Locals shaken up by shake down from 5.2 quake
5:00 Update: A 3.1 quake has been reported in Borrego Springs, it hit at 4:42 p.m.
The question of the day: Did you feel it?
A rude awakening from a 5.2 earthquake followed by 8 aftershocks rocked the valley this morning just after 1 AM.
KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 brought you immediate coverage online and stayed with you through the morning.
5.2 quake rocks Valley, several other smaller quakes also reported
“It shook everything, I mean the whole floor shook, the building shook, all the equipment shook,” says Holly Poush, a cashier at Flying J off Varner.
“It was just a big jolt. I mean it was like bam!” describes Tim Moffett, an employee at Circle K, “It didn’t feel like an earthquake I had been in.”
Dudley Detamore who was working at Domino’s off Varner and Ramon when the quake hit says he felt it to his very core.
“The store started vibrating, and I fell to my knees,” says Detamore, “I felt like I was going to get sick.”
La Quinta residents Ramon and Rogelio Perez sent in photos to the KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 Facebook pages showing us the significant damage done to their bathroom.
“It starts getting intense and then we just hear all kinds of glass and mirrors breaking,” says Ramon Perez.
Their mirrors didn’t hold to the drywall. They say they couldn’t go back to sleep after the damage that had been done.
“Is this the end of the world or if ti’s not, will I survive?” Rogelio Perez remembers his train of thought when the earthquake hit, “I thought a car hit the house but it wasn’t and then out of no where I just felt it was an earthquake and stayed in shock.”
Based on several viewer calls and social media posts, it seems La Quinta could have had some of the worst damage done, give their proximity to the quake’s epicenter in Borrego Springs.
CAL FIRE Captain Gretchen Gonzalez says they were quick to respond.
“It certainly woke us up, and any time we have an earthquake we have certain protocols we need to fulfill, and that’s to open up the bays and get the apparatus out in case a bigger quake happens so we’d still be able to respond, and in the process of doing that we were dispatched to, goodness, call after call.”
One of those early calls CAL FIRE responded to was at Agua Caliente Casino. We’re told two women were stuck in an elevator after the earthquake caused the system to shut down. CAL FIRE was there to assist and says the women were safely freed from that elevator.
Continue to keep us updated online on Facebook and Twitter. Send us your photos and tell us your stories of what happened when the quakes came through.
