San Simeon Quake Report Details Injuries, Damage

A new survey on losses from the magnitude 6.5 San Simeon earthquake shows that in addition to the two deaths widely reported there were also 47 serious injuries and damage to 290 homes and 191 commercial buildings.

Reporting to a meeting at Caltech earlier this week, Abe Lynn, a professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Le Val Lund of the American Society of Civil Engineers said government officials now estimate that overall the quake caused $250 million in damage, including $55 million to government buildings.

They also displayed pictures of some minor damage to highways and a few bridges near the epicenter of the December quake, although all were reopened within a day of the main shock.

Most of the injuries and damage occurred in Paso Robles and Atascadero, both of which have populations of a little more than 25,000.

Lund also said the highest shaking intensity recorded by instrument during the quake showed about 48% of the force of gravity, in Templeton, although the intensity might have been higher closer to the epicenter where there were no instruments. The epicenter was six miles northeast of San Simeon.

Lund and Lynn said the quake had two main pulses, with two areas of maximum slip occurring several miles apart, the second closer to Paso Robles and Atascadero. There have also been two distinct clusters of aftershocks corresponding with the separate areas, they said.

There have been more than 3,500 aftershocks all told, with the latest sizable one, a magnitude 3.8, occurring at 12:33 a.m. Friday in the area closer to Paso Robles.