveillance cameras documented the intensity of the shifting earth as they began to shake for several seconds. The quake also struck as more than 500,000 Los Angeles Unified Academic District children began their new academic year. The district mandates adults and students to practice earthquake drills (drop, cover, and hold on) once a month.
Water cascaded off the roof of Pasadena’s historic city hall building after the earthquake broke a water main while staff exited the facility.
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Dr. Lucy Jones, a prominent seismologist, spoke with KTLA on the most common earthquake-related damage in Southland.
“Water pipes in general are one of our biggest weaknesses in Southern California,” she informed me. “The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has tried to move toward seismic resilient water pipes, but it’s not something that generally goes through because water companies are small and diverse, and we don’t have any unified management of that issue.”
After the shaking subsided, the Los Angeles Fire Department activated “earthquake mode,” with firefighters from all 106 LAFD neighborhood stations dispatched to survey their districts for damage to key infrastructure or “areas of local concern.”
Margaret Stewart of the LAFD told KTLA that there had been no “reports of extensive damage anywhere.”