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Large Earthquake in Southern California
Aired April 04, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Don Lemon here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
We are following breaking news here on CNN. In Baja, California, Mexico a large earthquake measuring 6.9 in size has hit that area. It happen just a short time ago. We are told people as far away as downtown Los Angeles also felt that tremor.
And here we're also hearing from our bureau chief out in Los Angeles said it was felt in Los Angeles County. We heard from one our -- the brother of one of our assignment editor Nick Valencia's (ph) brother Ryan Valencia (ph) that he felt it in San Diego, in the San Diego area near North Park.
We have someone on the phone. Tom, who are -- who's there now? Tom, are you there?
All right. We're going to go to our Bonnie -- meteorologist Bonnie Schneider and pardon me, viewers, please. Because we are getting this information in and folks are talking to me and I'm getting information here on the wires and also on the computer.
So Bonnie Schneider, walk us through this. As we said 6.9, that's a sizable quake.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right.
LEMON: And I'm getting -- I'm hearing that people felt it as far away as Arizona.
SCHNEIDER: Right. And we're also getting some reports of some of the magnitude of some of the aftershocks that I'm looking at the initial information right now and most of what I'm seeing indicates that this was fairly shallow. When you have a shallow quake, Don, the energy from quake can pass very quickly far and wide and it looks like that's what we're seeing here.
You know, in other quakes that we have reported on that are deeper, the earth can absorb the shock a little bit better and it stays in a concentrated area.
However, 6.9 is a sizable quake. It did occur at the epicenter of the quake as you can see on Google Earth here, we can show that now. It's indicated by the red dot that you see in the center of the screen.
Well, that occurred actually in the Baja area of Mexico with the initial aftershocks occurring just slightly to the north also in Mexico, 3.2 magnitude and 4.3 magnitude, as well. in just the past couple of days we had actually some quake activity in the vicinity.
So this has been a seismically active area. It always is but especially in the past couple of days.
And as you know, we've had earthquakes happening quite a bit recently around the world and it's interesting to note, of course, that California, this whole part of the world into Mexico is along that ring of fire where we can too get more activity, seismic activity occurring more than any other place in the world this area around the Pacific.
So right now we're working to get you a shake map to show you exactly how far it extended in terms of where people felt the quake. But I can tell you as you said via Twitter and via the feedback we're getting from viewers that it was felt in Phoenix and as a far north as San Diego.
I have a feeling that we'll be getting more reports that have been coming in even further --
LEMON: Yes, I'm just getting some information Bonnie, let's up -- is it West of Sacramento, Tom or North of Sacramento? Northwest of -- 115 miles Northwest of Sacramento, the new information, 4.1 a new quake, Bonnie from northern California. That's the latest. Talk to us about that.
SCHNEIDER: Ok. I'm bringing that up, oh I see it right here. Yes. So that is just further to the north. Bear with me. I'm just bringing this up on Google Earth right now.
LEMON: Yes, as you do it, I'll say -- let's see it says 22:49 is when this was reported obviously it was today. Again, 4.1 Northern California, that was felt. Would -- would that -- could that be a tremor or the rumblings from this initial quake that happened in the Baja area, Bonnie?
SCHNEIDER: It could be because it's important to note that when the earth -- when you have an earthquake in one area sometimes that you can see a reaction in another. There can be some settling and some movement. We saw that when we had the quake in Haiti we saw some other activity occurring in other parts of the Caribbean.
So it is possible that one could affect the other. This was pretty far away, though, from the epicenter to be an immediate aftershock from this quake. But you can see it's all --
LEMON: So it's probably a new one, right?
SCHNEIDER: -- along the fault line here in California, a very seismically active area. I'm just checking to see if there are more aftershock and it looks like there have been into the Mexico area. Just to bring that up quickly. Into Baja, we are still seeing aftershocks right here in this vicinity near the first quake occurring with the large magnitude of 6.9. So Don as I mentioned aftershocks will continue, likely they will be less intense than this first quake that occurred at 6.9 magnitude. A very intense quake, certainly and it looks like at this point it is somewhat shallow. I'm still getting the information from the USGS on the depth of it, as well.
LEMON: Ok, great. I'm sure our national desk is working on this. Our (INAUDIBLE) affiliates are live now on the air; we can probably take some of their coverage because I'd certainly like to see the pictures out there. So we're working on that I'm hearing.
Before we -- before I go to this, can we pull up, please, a tower cam at LAX so that we can show people there. I want to talk to -- one of our assignment editors was at LAX about to take a flight and she says she felt the rumblings. It was felt in the airport and she was checking on whether or not some of the flights were delayed or canceled.
She said some -- they said they were on time now but they are expecting some cancellations and I believe -- yes. There are some flights either landing or taking off going across to the right of your screen there.
But again, if you are just joining us, we want to tell you, a 6.9 magnitude quake, Baja, California, Mexico felt there. And we are getting on social media people from all over telling us they felt it.
One person said they were out on their boat -- let's just see -- "We were out on our boat in the San Diego harbor. The boat was really rocking, pylons really moving. Everything is ok now." We are happy about.
Hey listen, thank you guys so much because it really adds a personal touch when you -- when you guys send this in. We can talk until we get our crews together.
"I was stunned. I lived in a townhouse and I was upstairs and everything started shaking. I had to hold on to the walls to stay on my feet. My dogs were barking. They knew something was going on. I have felt two minor bumps from the aftershocks that definitely, definitely lasted for awhile and it was scary.
And actually this one is from a former co-worker our Brenda Shields (ph) who works at GE who I worked with out in D.C. Thank you, Brenda. I'm glad you're ok.
Let's go back to Bonnie Schneider. We're going to go to someone on the phone a resident. But Bonnie Schneider first, she has some new information. What do you have Bonnie?
SCHNEIDER: Yes Don, I'm getting some reports that the originally the aftershocks that we were seeing in and around the first quake were more shallow however the original quake, the 6.9 magnitude is being right now reported as a depth over 20 miles. That makes it a deeper quake and that is perhaps why we're not seeing in terms of the violent shaking that we saw with other quakes more recently in the past few months.
But these calculations, these initial reports, they can vary because we're just getting them in now and often we get a report of a 6.9 magnitude and then the USGS may adjust it in terms of the magnitude in the days to come. So note these are all initial reports and they may change as we get this new information in.
LEMON: Ok, hey. There was a --- and Scottie, I'm not sure which router that's from. I can't see -- there's a shot I think of one affiliate helicopter is going up. Can you move that so I can see the router right here? I saw one of our affiliate helicopters, we'll try to get that shot to you. What router is that on that thing? Router 33, Scottie.
One of our affiliate helicopters on the way to this earthquake that has happened in California. We're going get some live pictures to you soon. As we work on getting, that I want to go now to Rachel -- there's those live pictures. They'll be on the scene soon.
I just want to show that we are working on getting there and getting you some pictures of this earthquake activity out on the West Coast.
Rachel Mayohuf (ph), L.A. resident.
RACHEL MAYOHUF, L.A. RESIDENT: Yes.
LEMON: Talk to me.
MAYOHUF: Hello.
LEMON: Hi. Can you hear me?
MAYOHUF: Yes.
LEMON: It's Don Lemon here at CNN.
MAYOHUF: Hi. Are you just one person?
LEMON: How are you doing?
MAYOHUF: Fine, I'm fine now. But there was really shaking. I am a little bit under the weather. I'm sick lately and I thought it's just I'm dizzy or something. But they felt really -- the whole house is moving for one side to the other. And my daughter was upstairs with the baby. And she didn't believe me.
I'm telling her, get down right away. We went outside. Just to make sure that we're not inside the house. And then we saw neighbors so she said, yes, you're right. But I didn't think that it's so, so hard.
My other daughter live five minutes from me and she said that after a minute, a rocking chair in the baby's room was still moving. It was really, really scary. I never felt -- even in the big one in North Ridge (ph) I didn't feel it like this. LEMON: Wow and listen. We're glad you're ok. Stand by because we may want to -- want to talk to you a little bit. But I'm getting some information here from our assignment desk.
This is from -- what does Greg say? Greg Morrison. This is from the San Diego County Lieutenant Sheriff at San Diego County. His name is Scott Barondo (ph). He said, "No reports of damage or injuries in his county. Definitely felt throughout the county. We felt it here. We felt it for about 30 seconds. It was rolling. Nothing fell off the walls here but we have reports of pictures falling off the walls elsewhere in the county and we have officials throughout the county."
Again, Beth, show that shot again; that shot that you were showing -- that is a -- I guess, Bonnie, is that an old Richter Scale? It's not -- it's from KABC but hang on one second. Bonnie, is this -- it's a seismograph.
SCHNEIDER: Right.
LEMON: There is no Richter Scale anymore. Now we just say in magnitude --
SCHNEIDER: No we use the magnitude scale to be more specific in terms of the shaking and the intensity. The magnitude scale was kind of redone --
LEMON: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: -- in a way to make it more understandable for people.
LEMON: Bonnie?
SCHNEIDER: Yes. Do you hear me?
LEMON: Bonnie, stand by.
SCHNEIDER: Ok.
LEMON: I am -- well, our affiliates reporting some people are trapped in elevators at the Disney Hotel. Let's listen in to KABC.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are telling us that one woman has reported that she is stuck in an elevator that's been descending from the 34th floor in a high-rise building on Constellation Boulevard in Century City. When we get more information on that we will let you know.
We want to go to the phones now. We have Lynn from --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alta Dena (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alta Dena.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lynn, what did you feel out there in Alta Dena today?
LYNN, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: Wow. It was pretty strong. It was more of a swaying motion as if I was on a boat or something.
I was on the computer. And my chair started to move. And I thought, gee. That's strange. You know? It just kind of started to roll. And I thought, my goodness, am I getting dizzy?
And then I stood up and then I totally lost my balance. And then I was looking around the room and the vertical blinds were really swaying and the lamp was swaying. There's a fan and then there's this thing that you pull to put the pan on, that was really swaying.
And there's the thing that you put all those kitchen like pots and pans on that hangs from the ceiling. That was just like swaying back and forth. And I thought, oh, we're having an earthquake.
And until then, I thought it was myself. You know? I was just totally losing my balance trying to walk in my house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lynn, I'm not sure how long you've lived in Southern California. But I imagine you've live through a few of these. How does this compare?
LYNN: Oh, I have, the North Ridge earthquake. It's just my townhouse was just nothing but water and glass.
LEMON: Again, you're listening in to coverage of our affiliate, KABC. And we're going to continue to dip in and out of that as they talk to people there and when they get some new information.
We're going to go to Captain Frank Rinoso (ph) on the telephone now. He is with L.A. County Fire. Captain Frank Rinoso, talk to us.
CAPT. FRANK RINOSO, L.A. COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Good afternoon, gentleman. This is Capt. Frank Rinoso with the L.A. County Fire Department. I work at the dispatch center. And, yes, we did encounter an earthquake here in L.A. County.
We immediately went into our emergency procedures. We took a survey of our 22 battalions which cover approximately 2,300 square miles. So we have a pretty good snap picture of what occurred in Southern California. And we received the highest numerical value for our earthquake was a one which the value consists of the earthquake was felt and no damage. So in L.A. County, we had numerous ones and a couple of zeros which mean nothing felt.
It was felt here in our dispatch center, which was built way back in 1988. And it is earthquake proof. It is on shocks. So we did feel it here.
LEMON: Ok, so Captain, no damage. But there are initial reports so stand by. We may be getting back to you as people have time to sort of survey and step back and look at what happened.
But again, reports now, L.A. County Fire Department Captain Frank Rinoso says there is no damage. Thank you, Captain. We appreciate it. Hey listen, you know, General Russell Honore works here at CNN as a contributor sometimes, someone who comes on and gives advice. He is sending me an e-mail here and he is saying, "Please tell the folks to use their text not voice on cell phone. Leave the lines open for emergency service workers so that they can get there and that they have lines open." That's coming in from the General Russell Honore into my e-mail here.
I want to get back to CNN's Bonnie Schneider -- Bonnie, 6.9 and then another one 4.1 further north.
SCHNEIDER: Remember that these did occur, Don, in a less populated part of Mexico in the Baja Peninsula. I do have that new shake map I want to show you, Don, our GR 113. I'll try to move it on so you could see it better.
Right here -- and there is my cursor -- that's the epicenter. Now, this is computer-generated image from the USGS Web site and it's a shake map.
So what we're looking to show you right here, it's a little difficult to see but you can see the areas in blue and in green and there's a scale down at the bottom that shows that the shaking that occurred is described or categorized as either not felt, weak or light.
You really don't see too many areas where moderate occurred and it if you look - it's hard to see here but if you look closely at the damage, in order to even get very light damage, you need moderate shaking, that's intensity five and we really don't see that much with this particular quake.
We see a little bit towards Arizona, towards Yuma and further north. But really, mainly it's important to note that the majority of what you see here in terms of our first initial computer-generated shake map is showing that the shaking was weak to light.
Of course, it's startling and of course you do feel it and it's something that you're maybe not ready for because it happened so suddenly but looking at this and looking at the depth of the original quake that was well over 20 miles, I think we're in a good position now, better than it could have been had it been a more shallow quake.
So this is the initial map coming through, we're going to get more information as we go through the evening hours Don.
LEMON: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: But this is looking better so far now that we can see this.
LEMON: Yes, well and again, it's still just been a couple of minutes. We have been air reporting this for about 15 minutes. Now, it happened really just before the top of the hour. We got the information here on CNN. 6.9 magnitude quake hitting California, Southern California; northern -- further north, 4.1 magnitude quake hitting that area. I also want to say, if you have pictures or especially video of what happened while this was going on, iReport.com. iReport.com, we will get it on the air for you.
Let's go down to Pacific feeds (ph) and Sabrina Torres (ph). Sabrina, what did you feel?
SABRINA TORRES, SAN DIEGO RESIDENT: Well, being from San Diego -- I was (AUDIO GAP) a bit worried. And then when the windows started shaking and it started going on a little bit more and I literally felt almost I could describe it like a snake moving underneath like my building -- the apartment building that I live. I started to get really, really panicky and then things started falling off.
I fell and then I just went and I stood in the doorway because that's the only thing I know to do. You know, I got the chills, I started sweating. I was thinking it might be the big one and then it just slowly passed.
LEMON: Yes.
TORRES: It hit pretty and it hit pretty well. I'm still pretty shaken up.
LEMON: Ok. So have you had a chance to go out at all, Sabrina, and talk to any of your neighbors or see anyone near you?
TORRES: I did. I checked on the one neighbor that was home. And she said that she was fine but I actually do live on the water so I'm looking out and I'm thinking that the people outside didn't feel it because they were continuing to ride the bikes and running and -- it was so much like 2 different worlds were going on at once.
We're in here with an earthquake and everyone looked great outside. So that was a little bit odd to me. I thought that maybe there might be some people standing or looking around but everyone outside seemed to be ok.
LEMON: All right. Hey, thank you. We're glad you're ok. Stay safe. Check on your neighbors and get them some help if they need it. And if you hear anything new, Sabrina, give us a shout back here at CNN. Ok?
All right. So listen. Real quickly. This is -- you're looking at pictures from our affiliate KABC. And that's a seismograph there. They are reporting live on the quake that happened out there. We're going to get to them in just a bit. Is Bonnie Schneider available? I want to ask Bonnie --
SCHNEIDER: I'm right here.
LEMON: Bonnie, so listen. Here is what people -- there's some folks. Can we show this? Let's show this real quick.
Someone said, "I've been in Arizona over ten years and never thought I would be in earthquake territory and then as soon as I felt it here in Yuma, Arizona -- 55 miles from El Centro, California. What is going on? Why so far away are we feeling it?
SCHNEIDER: That's actually pretty easy to answer when you look at the epicenter is. The epicenter looks like it's closer to Yuma, Arizona than it is to San Diego. So that's why when you look at our shake map -- and that's what I'm showing you now, this is a computer-generated image from the USGS. And it shows that the area almost in the green color here including Yuma and actually look closely, it looks like parts of Yuma are almost a little bit of yellow green.
`So they felt moderate felt moderate shaking at least. It may have been brief but they did feel it and that would cause, according to this scale, very light damage. So you really take severe or very strong shaking and then to the extreme shaking where you'd see severe damage.
Remember, Don, this quake initially right now is reported with a depth of 20 miles. That is a very deep quake. The deeper the quake, the better it is in terms of reducing damage because the earth absorbs the shock better the further down it goes. These are initial reports. We may see fluctuation in terms of what the magnitude actually is. Right now it is 6.9.
That is very, very intense. In fact I was just looking on the magnitude scale and it does say 6.1 to 6.9 may cause damage in very populated areas. However, when we look at where the epicenter is, this is likely not in the most populated area of Mexico, certainly close to Yuma, Arizona and to San Diego.
But I think that what's causing at least this to be a situation where we have lighter shaking to moderate shaking in the most intense areas and generally speaking not felt a weaker shaking, that has to do with the depth of the quake and where it occurred.
So these are kind of initial soundings that we're getting in and we're certainly going to keep getting more so you want to keep it tuned to CNN. We are going to get this to you as soon as we get it in ourselves.
LEMON: Hey, Bonnie, real quickly. I'm also looking at some other things here. And again, I want to talk to you about it because these are just people saying another big quake in Mexico, 4.5 in Oceleto (ph) at 4:09. We don't know for sure of that but there's definitely the possibility. Correct?
SCHNEIDER: There's always the possibility of aftershocks, Don. In fact, as I was tracking this I'm going to try to bring up Google Earth back up again. These are the magnitudes. But Google Earth was showing that we did see some of the aftershocks occur within just a few minutes of the initial quake; some were at 4.3 magnitude, another was at 4.4.
Now the epicenter of where those aftershocks occurred were still in Mexico but when you look at Google Earth and you see that typically, you know, even in the past week or so, we do see seismic activity and we do see quakes. These are quakes that have occurred within the past 24 hours or the past week. There's always little minor tremors that are occurring in southern California. Some of these occurred yesterday. Here's the magnitude of 1.0 between San Diego and Los Angeles, further of course to the east but the main concentration is right here in the Mexicali area in northern Baja. This is where we have the 6.9 and this is where we have the magnitude 3.3 and they really followed one after the other.
So 6.9 will likely be the strongest one we'll see as a resulting connection to this earthquake but we certainly can't rule out aftershocks occurring further to the north of the Mexico/California border. We are watching it right now. But the main thing to note is looking at the initial soundings, the shaking was categorized as light. It probably doesn't seem that way to people that experienced but it certainly could be a lot worse.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, Bonnie. We're going to get back do Bonnie in just a bit.
Hey listen, Don Lemon, Bonnie Schneider meteorologist here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. We are getting reports, confirmed reports of a 6.9 magnitude quake that hit California, Southern California, Baja, California, Mexico; and then a 4.1 quake that hit northern California and the possibility of more that hit Mexico and the border of California and Mexico. People are saying they felt it as far away as Arizona.
CNN is on top of this. I'm here at the World Headquarters in Atlanta; our national desk here working on that as well as the folks in our wire services here. We are all trying to get information for you and some new pictures. We're monitoring our affiliates worldwide, nationwide and we'll get you the very latest information. More on this breaking news story coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Don Lemon here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. We are following breaking news here on CNN. A magnitude 6.9 earthquake felt in California, it was felt in Baja, California, Mexico; 4.1 quake felt further north and west of that.
I want to get to the phones now and I'm going to get to Captain Steve Ruda. He is with L.A. Fire. Just before I get to you, Captain, I want to say you have told us that all of your firefighters are in emergency mode, in earthquake mode. They're driving through the communities. You're sending up helicopters. You are checking infrastructure, high-rises.
Do you have -- we heard reports of people being trapped in an elevator at a Disney Hotel.
CAPT. STEVE RUDA, L.A. FIRE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Right. I can't speak about what's happening at the Disney Hotel area but the city of Los Angeles is safe. We have a couple of reports of trapped elevators, people in elevators. That's probably from a power outage, maybe the elevator shut down. But especially (ph) we get another good opportunity for the families that are together on Easter Sunday to talk about preparedness. Here in southern California, it's 4:25 in the afternoon. Families are just probably winding down from their Easter Sunday events. But we are always trying to prepare our families about what to do in case of earthquakes.
And once again Mother Nature has sent all Los Angeles firefighters out into the communities, out into the streets. Our helicopters are flying overhead, checking our infrastructures.
A couple of Web sites for people to check: resolvetobeready.com, mysafela.com. Those are some of our preparation sites that people can look at. Give people an opportunity to talk about it; now as a family we are all together today. What do we do in case of emergency? The federal government --
LEMON: Hey --
RUDA: Yes.
LEMON: Hey, Captain? Listen. Real quickly. I spoke with -- I should say General Russell Honore e-mailed me to leave the phone lines open, just to text. Because you may -- emergency workers will need those lines just in case there's something wrong or it's worse than you anticipated or your initial findings.
RUDA: Right. We are ok here in Los Angeles but that's part of the plan. Who do we contact in case all of our cell sites are down here in Los Angeles which they're not? But who do we contact in other areas, in other states; that we can our families and let them know that we're ok. If we can't call each other here in southern California but we can call out of state, everyone can be accounted for. And that's one of the things we teach in the preparation.
LEMON: Captain Steve Ruda, L.A. Fire Department. Thank you, sir. Good luck. Get back to us if you hear anything else.
I'm going to go to Bill Nye now. He's the science guy. He is in Studio City. Take us through what you felt, Mr. Nye.
BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY (via telephone): Are we on the air now?
LEMON: Yes, we are on. It's Don Lemon here.
NYE: Oh, hi. Don greetings, greetings. I'm in Studio City which is part of Los Angeles. I'm like totally in the valley, that's like where I am and so we felt the earthquake.
Immediately felt the earthquake. I was sitting in a restaurant and everything shook and the chandeliers which are wires about half a meter long, a couple of feed long; they swung for five minutes. That is to say that the earthquake probably lasted five or ten seconds here.
Now my understanding is the earthquake was in Baja. Is that right? LEMON: Yes. Yes. In Baja. There was also one that was felt 4.1 a little bit further north -- in northern California, yes.
NYE: So anyway, when you say from Baja, it's probably 300 nautical miles.
LEMON: So talk to me. You are the science guy. We have seen a number of earthquakes lately.
Apparently we have lost Bill Nye and that could be the problem in the area where so many people are using cell phones which is what General Honore said. Try to stay off the cell phones if you can and text your family and friends.
In this situation, you know, CNN and other networks serve sort of as a lifeline or information line. So you should allow us to be able to use that and the emergency workers to use those lines and just text if you will family members or if you want to get some information from other people.
Listen. I want to go to our meteorologist Bonnie Schneider. Bonnie, we have 6.9 in Baja; 4.1 northern California. You saw Bill Nye -- you heard Bill Nye, the science guy, saying the chandelier rattled for at least five minutes.
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
LEMON: So that meant the quake must have gone on, at least, just for a few seconds but the rumblings continued after that.
SCHNEIDER: Right. And I have been getting reports on Facebook from so many people that said they felt it for 20 seconds, ten seconds and I think it may feel longer than when we look at the actual duration of how much we saw the shaking.
But once again, I just want to report that from the USGS map that we are seeing here, which I can show you, the computer-generated image of the shaking initially -- this is initially -- looks like it was very light. And I'm using the intensity scale to describe that specifically.
An intensity of 4 or less which is down here on the scale at the bottom shows that the shaking in the region occurred that was light. You can see the Roman numerals there. So it is done by color coding and this region here in Yuma, Arizona, which was closer to the epicenter in Northern Baja, Mexico actually experienced more moderate shaking than they did, let's say, in San Diego, because the epicenter was closer to that region.
But the main thing to note as well, this was a 6.9 which is a very strong certainly quake. The magnitude is intense however, the depth initially reported at 20 feet really does make a difference. So we're seeing a deeper quake which does absorb the shock a little bit more, Don.
LEMON: Bonnie Schneider, 5.1 aftershock near Imperial, California. SCHNEIDER: Ok, let's pull that up right now. So what we're looking at certainly is there's going to more aftershocks. 5.1 is less than the initial quake but it is actually more than the quake that we saw, than the initial aftershocks that we saw, as well. We are bringing that up for you now.
And, you know, Don, it is not surprising that we're seeing more aftershocks. And you can see them here on the map here indicated by the red color that you see here and I'm trying to pull up the one that you just talked about. What is the location of that one?
LEMON: 5.1 near Imperial, California -- aftershock.
SCHNEIDER: Ok. I think I see it right here. That was right -- it's right near that fault line.
So we are getting -- yes. We are going do see some more aftershocks, certainly, with this quake because 6.9 was so intense. The other dot that you see here, just to let the viewers know, these are not all aftershocks that occurred in relation to this specific quake in Mexico. A lot of these are smaller quakes, smaller magnitude that have occurred just in the past week, Don.
Again California, certainly in Mexico, very seismically active area; if I open up the scope here, you can see this is all part of what we call the "Ring of Fire". This is the Pacific Ocean, and then through all this region as you go all the way even to Japan, you see a lot of activity quake activity occurring down through areas into Indonesia, as well. So this is the part of the world and certainly down in South America, as well, where we do see a lot of quake activity, Don, occurring in this region.
LEMON: OK. Bonnie, do your thing and get more information. We will get back to you. I want to tell our viewers, if you're just tuning in, a 6.9 earthquake in Southern California near Baja, Mexico. And then, Northern California, 4.1 quake and then we are also getting a report of an aftershock near Imperial, California. 5.1 in magnitude. We have been on the phone with emergency officials. They say so far it appears to be minor damage if any. No injuries report so far.
We're getting reports of people who have been stuck in elevators. Some power outages. But we are getting reports on social media that there were quakes felt elsewhere. One person said he felt it as far as Seattle. Other people are saying they felt it as far as Arizona. So this was a big one. 6.9. We are going to talk to more emergency officials and get you some pictures live from n the ground in California when we return from a break. Don't go away. Breaking news at CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. Listen, we are hearing 6.9 quake that hit Southern California, 4.1 in Northern California. And then an aftershock near Imperial, California, 5.1. More are expected. As always, we are getting some information from social media. I want to play this for you. We're working on getting this out into our system. Let me play it just a little bit. People are sending me video and we'll get some audio for you in just a second here.
But I want to play it for you so that you can see it. All right. Here we go. You can see this person's at their computer and all of a sudden they realize what's going on. They grab their camera. Here, can we take the banner down please. They grab their camera and then they go into the kitchen. You can see the pots rattling there as this is all going on.
And then this video continues for about a minute so this - these are new pictures that are coming into CNN and again we're working on the radio. The person goes outside to try to capture some of this. It's more of these that are coming in on our social networking sites. That's rumbling. I would imagine that once we do get audio on this, you'll be able to hear some of it. I'll get you more pictures here, more people are sending in pictures. Again, I want to remind you ireport.com.
And as always, our meteorologist on top of it, Bonnie Schneider is in house today and she is working on this. Bonnie has new information.
SCHNEIDER: I do. We were just talking about some of the aftershocks. Now I'm counting a few that have occurred in Southern California. Not with the same intensity but I want to walk you through it, Don. Here's our initial quake. 6.9 magnitude. A depth of 20 miles. Then we see, a second aftershock, these are all the red dots that indicate aftershocks that occurred within the past hour.
Just to the north, we have one 3.3 magnitude still in Mexico. And then further north, we see yet another one that's even more intense. 4.5 magnitude. That's cross the border into California and here's the one that you mentioned, Imperial, California. 5.1 magnitude. So that's the strongest aftershock thus far, and that one occurring in California, right near the fault line, which is right here. You can see it right here.
And then further off to the west we see two more aftershocks. These are lighter in intensity, 3.8 and then we see another one up here, 3.6. The other yellow dots you see here, these are unrelated quakes that occurred before the initial one. So we are seeing the aftershocks and numerous. Several of them occurring just within the past hour of the initial first earthquake in Baja, Don.
So now, we are seeing those aftershocks. They are lighter in intensity than the original quake. Remember the original quake occurred in a less populated area with a depth of 20.1 miles. This is all initial findings. We may have to tweak this a little bit as we get more information in. But with a depth so deep than this that this is a good sign for more shock absorption and less violent shaking for a longer period of time. In fact, we're not getting reports of anything but light shaking right now.
LEMON: Bonnie Schneider, stand by. Because I want to play this and I want your reaction to it as well as the next person who we're going to speak to. People talk about rolling again. This is from social media. Some of the pictures that you're sending in Twitter. Look at the pool water here. You can see that's lapping. A lot of people said the water splashing out of their pools for a very long time because the water obviously is going to will how the motion of the earth.
The water will - everything will move and the water will splash around. Right? There we go. We're getting more of these. I appreciate you guys sending these and of course, this happened on Easter Sunday. A lot of people are off. Our affiliates are - a lot of - not working today. A lot of them and they're preparing - they usually prepare for their newscasts a little bit later on. So it sort of put some of the folks in a bind, caught a lot of people off guard.
Listen, I want to go to the phone now to Michelle Tapia. She is in Brawley, California. She said she is feeling the aftershocks. We saw some of them, Michelle. The water splashing out of the pools here. Lots of reports like that. People said their pots and pans are clinking around and their lights and pendants are moving all over, scaring dogs and their children. What are you experiencing?
VOICE OF MICHELLE TAPIA: Well, Don, we just had another aftershock about 20 seconds ago as you were speaking and that one was a big shaker. Most of our portrait that are hanging have been moved around. We had a few lamps fall. And we did feel that 5.1 but like I just said, there was just another one and we are only about seven miles away from the 5.1 aftershock that just happened not too long ago.
LEMON: So all of a sudden, you think it's over, right? And then it's not.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPIA: Absolutely. The aftershocks are something or the quake like a 6.9 in Baja, California, we are going to be feeling them for a while. We have not felt a shake like that, a 6.9, since about 1979. 30 years ago.
LEMON: Michelle, thank you so much. Listen. Stay safe. If you get more information, please get back to us. She is feeling an aftershock there in Brawley, California. She is saying just maybe about a minute ago. I'm looking and looking at the social media. She said maybe about a minute ago she felt another aftershock.
West, can you those please. People are sending pictures in to me here on social media. This one in California was sent. There is an electrical pole that was knocked down. You see where folks are on the scene there in California. Again, down here a little bit so I can expand this so that you can see it. There we go. Much better. So you can see really what happened here.
They're reporting not a lot of damage. No injuries. Still situations going on. You can see that's why some people have lost their electricity and we got some reports that people were trapped in an elevator at Disney property, Disney hotel.
OK. Don Lemon here, CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. 6.9 magnitude quake. 4.1 magnitude quake. 5.1 aftershock. And there are more happening. We're following breaking news here on CNN. We're back after the break with new information. We're checking with our sources in California and our affiliates and we'll get you some pictures on the other side of the break.
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LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN. 6.9 quake on the West Coast. Bonnie Schneider has some new information. What do you have, Bonnie?
SCHNEIDER: Oh, yes. I have a new map I just wanted to show you that shows some of the shaking that occurred at the epicenter in Mexico. I have it up here now and it does indicate the very initial area according to the way it's judged if people could feel it, that there was some violent shaking in and around the epicenter. Now this is south of Mexicali and just in a very concentrated area.
The depth again with this quake was initially reported at 20.1 miles. This is likely to be tweaked and changed. I understand we are about to talk to someone from the U.S.G.S.. I want to hear their latest findings. But we are getting reports that there was some more intense shaking at the epicenter. Less shaking closer to California but certainly many people felt it as far to the east as Arizona. Back to you.
LEMON:. All right. Bonnie, we'll get back to you. I want to go down to Susan Potter. She is a geo-physicist with the U.S.G.S.. She is in Golden, Colorado. Thank you so much for joining us. What can we - what can you surmise from what's going on?
VOICE OF SUSAN POTTER, USGS GEOPHYSICIST: Yes, currently, it still has a magnitude of a 6.9. The date and time is Sunday, April 4th, at 22:40 universal time. However, at the epicenter, it is Sunday April 4th at 3:40 p.m. local time is when this earthquake occurred. We currently have the earthquake as relatively shallow. We have it at 32 kilometers in depth. We have it located 26 kilometers south-southwest from Guadalupe, Victoria, Baja, California, Mexico.
LEMON: So listen, we're hearing there's one - we have 6.9, then we have a 4.1, which is in Northern California and then we're getting also a report of a 5.1 aftershock near Imperial, California.
POTTER: Yes. To the north of where this earthquake occurred it looks like at this time we have five aftershocks located. As you said, the largest of which is a magnitude 5.1. When earthquakes are larger, the rupture area is going to be longer so that's why the aftershocks can occur further away from the initial location of a large earthquake.
LEMON: But the one in Northern California, that is a separate earthquake we are told by the USGS and the one that is at Imperial -
POTTER: That's correct.
LEMON: At Imperial is an aftershock, correct? There was also - POTTER: At this time, yes, I would refer to the - there's five earthquakes. Let me get a distance for you real quick. It looks like they are within approximately 100 miles of the main shock. However, yes. The earthquakes in Northern California and further away would not be considered associated with this event at all.
LEMON: OK. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. She is a seismologist, Miss Potter is a seismologist, in California. And she is with the USGS. Joe Madison, someone we're familiar with. He is a radio host on XM and Sirus. He is in Palm Desert. Joe, listen, one of our producers, excuse me, called us from Palm Desert and said he could feel it there, as well. And people - he is in a hotel and said people just started scattering.
VOICE OF JOE MADISON, RADIO HOST, SIRUS XM: I'm actually at Palm Springs, which is, you know, the neighboring community to Palm Desert. I'm in a Wal-Mart and the entire Wal-Mart started to shake. I'm like you. I'm a mid western. This is my first earthquake, Don. And things are falling off of the shelf and then the entire floor is shaking.
And people started running for the exits and then, of course, there was at least a one or two slight aftershocks. I guess is what you could call them. Because - I began to wondering. Is this over with? Because I felt slight shocks afterwards. And then when Sherry and I - my wife and I returned to our hotel which is about two miles away, they're saying you guys missed the earth quake. Well, we didn't miss it. And it's something to be in a huge, huge store and feel the entire store move. That's exactly how intense it felt to me.
LEMON: Wow.
MADISON: This is quite a - it's different. I can tell you. It's different.
LEMON: Hey, Joe. Again, you are in the store. And then people there. What do people do in the store when something like that happens? Were the products falling off the shelves? Were people running? Or they were just so surprised?
MADISON: It's - no, first thing, people started to do was to head to the exit. That's exactly what everybody - and I looked up and was wondering, you know, first where was my wife? Well, she's heading for a exit and I'm calling out to her. And she's, you know, calling back out to me. But people are going to the exit.
I mean, they're just dropping everything because items were falling off the shelf. Not a lot. I mean, it wasn't major. But that's exactly what everybody was doing. Getting out of the store and getting into the parking lot away from the building. Because you don't know how severe it is or it is going to be. And the irony is that - the eerie thing is I would say, oh, after about a minute or two, Don, everybody's right back in the department store doing their shopping. Cash registers are ringing.
LEMON: Some people are used to it out there. Joe Madison, listen, we are glad that you are OK. Joe Madison, in a Wal-Mart in Palm Springs and his first earthquake. He is a radio host, in case you don't know. He experienced that and it was a first for him. Pretty scary. Listen, we have some video in. Thank you for sending me the video on the social network. Let's go to here, Wes and Scotty and play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So these are people who are in a restaurant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going from the motion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was weird.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want some spumoni (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. See I doubt it. It was like I'm moving.
LEMON: So these people are sitting in a restaurant and apparently this is just shortly after it happened. Catching everyone off guard. There is new information coming in to CNN at every moment. Again, a 6.9 quake. That's the biggest one. That is in Southern California, right near the California-Mexico border.
Another one in Northern California. 4.1 and an aftershock, the only confirmed one. There are more, they believe. 5.1 near Imperial, California. Breaking news, new pictures out of California, of a 6.9 quake that hit there, not very long ago. I'm Don Lemon. I'll see you on the other side of the break with those new pictures.
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LEMON: Welcome back. Breaking news here on CNN, a 6.9 magnitude quake. One of them to hit California, that one in Southern California. Our i-reporters are sending us video in. We appreciate it. Let's listen now to i-reporter Vanessa Rodriguez, what she captured. Do we have the i-report?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look. It's still going -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going outside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's so weird.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, look at that.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't that cool?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get the baby. It's crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, that is from - all right, just some more of the same video. That is from our i-reporter Vanessa Rodriguez. Nagella Hilgarth is at the aquarium in San Diego. Nagella, what did you have for us, what did you experience?
NAGELLA HILGARTH: Well, sort of like being on a ship. I was upstairs in my office at the aquarium and everything fell on my desk and all the drawers came open. It went on for it seemed forever but only about 30 seconds, I think.
LEMON: Only about 30 seconds. So you're at the aquarium. Anybody else there with you, were people on property? It's a beautiful day here. I'm not sure what's going on here?
HILGARTH: Yes, we have several hundred people in the aquarium. We did an immediate evacuation, and then we checked everything and luckily no damage luckily except quite a bit of water came out of the tanks, some of them so we had to do some mopping up before we let people back in.
LEMON: So what happens in a situation, just mop it up and fill the tank back up. Do you check for cracks or damage and all of that?
HILGARTH: Absolutely. And that will probably go on for another two days or so.
LEMON: All right. Thank you. Nagella Hilgarth, at the aquarium in San Diego.
There were people there. Of course, beautiful Sunday, Easter Sunday, lots of families out with their kids and then all of a sudden this happens, the water starts splashing over and they had to mop it up. They were concerned possibly about the glass breaking or there are some cracks there. So sent everybody home.
And we're hearing our affiliate out in California, KABC, also reporting that all of the rides are closed down at Disneyland as they do a security check there. There were initial reports, early reports that there were some people trapped in elevators at Disney Hotel. You're looking at a seismograph there. That's our live coverage from our affiliate, KABC, recording the seismic activity, happening out there. Aftershocks also reported after this, 5.1 near Imperial, California.
Joining me now is Walter Hayes, Dr. Walter Hayes, seismologist, and executive director of Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction. He is retired from the U.S. Geological Survey. We've seen a number of earthquakes especially at least two big ones recently that did a whole lot of damage. What's going on?
DR. WALTER HAYES, SEISMOLOGIST: Well, the place is always moving, and generating over 10 million earthquakes a year, about 110 of them or of the kind that we're talking about tonight, the magnitude 6.9, and this is as we think normal, we have to monitor, it will take a lot monitoring to say this is an unusual series of events. We hope they're normal.
LEMON: Well, you know, normal to you as a seismologist, you know, that may be normal but when you have one at 6.9 that hits in your area and not far away you have another that's 4.1 and these aftershocks, one after another and you consider the situation what happened in Haiti, of course, people are concerned about that. We're not saying that's what happened here and then Chile just a couple of weeks ago. A layman starts to wonder if there isn't an up tick in seismic activity or if the plates are doing something that's unusual, doctor.
HAYES: Well, you're certainly right in that regard. One thing you have to be concerned about is when they're happening right now. Every year is about the same as the preceding year or the one that follows, and so this could well be an upturn, but you know, you just can't say off the top of the head that it is.
LEMON: So where do we go? What do we do from here? What do you do, I should say, when you see this activity? Is it, do you start to do some new research, do you start putting two and two together to figure out if there's something unusual going on?
HAYES: Yes, you do, and between Mexico and the United States an awful lot of instruments, that are measuring these events and have been measuring them for a number of years. So you look at all the past records and you can do that with the aid of a computer fairly quickly. It's not like a three-year study to find out what's going to happen next month. You can do it fairly quickly, to see if things are different.
Now, one thing that is going on in Southern California, and has been now for a couple of years is the shakeout scenario, Southern California, had a scenario event last year in which six million people from around the world and I'm sure quite a few from Mexico participated. We have another one just 199 days from now, so I'll bet this was going to be well-attended, even if there is nothing else that happens between now and then. But most likely there will be, you know, there's going to be 10 magnitude 5.9s and 100 4.9s, a lot of aftershocks.
LEMON: I've got to tell you, doctor and we're going to go live now to California with some pictures. But I want to thank you - I want to show you now. Now it has been upgraded this quake now from the USGS to 7.2, even bigger than initially thought. Let's listen in to our affiliate live coverage KABC of this earthquake. -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My eight-year-old - no way, she freaked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Kaylynn, do you think you're prepared? I mean, is this a wake-up call for you? We just talked to Lucy Jones at CalTech who said that the earthquake is now a 7.2. That's a big earthquake.
KAYLYNN ARCHER: Oh, yes. We got - everything, we have a big earthquake, all of our food and everything that we need, yes, we have that already. It's pretty scary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But as you mentioned, the irreplaceable Christmas ornaments that are now a complete loss for you from what we understand?
ARCHER: Yes, and had been in my family for like 20 different generations, passed down to passed down in our family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about your neighbors, Kaylynn (ph), have you have talked to anybody outside your home?
ARCHER: No, just the guy to the right-hand side of us, he got - everything shook over there, but I don't see no damage to his house, and then everybody else, I don't see anybody outside. So they're probably gone for Easter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the kids are doing OK?
ARCHER: Yes, now they're doing good. They're in the house now. They won't go back outside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Well thank you so much, Kaylynn Archer from Hemet for joining us today.
