April 6, 2010
By David Steffen
Imperial Valley Press
The Imperial Valley withstood Sunday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake without fatalities or major widespread damage, but the temblor made its presence known nonetheless.
Photo: Crews work on a canal breach on Ross Road between Austin and Forrester roads.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Paul Caruso said the earthquake was the largest recorded in the California desert region since 1892.
“It was a big earthquake,” Caruso said. “It’s basically the equivalent of the biggest earthquake ever recorded in that part of the country.”
POWER OUTAGE
The 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit at 3:40 p.m. about 38 miles southeast of Mexicali, in Baja California. It mainly caused headaches on the U.S. side of the border. However, an unidentified man was injured during the earthquake after being struck on the head by a sign at an El Centro car wash.
Some roads have been closed, several stores are not open and many glass storefronts were reduced to shards. Other buildings were closed due to safety concerns, including the Calexico downtown Port of Entry.
Electricity in the Valley went out for a couple of hours after the earthquake. However, the Imperial Irrigation District power grid had been mostly restored by 6 p.m. Sunday, said IID Assistant to the General Manager Kevin Kelley. He said any continuing power outages are due to external factors like fuses in homes.
“As they’re reporting them, we’re going out and fixing them, but the system itself is operational and has been since 6 o’clock (Sunday) night,” Kelley said.
County offices were closed as a safety precaution Monday. The earthquake also affected the El Centro Public Library and thrust books from the shelves onto the floor, said El Centro City Manager Ruben Duran. He said it would likely take a week to re-shelve and re-organize all the books.
“They’re carefully shelving them up again,” Duran said. “That’s the only damage. There are probably 2 feet of books.”
STATE OF EMERGENCY
As a result of the earthquake, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially proclaimed a state of emergency in Imperial County on Monday afternoon.
It stated that California would offer state personnel, equipment and facilities to help Imperial County after Sunday’s earthquake.
Duran said the city of El Centro passed a declaration of emergency, in addition to the state’s, to prevent price gouging in light of the earthquake.
“We’re double covering to make sure that there is some control on prices during this disaster,” Duran said.
AFTERSHOCKS?
Caruso said there have been hundreds of aftershocks felt in the Imperial Valley since the main 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck.
“We’ve recorded 549 aftershocks in the first 20 hours after the first main shock,” Caruso said.
Although it is impossible to predict, he said more aftershocks could continue shaking the Valley for several days.
“The aftershocks could continue for weeks or even longer,” Caruso said.
However, he said, it is unlikely that a larger aftershock will overtake the 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
Caruso, an earthquake safety instructor, said when a large earthquake strikes, it is best to not run out of a shaking building. He said instinct leads to many earthquake injuries and fatalities.
“You should always stay put,” he said. “I see video of people on security cameras, and that’s people’s first instinct — to run away. If you run outside and stuff is falling down, you’re not going to see what’s coming. Most people are killed in earthquakes by falling debris.”
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