I notice with amusement that this was noticed by someone in Michigan. In LA, a 4.5 eq, unless you are sitting on top of the epicenter, is just reason to yawn.

Jackie

Funny thing, I was awakened around 5 am by my kitties. Dexter was entangled in the sheets near my feet, and began clawing his way out with frantic desperation. Sebastian got up and went under the bed. I wasn’t sure what was going was going on, and they soon settled down. Now that I see your post, I wonder if it was felt here in San Diego County? I’m going to check right now. That might have been what the fuss was all about this morning. Thanks for mentioning this. I was groggy, and had forgotten about it:) Lisa

I can tell you that it was not felt here in Ventura Co. -- but a 4.5 . . . As Jackie said, unless you're sitting on it . . . it's no biggie.

Couple of weeks ago, we had a 5.3 just offshore here -- directly west of us, off San Clemente Island. That one made our windows rattle, and the cpu rocked a little.

I turned on the 11 am news, and they say it WAS felt in San Diego County. I can’t say I felt it, but it did occur right at the time the cats woke me up. Lisa

Ah, gotcha. I'm a little out of touch with quakes (not quicker, haha) seeing as I don't experience them much. I experienced about a 3.0 or so (a 4.5 in Galesburg, MI was felt about forty miles away where I was at. Beds and windows rattled, and it sounded like a train very close by.)

Glad everyone is good, and nothing out of the ordinary!

Steven

That was a bad one, Flowers. Here, it shook us pretty hard, and we even felt some of the larger aftershocks. No damage, but our electrical power was out for 3 days, allowing me to use our oil lamps.

My friends who experienced the Northridge didn't much like it either! Only two of a close knit group that weathered it still live in CA. Carol

Watching the scenes from flowers post was horrible. Living 100 miles from the quake and seeing it on the news didn't have nearly as much impact as these close-and-personal scenes. I wonder if the people who lived through that were ever quite the same afterwards.

For our miniquake my husband woke up and felt it but I slept right through it.

Jeri, did you ever think those oil lamps would be put to good use one day? I believe power was out in much of CA for a few days. Lots of really weird things happened, as they do in hurricanes and tornados. My neighbor's grandfather clock was laying as if it fell straight over, forward, in the same spot, but it was face up.

Ingrid, the up close and personal things that got to me were the massive columns supporting the parking structure at Cal State Northridge. They were solid concrete with steel reinforcing rebar that looked like wet noodles, curved into spirals. That university and the Northridge shopping mall would have been filled with people just a few hours later.

I'm glad everyone is OK. When I was stationed at Ft Ord in 1967, there was a "little" quake while I was there. Now, I was raised in Florida and I really didn't like the ground rumbling under my feet. As beautiful as California was, this was not me. In Fl. you get tropical storms but at least you know they are on the way. Living on a major fault line, knowing it can rupture at any time? I'd rather worry about black spot and aphids on my roses. That's why I live were I am at. Even living in Fl., I got tired of the tropical cyclones.

Portlandmysteryrose, there was a mass exodus. We were planning to move anyway, and that was the clincher.

Oh my goodness! Those images of Northridge are very impacting. I would agree that the twisted noodle look of the steel bars in the concrete columns looks especially incredible.

I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to stick around.

Steven

People are so funny - the human (and, it turns out mammals do this too) reaction of "denial" is evident in the fact that, for instance, those of us who live in "earthquake country", and grew up here, don't worry about them much. We know that bad (as in 1906 in SF) earthquakes are very bad, and kill lots of people, but we also know that very bad ones happen only every 100+ years or so, and regular bad (Northridge, Loma Prieta) ones happen every 10-20 years or so. (The good news is that every time a "regular bad" one happens in an area like LA or the SF Bay Area, they make the building codes stricter - not just for new buildings, but some old buildings get "retrofitted").

WE think that people who live where there are killer hurricanes every few years, and/or tornados every year which can destroy entire towns, should move! Of course most don't, because they are in denial too. Without that, none of us could live our lives.

Oh, one thing to remember about earthquakes - the scale for the "numbers". It is logarithmic, so a 4.5 earthquake is thousands of times less strong than a 7.0.

Jackie

flowers, I had no idea the earthquake had been so devastating. No wonder it gives you the shivers even now. I'm not sure that I'd ever be able to sleep comfortably again after that.