The Los Angeles Earthquake : Stop the Earthquake, I Wanna Get Off, Caller Tells the Police

So what are you supposed to do in an earthquake? People with inquiring minds in Orange County telephoned their local police departments Thursday as the quake struck, often providing comic relief to the men and women in blue.

One woman called Fountain Valley Police Department and asked whether it was OK to shower after the quake.

“We said go right ahead, lady, shower away,” Senior Officer Steve Issacs said.

Another woman called to see whether it was OK to drive her car.

A Huntington Beach woman called the police there asking if an earthquake was happening.

“When we told her yes, she wanted to know when we were going to stop it,” Lt. John Foster said. She was indignant when officers explained that the department did not control earthquakes.

Irvine Police Department reported people were asking when the next earthquakes would hit.

In Placentia, Sgt. Steve Toth reported, a man called telling the police department: “We’re having an earthquake, and what are you going to do about it?”

One woman attempting to do what in her eyes was her civic duty telephoned the Brea Police Department and asked, “Do you want me to call you every time I feel an earthquake?”

Elaina Waddell of Brea Police records said: “We had to chuckle over that. . . . We just told her it was kind of her to offer, but it really wasn’t necessary to report every quake to us.”