PHOTOS: 6.4 and 7.1 earthquakes rattle Southern California
Helen McDonald and her sons help remove drink bottles from toppled shelving in coolers at Minit Shop in Ridgecrest after a 6.4 earthquake Thursday morning.
The seismic one-two combo that hit Southern California last week left residents particularly unnerved because it robbed them of the single bit of solace that normally comes with a big quake: the sense that the worst is over.
After the 6.4 magnitude quake hit near Ridgecrest on Thursday, many expected aftershocks that would gradually decrease in strength and frequency. They’d been through it before, in Northridge, Sylmar and Whittier. But when a much larger 7.1 magnitude temblor struck Friday night, the shock quickly gave way to a newfound dread: What’s next?
Dawn Inscore flees her Ridgecrest apartment with her infant after Friday’s earthquake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
In Ridgecrest, Davia Speed and Peyton Speed, holding 1-month-old Lillian, get into their car after Friday night’s 7.1 earthquake. (Irfan Khan/ Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
From left, Dawn Inscore flees her Ridgecrest apartment with her infant after Friday's earthquake. In Ridgecrest, Davia Speed and Peyton Speed, holding 1-month-old Lillian, get into their car after Friday night's 7.1 earthquake. (Irfan Khan/ Los Angeles Times)
Southern California could experience another sizable earthquake over the next week, seismologists said.
The U.S. Geological Survey has calculated a 27% probability the region will be hit by a magnitude 6 or greater quake in the coming days, according to Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.
Sleeping outside
The Horta family sleeps in the back of their pickup truck in a fire station parking lot in Trona as the sun rises hours after being forced from their home by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Ronnie Tolbert, left, and her husband, Danny, sleep on mattresses in the front yard of their Trona home, which was damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Brothers Joey, 8, right, and Jimmy Raya, 5, sleep in the back seat of their mother’s car in the parking lot of San Bernardino County Fire Station 57 in Trona after their home was damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hours earlier. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Top, the Horta family sleeps in the back of their pickup truck in a fire station parking lot in Trona as the sun rises hours after being forced from their home by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. At left, Ronnie Tolbert, left, and her husband, Danny, sleep on mattresses in the front yard of their Trona home, which was damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Brothers Joey, 8, right, and Jimmy Raya, 5, sleep in the back seat of their mother’s car in the parking lot of San Bernardino County Fire Station 57 in Trona after their home was damaged in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hours earlier. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Under the shade of a salt cedar tree, next to a shipping container and near a sign that said “Prayer Changes Things,” the Byrds of Trona had camped out overnight and planned to for the foreseeable future.
A customer rummages for a six-pack of beer at a damaged Shell food mart in Trona the day after a 7.1 earthquake.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
A sleeping bag was laid out on the patchy grass. Bags of chips and candies surrounded a basket of green apples and fruit on a picnic table. The Byrds — mother Kay; father Fred; sisters Karen and Cynthia Thompson; and the latter’s daughter, Brooke — were trying to re-create a household after two major earthquakes. A magnitude 6.4 foreshock on Thursday, then a magnitude 7.1 rumbler the following evening had wrecked their town of 2,000 and left them scared.
No running water in Trona
Brooke Thompson, 8, plays on the sleeping bag that her family slept in after a pair of major earthquakes drove them out of their home in Trona. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Charles Ware, 68, in his Trona front yard the morning after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake severely damaged his home. Ware said he invested all he had into this house two years ago, doesn’t have earthquake insurance and is afraid he may not be able to rebuild. He was on the phone with his brother in San Diego when the quake hit. “I got to ride it out with my brother,” he said. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Sammy Chute cuddles Gerard as her family in Trona prepares to evacuate to Ridgecrest, abandoning their home that was knocked off its foundation during a 7.1 earthquake. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Kay Byrd, 64, gives herself an insulin shot. Byrd and her family are camping outside in Trona, Calif., wary of returning home after major earthquakes. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Clockwise from top left; Brooke Thompson, 8, plays on the sleeping bag that her family slept in after a pair of major earthquakes drove them out of their home in Trona; Charles Ware, 68, in his Trona front yard the morning after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake severely damaged his home; Kay Byrd gives herself an insulin shot. Byrd and her family are camping outside in Trona, Calif., wary of returning home after major earthquakes; and Sammy Chute cuddles Gerard as her family in Trona prepares to evacuate to Ridgecrest, abandoning their home that was knocked off its foundation during a 7.1 earthquake. (Irfan Khan / Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Across Trona, an unincorporated community on the edge of Death Valley long mythologized in California for its desolate location and tough character (the high school football team is one of the few, possibly the only, in the United States to play on an all-dirt field), residents are still cleaning up after the quakes.
And though it’s hard enough to live here even in the best of conditions, many Tronans say they now face a reckoning about their future.
Cleaning up
Gas station owner Roger Sandoval faces the possibility of having to shut his Trona business after a 7.1 earthquake apparently damaged the supply tanks near the pumps. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
7-year-old twin sisters Zoe Pineda, left, and Tala Pineda came to Ridgecrest Library to give hand picking up books knocked down by Thursday’s 6.4 earthquake that hit Ridgecrest. Their mother Shalyn Pineda is the regional supervisor of Kern Counties Libraries. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
From left, gas station owner Roger Sandoval faces the possibility of having to shut his Trona business after a 7.1 earthquake apparently damaged the supply tanks near the pumps. In Ridgecrest, 7-year-old twin sisters Zoe Pineda, left, and Tala Pineda came to the library to lend a hand picking up books knocked down by Thursday’s 6.4 earthquake that hit Ridgecrest. Their mother, Shalyn Pineda, is the regional supervisor of Kern Counties Libraries. (Robert Gauthier / Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Though many storefronts in Ridgecrest looked to be intact and residents were out and about on Saturday, it’s clear there is a lot of work ahead. Many businesses remained closed because of damage and several homes at the mobile home park Trousdale Estates were red-tagged.
Damage assessment
Jenner Kim inspects his small storage facility 82000 block of Fourth Street that was badly damaged by 6.4 earthquake that hit Trona. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Buckled asphalt courses through a parking lot near Trona Rd. in Argus. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Carmen Rivera, 65, walks her dog, Ash, past a Ridgecrest mobile home damaged in Thursday’s earthquake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Top, Jenner Kim inspects his small storage facility on the 82000 block of Fourth Street that was badly damaged by the 6.4 earthquake that hit Trona. Left, buckled asphalt runs through a parking lot near Trona Road in Argus. Right, Carmen Rivera, 65, walks her dog, Ash, past a Ridgecrest mobile home damaged in Thursday's earthquake. (Irfan Khan / Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Kenneth O’Dell, a structural engineer, had arrived from Los Angeles on Saturday with engineer Martin Hudson and his son, geologist Kenneth Hudson, to assess earthquake damage in Trona and nearby Ridgecrest after massive quakes rocked the region.
Their goal was to study the structural damage of the buildings in Trona so they could understand how exactly the earthquakes affected those structures and surrounding areas. These findings, they hoped, could someday be published in a research paper and help guide future geologists and engineers.
Looking forward
Fred Byrd and Kay Byrd, displaced by the earthquake, are living with two daughters and one granddaughter under a tree along Trona Road. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
“Let’s try to start recovering now,” Ridgecrest Police Chief Jed McLaughlin told the crowd at a town hall on Sunday. Ridgecrest Regional Hospital is open again, he said, and he urged residents to start reentering their houses and asked them to recognize the emotional toll of the earthquakes.
