Shaken, but little stirred

The broken glass in the stores have long been swept and La Cañada is back to normal after Tuesday’s 5.4 earthquake, but the late morning tumbler was a shaky preview of things to come.

“We need to look at it as an earthquake drill,” said Kate Hutton, seismologist at Caltech.

Peter Castro, La Cañada city public safety coordinator, agreed with Hutton’s warning.

“It reminds us to be prepared,” he said.

The earthquake was registered at a magnitude of 5.4, and could be felt throughout Southern California with reports of it being felt from as far as Arizona and Nevada. There had been more than 50 aftershocks reported as of Wednesday morning.

In La Cañada, Ralphs Market closed its doors for a little over a half an hour as employees cleaned broken bottles and canned food that had fallen into the aisles.

“There wasn’t a lot of damage,” said Steve Gasparyan, assistant manager. “There were three or four wine bottles broken.”

Over at Vons Market in the plaza, the clean-up continued with employees sweeping broken wine bottles and spaghetti sauce from the aisles.

Paradise Canyon Elementary School officials had their summer school students evacuated to the playground.

“We ducked and covered,” said Emily Hoffman, a sixth grader.

“I didn’t realize what was going on,” said Sarah Cooper, fifth grader. “At first I thought, ‘What is wrong with me?’ then I realized it was an earthquake.”

“I was scared at first,” Hoffman said.

But she added that after the initial shake was over, everyone calmed down and waited to go back to class.

According to Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Captain David Silversparre, there were no reported injuries or damages. Castro confirmed that the city had received no reports of any damage or injuries either.

mary.okeefe@latimes.com (818) 790 8774, ext. 21