Advisory on Quake Shakes Up Tourists

Anxious tourists from throughout the country inundated authorities with requests for advice Wednesday after an earthquake advisory was issued for the Central California coast, but locals saw the warning as little more than a reminder to prepare a survival kit.

“I haven’t seen rioters or looters in the streets yet,” joked Richard Payne, emergency medical services coordinator for San Benito County, one of four counties alerted Tuesday by the state Office of Emergency Services.

The other counties included in the advisory--issued shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday over the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System--are Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara, which includes the city of San Jose.

“People are quizzical, mostly,” Payne said. “There’s always a couple who call up and say, ‘Chicken Little was right,’ but we have a lot of small quakes here and most people are not too excited about it.”

The concern was prompted by the state’s advisory that Monday’s moderately strong temblor south of San Jose--rated at magnitude 5.0 by federal agencies and 5.7 by the UC Berkeley seismographic stations--may have been a foreshock of an even bigger quake that could hit in a few days.

The unusual advisory was amply buffered with qualifications, and scientists quoted long odds against a second quake. But it apparently was enough to spook prospective tourists and prod the curiosity of reporters. State and local authorities said those groups made most of the calls they answered Wednesday.

“We’ve had a lot of calls . . . from people in Arizona and Washington, even Alaska,” said Nancy Hardaker of the state Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento. “A lot of them thought the warning was for Los Angeles, not San Jose. Some people, I guess, don’t realize the distance between the two. They were worried about going to Disneyland. They wanted to know if it was safe.”

Most, she added, seemed happy to hear that Los Angeles and San Jose are 344 miles apart. However, disaster officials in Virginia were unhappy to hear that their offer of post-earthquake aid was welcome but, as yet, unnecessary.

“I guess they thought the second (quake) had already hit,” Hardaker said. “It’s like that old game ‘Gossip’ we played as kids. People hear snatches of news from a friend or the radio and get it all mixed up.”

She said state disaster preparedness officials will review the advisory and the way it was received, then decide whether the program needs modification.

One positive aspect seems to be heightened interest here in earthquake preparedness.

Despite their generally calm demeanor, some residents of the advisory area demonstrated an unusually keen interest Wednesday in bottled water, first-aid gear, flashlights and other elements of a homemade earthquake survival kit.

“That stuff has been flying out of here,” said Larry Ruiz, manager of an Orchard Supply Hardware Store in San Jose.