Hundreds Of Quakes Follow The Big One As California Keeps Shaking

LOS ANGELES, CA — The shaking has been constant. Though they lived through California’s worst nightmare — The Big One — the people of Searles Valley are hard pressed to move forward because the quakes continue to come at a furious pace. Within less than 24 hours of Friday night's magnitude 7.1 quake, more than 600 quakes larger than magnitude 2.5 have rattled the region. Thousands have hit since July 4.

And the chances of additional large earthquakes rattling Southern California again over the next week remain high. In Ridgecrest, the epicenter of Friday night’s magnitude 7.1 temblor, many spent the night sleeping outdoors, fearful that another big quake could turn their homes into tombs.

Though the Southland escaped major damage because both the magnitude 7.1 quake Friday and the 6.4 quake Thursday struck in sparsely populated communities, the danger is not over, seismologists warn.

The USGS estimated a 3% chance of another earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater striking the region within the next week. The chance of a quake of magnitude 6 or higher was estimated at 27%, and it is most likely that as many as two such quakes will occur. The chance of a magnitude 5 or higher quake is 96%, with as many as eight likely to occur, the USGS said.

Seismologists say they anticipate between 240 and 410 quakes of magnitude 3 or higher.
"Prepare yourself for the next week to two weeks, this isn't going to stop in the near future," Ridgecrest Police Chief Jed McLaughlin told residents late Friday night.

Friday’s quake was nearly 10 times stronger than the foreshock Thursday that was felt for hundreds of miles. It was the largest quake to strike in Southern California in two decades, a period of time seismologists describe as an earthquake drought or a geological fluke in a region that can expect to experience a large quake every five to ten years.

Friday’s quake caused gas leaks and at least four fires in Ridgecrest, laying waste to several mobile homes.

But no lives were lost, and as residents dragged mattresses in their driveways to sleep under the stars, they counted their blessings.

“We’re very lucky there and happy there wasn’t anything worse,” Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Service, told the Los Angeles Times.

Many residents of Ridgecrest huddled with neighbors unable to sleep under constant threat, according to Mayor Peggy Breeden.

Ronnie Tolbert, 60, slept outside with her husband, daughter and grandson Friday night. Her Trona home of 32 years had sustained too much damage to feel safe until the onslaught of quakes abates, she told the Los Angeles Times.

Her brick fireplace collapsed, her windows were shattered, and her floors were riddled with debris.

“My kids keep asking me what am I gonna do,” Tolbert told the newspaper while using a flashlight to find her way through her Trona home. “I said, I don’t know.”

Ridgecrest restauranteur Jason Corona told CNN Friday’s quake took a toll on a community with already frayed nerves.

"It started off low, and as soon as that bouncing started then I think it set a whole new different level of panic for everybody," he told CNN. "It was different from the other ones that we've had before...We've never had anything like this. Nobody in this town has slept for days."

But the town’s mayor said community will find its way forward when the shaking finally slows.

"It is not an impossible task to take care of all of this, but it is going to be a larger task than we thought the other day," Breeden said.

City News Service contributed to this report.