Brawley residents clean up after quake swarm

The city of Brawley continues to pick up the pieces and prepare for more aftershocks after a 5.3 magnitude and 5.5 M hit the city on Sunday. The shaking from hundreds of temblors affected the area even into Monday.

One of the hardest hit areas in Brawley is a mobile home complex. Many of the homes were knocked off their foundations and deemed unsafe for the residents to live in. Susana Ramos and her family had to evacuate their home, she explains their rush to safety. “There’s a lot of damage in there,” said Ramos. “Everything’s knocked down. We just went in there, got our stuff, and got out.”

When they were able to assess the damage, the Ramos family found their home in shambles:furniture flipped over, TV’s on the ground, shards of broken items all over the floor. Despite the damage, Susana Ramos says her family’s safety is all that she’s worried about. “What matters to me is that my family is okay, and everything’s alright,” said Ramos. “That’s what matters to me.”

While the mobile home complex saw the brunt of the damage, there are signs of the quake’s aftermath all over the city. Victory Outreach Church on Main street had several roof tiles fall after their Sunday service. Pastor David Ascincio and his crew began the clean up process. “It’s always a scary thing, not that we got used to it,”said Ascinscio. “We know every summer it shakes. We started to talk about it being quake month.”

While the church hopes to return to normal by next Sunday, some can only worry about the next night. Claudia Centeno and her family were displaced by the quakes and sought relief at a Red Cross Shelter at Imperial Valley College. “I feel really great that I have a place to stay, and have food,” said Centeno.

Even though her family is safe, and has a roof over their heads for now, it doesn’t make the situation any easier. “It’s very hard, even though we live here, and we know there a lot of earthquakes here,” said Centeno. “To see your house fall down is very hard.”

The Red Cross plans to stay open as long as they are needed.