The strongest earthquake to hit Southern California in 20 years rocked the region Thursday, igniting fires, triggering a hospital evacuation and shaking the area for hundreds of miles.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.4 quake was centered near Ridgecrest, an inland Kern County city about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Multiple large aftershocks rolled through the region, in the Mojave Desert, in the minutes that followed.
Multiple injuries and two house fires were reported in Ridgecrest, a town of 28,000. Emergency crews were also dealing with small vegetation fires, gas leaks and reports of cracked roads, said Kern County Fire Chief David Witt.
The quake was felt in Los Angeles all the way to Las Vegas, more than 250 miles northeast of L.A. Social media lit up, and photos showed debris shaken from shelves in the Ridgecrest area.
Christine Goulet, executive director for Applied Science at the Southern California Earthquake Center, said the quake was felt over such a wide area because it was relatively shallow, only five or six miles deep. Goulet was in Los Angeles, west of downtown, and told USA TODAY she knew immediately it was an earthquake.
“Everything was swaying, it felt like being on a boat,” she said.
A magnitude 4.3 quake reported earlier was a foreshock, she said. She said it was possible the 6.4 quake was a foreshock and a bigger one is coming, but it's more likely the number and intensity of aftershocks will decline over time.
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