Jolt Felt Like Quake but Wasn’t

Windows rattled, buildings shook and the ground trembled in parts of Orange County on Thursday morning, but the source of the shaking remains a mystery. Residents in Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel and Newport Beach reported what felt like an earthquake, but seismologists said no earth movement had registered.

“My wife called me and said the windows shook, and the kids jumped into her lap,” said Bill Rister of Orange County Communications, a multi-agency dispatching clearinghouse. “We got a lot of calls from police departments, fire departments and other agencies, but we had no information,” he said.

Newport Beach police Sgt. Andy Gonis said some workers reported feeling the main Police Department building shake about 9:55 a.m.

Dispatchers received more than a dozen calls from residents who felt their homes shake, he said.

“Our employees felt a short, sharp tremor,” Gonis said. “People at one end of the building didn’t feel anything, but people at the other did.”

None of the residents who called police reported damage, Gonis said.

“We received a number of calls but had no follow-up complaints about property damage or injuries of any sort,” he said.

Other Orange County residents reported hearing a boom but not feeling one.

“It sounded almost like a sonic boom and an earthquake in the air,” said Nancy Allen, a dispatcher for the Costa Mesa Fire Department, who was at home when she heard a loud noise.

“I thought it was an earthquake and kept waiting for the ground to shake, but it didn’t,” she said. “I’ve never heard anything like it in my life.”

State officials said the tremor could have been caused by a storm front moving in.

Military sources offered no explanation.