Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

< 5:28:30 PM        >

Just felt a substantial earthquake here. (11:20am) Phones are dead, though electricity is on. Can't get anybody on the cell. Circuits are busy, I'm sure. It lasted a long time: low rolling motions, like you'd feel on a large boat in moderate seas.

The pool in back is still sloshing. We lost the top three or four inches of water, I'd say. (Picture below ó bear in mind that we've not been using the pool and have had dry weather. All that wetness is from the pool splashing out.) Not bad as these things go. We lost the entire contents of a hot tub in Palo Alto during the Loma Prieta quake. The Landers quakes moved about a foot of water out of the pool at the house where we were staying in San Marino. (And it was nothing like the sloshing we got in heavy seas aboard the M.S. Amsterdam off British Columbia in September.)

"PoolQuake"

Here's the latest from the USGS, which says the quake was a 6.5, on the Hosgri fault, near Cambria. The map shows three additional quakes along the same fault system, which runs through a chunk of land ó a terrane, in geology talk ó called the Salinian Block. It includes all of Big Sur. The quake occurred near the south end of the Santa Lucia Mountains, which comprise the bulk of the Big Sur region.

Here's the USGS ShakeMap page. Here's the map itself, which shows that the strongest waves were "strong."

I'm amazed at how little comes from The Media on this thing. KCBX, the public radio station from San Luis Obispo, the nearest city to the quake (and definitely in the heavy shake zone) is running its regular programs. So is KSBY, channel 6 TV. The station's Web site (that last link) has no information about the quake.

Now KCBX is running NPR news, with a brief report from a KCBX reporter. Total, about 40 seconds of information.

The AM news station for the region, KVEC/920, doesn't even have a web site. The station is too weak to receive here, about 100 miles away. KKJL/1400, an AM music station, has a live webcast, but the source is clearly from somewhere other than San Luis Obispo. The disc jockey cheerfully talks about Christmas Music.

Now KCBX says they'll have more news "as events warrant." How's this for warranted news: This is the biggest quake on the Central Coast in decades.

According to KNX/1070 from Los Angeles (one of the town's two big news stations), the quake was felt from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Now a Sheriff's Department spokeman from San Luis Obispo County is saying there has been "widespread property damage," though no reports of major injuries yet. That's on KNX.

I'm trying to find the San Luis Obispo County Tribune. The Knight-Ridder corporate pages are useless. Ah. Its web site is SanLuisObispo.com. I looked at that earlier and it had nothing. Now it has an Associated Press story.

Now Channel 6 is reporting live. "Several buildings in Paso Robles have crumbled... Cars were crushed..." (12:22pm)

Now Channel 6 is showing fallen buildings in downtown Paso Robles. Looks like Santa Cruz or Watsonville in 1987.

Ah. The Flash News running on KSBY/Channel 6 was a special report on MSNBC. KCOY/Channel 12 is still all-local on the matter. It's basically a talk radio show with occasional live pictures.

Hard to believe there weren't injuries or deaths in this one.

Now Channel 6 is back on their regular programming. (12:23pm) Still nothing on their web site.

KCOY, Channel 12, also has nothing on their Web site, but has a live audio report on the TV, which is running this video:

On the phone:
Ellen
Shell beach.

Now they're showing a map from KCBS/Channel 2 from Los Angeles. It's still during their Noon News program.

The Santa Maria Town Center Mall is closed, KCOY says. Gas leak. Lots of power outages.

Now the station is saying the quake was a 7.6. That's bigger than Loma Prieta. In fact, I think it's the biggest since the 1906 San Francisco quake.

Now they're qualifying that, saying the figure refers the "depth" at which it was felt.

Now Channel 6 is showing a USGS spokesman giving a talk to FLASH news from KNTV/Channel 11, San Jose, which the station is picking up.

The USGS has a page for the quake now. (12:44pm) Here are community intensity reports. Santa Barbara reports "light." I'd agree. But it was a highly perceivable quake.

comments < 5:28:01 PM        >