BAY AREA QUAKE : Residents in Mountains Near Epicenter Roll With the Punches

Less than 24 hours after a massive earthquake devastated parts of the Bay Area, Marilyn File fed her chickens.

Hal Polak gave his wife a shoulder rub.

And Jim and Mary McKenna took their dogs for a walk.

Despite living within a few miles of the quake’s epicenter--about eight miles northeast of Santa Cruz--many residents of the rural Santa Cruz Mountains on Wednesday acted as if the temblor was an event as ordinary as a horse getting loose from its stall.

“I’d say they’re pretty matter-of-fact,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Robley Levy, who represents the area.

While $350 million worth of property damage and five deaths were reported elsewhere in Santa Cruz County, there was only slight damage to homes and cabins tucked away in the mountains north of Aptos.

The most visible sign of the quake was the thousands of apples that had been shaken to the ground in the orchards.

To be sure, many residents spent hours cleaning up broken dishes and smashed glassware and worrying how to bulwark teetering chimneys. But in the immediate aftermath of the quake--described as the biggest since 1906--mountain dwellers also managed to go on hikes and bicycle rides with their children.

“It’s almost festive here,” said Polak, as he massaged his wife’s back and watched his 6-year-old son frolic on a back yard swing set.

There were some serious concerns, like worries about calming the anxiety of children. But other problems, like getting the smell of spilled balsamic vinegar out of a kitchen floor, were less troubling.

Several residents attributed their calm to the relative safety of their rural surroundings. Many of the mountain dwellers live in wood-frame homes, which tend to roll with the shiver of a quake.

In addition, many residents heat their homes with electricity or propane, which they said poses less explosion and fire risk than natural gas. Many also drink well water, which gave them a measure of independence.

“It feels a lot safer to be in the country when the only thing that can fall down is a power line,” said Deborah Bronstein, a local physician. “It’s a lot better than having the Bay Bridge fall down.”

Levy added that mountain dwellers are more inured to natural disasters than most, having experienced four major fires and a series of storms and mudslides in the last decade.

So frequent are such upheavals in the Santa Cruz Mountains that many of the locals actually seem to relish them.

“There’s some people who really blossom in a disaster,” said Mary McKenna, a local community college biology teacher who runs an apple ranch with her husband Jim.

“There’s some people that are out to rescue the world, running around with chain saws and cutting away fallen trees and everything.”

Other residents admitted to being as upset by the earthquake as anyone living in an urban area that suffered extensive damage.

“I’m feeling kind of in a daze,” said Chris Theriot, whose 100-year-old adobe home suffered several large cracks.

But others were nonplused.

“They’re old and broken anyway,” said homemaker Marilyn File, surveying her damaged apple trees and thousands of apples lolling on the ground.

“We didn’t really have a buyer for them anyway.”