Quake a Fake but Too Close for Comfort . . .

The scenario was that an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale struck California’s seven southern counties at 9:03 a.m. Thursday, resulting in what one state emergency services official called “the greatest disaster that could occur short of nuclear war.”

Disaster officials of cities and counties activated emergency centers. Schools staged mock quake drills complete with “dead” and “injured” and some “hysterical” students.

In Fresno County, 300 people made up as “victims” were transported to hospitals for simulated treatment after supposedly arriving from the Los Angeles area.

At 74th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, where hundreds of children were “evacuated” to the playground during the imaginary quake, teachers said things went pretty well except for a couple of minor problems: bullhorn announcements were blurred by the wind and at least one first-grade child was frightened when magnet school teacher Margaret McCauley followed the script and put on her hysteria act during a presumed aftershock.

The exercise to test readiness was part of a statewide Earthquake Preparedness Week. It was staged by cities and counties on the 79th anniversary of the 8.3-magnitude quake that struck San Francisco, killing several hundred people and leaving 300,000 homeless.