7 Quakes Hit Bay Area 84 Years After Big One : Electricity Out in 3 Counties, Rock Slide Shuts State Hwy. 129

Seven earthquakes rocked the Bay Area along the San Andreas Fault this morning on the 84th anniversary of the Great Quake of 1906. The temblors, centered near Watsonville, jolted residents from their beds, but there were no reports of injury or widespread damage.

High-rise buildings in San Francisco rocked and one house was shaken from its foundations in Watsonville. A rock slide tumbled across California 129 near San Juan Bautista, and downed lines cut electricity to 6,500 customers in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and San Benito counties.

Officials halted traffic on the Bay Area’s rapid transit rail system for short periods until it could be determined that there was no track or tunnel damage.

Eric Coltman, 20, said he had just finished stocking the shelves at the Lucky supermarket in Pleasanton when the first of today’s quakes hit and he saw “an apple juice display, seven cases high, come tumbling down . . . “

“There was glass and apple juice all over the place,” he said. “We knew it was a pretty good one.”

Officials said today’s quakes, which began shortly after 6:30 a.m. and continued sporadically for more than two hours, measured between 5.4 and 3.5 on the magnitude scale. Seismologists said the quakes may have been aftershocks of last October’s 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake, which killed 62 and caused millions of dollars in damage.

This morning’s quakes came on the heels of a day-long series of moderate quakes near Upland that jolted Southern California Tuesday. Those quakes, all aftershocks of a 5.5-magnitude temblor on Feb. 28, measured between 4.6 and 2.6 on the magnitude scale.

Two more earthquakes struck the Indio area at about 7:30 a.m. today. One measured 3.8, the other 3.2. Seismologists said both were aftershocks of a 4.1 quake there earlier this month.

This morning’s Bay Area quakes began about an hour and a half after survivors of the catastrophic 1906 quake gathered at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park to celebrate their survival and place a wreath at Lotta’s Fountain in memory of the estimated 700 who died.