North County : Third Mild Quake Since Friday Jiggles County

A mild earthquake Monday was more of an annoyance than anything else to northern Orange County residents awakened by the 5:44 a.m. temblor.

No damage or injuries were reported in Orange or Los Angeles counties.

Seismologists at Caltech said the shaker registered a 2.9 and was centered beneath the Hacienda Heights area in Los Angeles County.

The quake followed two temblors that shook the Southland over the weekend. A quake measuring 3.7 struck 1 mile northwest of Brea late Saturday night. On Friday, seismologists reported a magnitude-3.4 quake centered 27 miles offshore from Oceanside in northern San Diego County.

“I felt it,” La Habra Police Capt. John Rees said about Monday’s quake. “But it wasn’t as big as the night before. This one really smacked us. Normally, you hear a rumble that precedes the quake. This time I didn’t hear anything.”

Rees said operators at the La Habra station received a few calls about the temblor but no reports of damage or injury to residents.

Police and public safety officials in nearby Brea and Placentia also reported no damage.

Monday’s temblor was unrelated to the twin quakes in October, 1987, which caused much damage in nearby Whittier.