Orange County Jolted by Sudden 4.6 Quake

A sharp and sudden earthquake centered at Newport Beach rattled central Orange County at 1:07 p.m. Friday, cracking buildings, closing schools, and frightening even seasoned Southern Californians with the severity of its shaking.

Seismologists at Caltech said the quake registered a magnitude of 4.6--far less than the 5.9 Whittier quake in 1987 and the 5.0 quake last December at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Friday’s quake was on the Newport-Inglewood Fault, blamed for the 1933 Long Beach earthquake that killed 120 people.

But Friday’s jolt came without the familiar rumbling overture and did its work in about 10 seconds. Falling objects such as lighting fixtures and display cases caused at least five injuries, none reportedly serious.

The quake was felt from Los Angeles to northern San Diego County, but it seemed to concentrate its force in a broad circle around Newport Beach. Residents in nearby Tustin Hills and Mission Viejo reported only slight shaking.

None ‘Like This’

Phil Tozer, president of the Balboa Pavilion Co., said he has experienced every Southern California earthquake in the last 68 years, including the 1933 Long Beach quake. “None of them felt like this. It was like a bomb going off,” Tozer said.

“It felt like the helicopter crashed on the pad upstairs on the roof,” Newport Beach Police Officer Bob Oakley said. “It was over so quickly I didn’t relate it immediately to an earthquake.”

The quake came seven days into statewide Earthquake Preparedness Month. Cracks appeared in many buildings, among them the Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, where the district attorney’s office sent its employees home, and in the nearby county Hall of Administration, where daylight could be seen through a fissure in the office of county Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez.

Cracks appearing in buildings at Corona del Mar High School prompted administrators to send students home early.

And while markets and homes reported smashed merchandise and toppled bookshelves, it appeared that the quake had caused no major damage.

A flood of telephone calls shortly after the quake overwhelmed the Pacific Bell network, causing telephone lines in the Irvine-Newport Beach-Costa Mesa area to temporarily shut down, Bell spokeswoman Linda Bonniksen said.

“Everyone with a telephone is picking it up,” she said. “It happens every time we have an earthquake. The system is not designed for everyone to get on the phone at the same time.” Service returned to normal by 4 p.m., Bonniksen said.

The quake prompted officials at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County to declare an “unusual event,” the lowest of four emergency classifications.

“It’s just declared as a routine precautionary measure,” Southern California Edison spokeswoman Becky Sordelet said. “There has been no release of radiation, no damage to the public or our employees,” Sordelet said. The one nuclear reactor that was operating was not shut down, she said.

No Major Damage

Neither airport nor highway facilities were damaged, and civic center buildings in Santa Ana, though cracked, sustained “no major structural damage,” according to county inspectors.

“All in all we came out pretty good,” said Charles Neiderman, county director of facilities. “Considering the punch of the quake, we were lucky. Most of the damage is superficial--ceiling ducts dislodged, interior walls cracked, tiles broken.”

“The biggest effect here was shattered nerves,” said UC Irvine Vice Chancellor William Parker, who was in his fifth-floor office when the quake hit.

Mike Stomp, bartender at The Alley in Newport Beach, said the shaking was severe but quickly over, and “we sold quite a few drinks right afterwards.”

“I grew up in California so I don’t get upset about these things,” said Cheri Sohn, a legal secretary working in an eighth-floor office in Santa Ana. “I felt a big jolt, and I said, ‘Uh oh, this is real.’ I got under the desk.”

Country gospel singer Walt Mills was addressing a nationwide 160-station hook-up at the Trinity Broadcasting Network in Tustin when the studio began to shake. “I thought the power of God was so strong it was shaking our building,” studio volunteer Dottie Lamonte said.

Gretchen Lyon was on vacation and at the South Coast Plaza shopping mall in Costa Mesa when merchandise began to fall.

“I’m from Michigan and I’m heading back as fast as I can. I spent five days in Palm Desert and it was 105 every day and now this. I’m ready to head home. I don’t care if it’s 25 degrees.”