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American Morning
Aftermath of California Quake
Aired December 23, 2003 - 07:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: How are emergency authorities in the region dealing with the aftermath of the quake? Ron Alsop is with the San Luis Obispo County Emergency Services. He joins us from Paso Robles this morning.
Nice to see you, Ron. Thanks for being with us.
RON ALSOP, SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of how people there are doing this morning. I mean, obviously we've heard and seen the damage. But emotionally in the aftermath of a quake I know from personal experience everyone's nerves are very much on edge.
ALSOP: Well, they are. And I think the attitude of a lot of people here locally is that this is just a surreal experience. I don't think it's really sunk in yet what's actually happened here. It was noted earlier, there were a lot of people downtown. The downtown was actually quite packed. So, folks are also feeling very fortunate that the situation wasn't worse than indeed it was.
O'BRIEN: Bring me up-to-speed on the latest. Is the power still out? And I know that they feel pretty confident that they're going to cap the number of people who have died as a result of this quake at two. Is that correct?
ALSOP: That is correct, at two. And we have about 40 to 50 minor injuries throughout the rest of the county. As far as electrical power, power has been restored to all but 3,000 customers, and those are expected to be restored by 8:00 a.m. Pacific time this morning.
O'BRIEN: Well, that's good news there. As you were just referring to a moment ago, it really could have been much worse, not only in Paso Robles, but also if a quake of this magnitude had taken place almost anywhere else with a bigger population, the devastation -- I'm sure you've thought of this -- would have been much, much worse.
ALSOP: Indeed, it would have been. In fact, even here locally at 6.5, we are just somewhat amazed that we didn't have more fatalities and that the damage was not more widespread than it was. Other than the two fatalities, we feel very fortunate that the damage wasn't more widespread than we've had.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's always hard to talk about feeling fortunate when people have lost their lives in something like this, of course. Where were you when the quake struck? And what did it feel like?
ALSOP: I happened to be in my office in San Luis Obispo, which is about 30 miles south of where we are standing right now. And it was quite a shaker. It lasted about 20 seconds and maybe a little bit more than that. It was enough that we actually grabbed ahold of the desk and, in fact, took cover under the desk. It was quite a jolt and quite a movement.
O'BRIEN: Well, I have to imagine as a person who helps to head the emergency services, when you feel something like that that is clearly strong where you are, which was not the epicenter, you must be very worried about what was the epicenter. Is that what was going through your mind?
ALSOP: That was indeed what was going through our mind. Was the epicenter here locally? Were we feeling the effects of an earthquake from further away that was a much larger earthquake? We obviously needed to find that out immediately. And, of course, our first concern was indeed finding out where the epicenter was, and to start damage assessment and response efforts.
O'BRIEN: Do you have a figure on the damage at this point? Or is it too early to say?
ALSOP: It's too early to say. We're going to be -- as soon as it's light here on the West Coast, we have teams of building inspectors and structural engineers, who are actually going to start going out and do area assessments, damage assessments, as well as start doing individual building safety assessments.
O'BRIEN: Ron Alsop of the San Luis Obispo County Emergency Services. Thanks for talking with us this morning. I know it is really early where you are, so we sure appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired December 23, 2003 - 07:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: How are emergency authorities in the region dealing with the aftermath of the quake? Ron Alsop is with the San Luis Obispo County Emergency Services. He joins us from Paso Robles this morning.
Nice to see you, Ron. Thanks for being with us.
RON ALSOP, SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of how people there are doing this morning. I mean, obviously we've heard and seen the damage. But emotionally in the aftermath of a quake I know from personal experience everyone's nerves are very much on edge.
ALSOP: Well, they are. And I think the attitude of a lot of people here locally is that this is just a surreal experience. I don't think it's really sunk in yet what's actually happened here. It was noted earlier, there were a lot of people downtown. The downtown was actually quite packed. So, folks are also feeling very fortunate that the situation wasn't worse than indeed it was.
O'BRIEN: Bring me up-to-speed on the latest. Is the power still out? And I know that they feel pretty confident that they're going to cap the number of people who have died as a result of this quake at two. Is that correct?
ALSOP: That is correct, at two. And we have about 40 to 50 minor injuries throughout the rest of the county. As far as electrical power, power has been restored to all but 3,000 customers, and those are expected to be restored by 8:00 a.m. Pacific time this morning.
O'BRIEN: Well, that's good news there. As you were just referring to a moment ago, it really could have been much worse, not only in Paso Robles, but also if a quake of this magnitude had taken place almost anywhere else with a bigger population, the devastation -- I'm sure you've thought of this -- would have been much, much worse.
ALSOP: Indeed, it would have been. In fact, even here locally at 6.5, we are just somewhat amazed that we didn't have more fatalities and that the damage was not more widespread than it was. Other than the two fatalities, we feel very fortunate that the damage wasn't more widespread than we've had.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's always hard to talk about feeling fortunate when people have lost their lives in something like this, of course. Where were you when the quake struck? And what did it feel like?
ALSOP: I happened to be in my office in San Luis Obispo, which is about 30 miles south of where we are standing right now. And it was quite a shaker. It lasted about 20 seconds and maybe a little bit more than that. It was enough that we actually grabbed ahold of the desk and, in fact, took cover under the desk. It was quite a jolt and quite a movement.
O'BRIEN: Well, I have to imagine as a person who helps to head the emergency services, when you feel something like that that is clearly strong where you are, which was not the epicenter, you must be very worried about what was the epicenter. Is that what was going through your mind?
ALSOP: That was indeed what was going through our mind. Was the epicenter here locally? Were we feeling the effects of an earthquake from further away that was a much larger earthquake? We obviously needed to find that out immediately. And, of course, our first concern was indeed finding out where the epicenter was, and to start damage assessment and response efforts.
O'BRIEN: Do you have a figure on the damage at this point? Or is it too early to say?
ALSOP: It's too early to say. We're going to be -- as soon as it's light here on the West Coast, we have teams of building inspectors and structural engineers, who are actually going to start going out and do area assessments, damage assessments, as well as start doing individual building safety assessments.
O'BRIEN: Ron Alsop of the San Luis Obispo County Emergency Services. Thanks for talking with us this morning. I know it is really early where you are, so we sure appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
