A major earthquake just shook southern California Reports are coming in from Burbank, Malibu and Echo Park and Long Beach on US Independence Day. A report from Las Vegas states it was felt there.
The quake was measured with 6.4 strength. The quake was centered 156 miles away from Los Angeles 9km from Ridgecrest.
The first preliminary report by the U.S. Geological Survey said a magnitude 6.6 earthquake has struck in the Mojave Desert’s Searles Valley,
A local hotel reports damages.
It lasted for 10-15 seconds. No report yet about damages or injuries.
Witnesses say the quake has long rolling motions and it felt slow and steady.
Two aftershocks in 4.7 strength are recorded.
All runways at LAX Airport were inspected and are ok. Flight operation is continuing normally.
LA Police is telling citizens to report damages.
European experts think this may be the beginning of a larger series of earthquakes.
This is the strongest quake in Los Angeles since 1999.
There is a 65% likelihood of no fatalities, but a danger of 100 million dollars in damages.
The quake caused some fires and threw merchandise off shelves at stores. It was unclear whether there were casualties.
San Bernadino reports buildings cracking, rock slides and fired.
Many aftershocks were felt after the original quake.
The USGS website was down after the incident eTN will update also on www.breakingnews.travel
UPDATE
USGS issued Preliminary Earthquake Report at 11:58am PST:
Magnitude 6.6
Date-Time • 4 Jul 2019 17:33:49 UTC
• 4 Jul 2019 10:33:49 near epicenter
Location 35.705N 117.508W
Depth 8 km
Distances • 11.7 km (7.3 mi) SW of Searles Valley, California
• 17.3 km (10.7 mi) ENE of Ridgecrest, California
• 77.5 km (48.1 mi) NE of California City, California
• 99.7 km (61.8 mi) NNW of Barstow, California
• 390.3 km (242.0 mi) NNW of Mexicali, Mexico
Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 0.2 km; Vertical 0.6 km
Parameters Nph = 54; Dmin = 13.8 km; Rmss = 0.17 seconds; Gp = 46°
