Again, we were on our way to a story. Hi, sir. Did you just feel that earthquake we had. Yes. A short time ago. Yeah. Tell us tell us where you were going and what kind of sensation it was for you. Oh, i was in my office down there. I felt a very strong shake. You fet a strong shake. Did you feel the earthquake yesterday. No, yesterday i was in a boat some he didnt feel it. You were on a boat yesterday. Yeah. So today, can you tell us kind of what kind of feeling was it and for you, did it feel like it went on for a long time . It was fairly long. Its like a swinging movement. And its kind of weird, but at first i thought its like, i was in a boat so i thought i was sea sick or something but it was
fairly strong. So you were on a boat yesterday. You already have some boat legs going on. So again, we are here in anaheim. Were on our way to another story, an officer involved shooting Down The Street on the 91 freeway when we stopped at this carls junior, a lot of people definitely feeling that one. A strong Swaying Motion that went on for at least 30 secs. Guys, back to you. So strong, healthy. We now understand that the second earthquake that we felt again as you see on your screen, it was the initial reports and it tends to always get downgraded was a 7. 1 and certainly everybody would agree thats what it felt like but it is now a 6. 9. Healthy, thank you very much. Were going to go to Jonathan Gonzales up in our newsroom and jonathan, what do you know on your end as i toss to you, i can tell that you we have just heard from lax. They are now inspecting every runway after the 6. 9 quake. That is certainly understandable as First Responders throughoutSouthern California and throughout the state of california are responding to this. Robert, we were speaking with mayor garcetti yesterday. When erg quakes like these happen, even if we dont feel as strong they felt it out in ridge crest. Theyre making sure that everything is structurally safe. You have all the Fire Departments and Police Departments making sure their structures and buildings are safe so they can continue to operate. No doubt right now l. A. X. Is taking steps right now to determine that it is safe enough to fly out of there and, of course, land planes. It is something i guarantee is happening right now. Were still waiting on word from them and monitoring social media to see what people are feeling. I was out in the burbank area, instantly felt shaking and noticed it was is not stopping. We knew it was bigger than a smaller aftershock wed been feeling like the one this morning, the 5. 4. We started making our way to the studio with some colleagues. One thing we heard earlier even from that person that beverly was speaking with is people who
have lived in Southern California a long time were used to earthquakes and anticipate them. There were 56,000 people tonight at the dodger game and whats crazy was that the donors kept playing once that Earthquake Hit in the bottom of the fourth inning. I dont know if we have the video. Lets see it here. Thats four strikeouts for eric lawyer. Two gone here in the fourth for keke hernandez. And theres shaking were seeing in the cameras and that were feeling here at dodger stadium. I think weve got another earthquake. We definitely have an earthquake going on. Its a pretty good one, too. People in the upper deck are moving a little bit. I would not want to be sitting in one of the first rose
in the upper deck. I guess we kind of are. 6. 4 magnitude the other day. How are they continuing to play baseball . I dont understand how the players cant feel it. Maybe its feel it more the higher up you are. You can see that shaking there. I dont know if it was joe in the booth there. You can hear them ask the question, how are they still playing baseball. We love dodgers crowds. They were making that shaking it was def the earthquake. The padres and dodgers playing right now. They continued. As far as i know they have not stopped the game for any reason. That game has continued. You see people in the crowd looking at each other the way we all did. Are we feeling another one . Is this what we think it is. Thats the feeling we get if youve grown up in Southern California. Were following Breaking News out of the los angeles area
right now where you can see there, this is a dodgers game at the stadium and you can visibly see it shaking. We understand that yesterdays 6. 4 magnitude quake was actually a foreshock followed by a 5. 0 followed by tonights 7. 1 earthquake and we also understand there has been a 5. 5 aftershock. So lets welcome john vidally, a professor of seismology at usc. He is joining us by the phone right now. Can you take us through this sequence of events and describe what they mean . At the ontario airport. 6. 4 yesterday. Foreshocks, 5. 5 aftershock at 4 00 a. M. This morning and just now, we had the 7. 1 earthquake basically in the same place extending the fault that seemed to break yesterday. And it had a large foreshock and
its having continuing aftershocks. So this area out near ridge crest is getting hit hard. Is there any way of knowing what to expect next . We have to give the same answer. Theres a small chance, a 5 chance or so something bigger might come. Quite a small chance, but thats our best forecast. Well watch the developing size nisity and see how it falls off but i wish we were able to predict earthquakes. Well, what were looking at right now the inside of a restaurant where the chandeliers are swaying. What i have been listening to is people describing a feeling of seasickness, not really shaking but like a swaying. What does that mean . Well, its because were a long way away from where the earthquake be happened, more than 100 miles away. A lot of the really jittery motions in the waves coming to us. The waves last quite a while partly because they spread out. The earthquake probably takes 15 or 20 seconds. Ground breaking. This event shook longer than the one yesterday and i guess maybe twice as strongly in the l. A. Basin. So where did the earthquake actually happen . Its out in the same place as yesterday. Just a little bit to the east north of ridge crest. So out on the farside of the Sierra Nevada, southern end of the mountains. Describe what kind of damage comes from something of this magnitude. What are we talking about structurally for roads, bridges, buildings, et cetera . Well, its a. 71. The buildings right nearby will be quite hard hit. Its highly variable. Just because its a magnitude
7. 0 couldnt mean we know how strong the shaking is right next to it. Thats Strong Enough a lot of Old Buildings could be badly damaged. I think New Buildings probably would do okay. It could be landslides and settlement. And its just going to take time to figure out whats happening in terms of pipes and power lines and water lines breaking. But being close to magnitude 7. 0 causes a lot of damage. I understand the mayor has been sending out First Responders as you can see. Theyre literally going door to door Checking Homes and roads. How long does Something Like that take . And also, what is recommended for people in the area to do right now . Well, they should sit tight. You know, if theyre in a fragile structure get out and move to the open air. There could be and probably will be lots more aftershocks theyll feel. So they should be i guess be
making sure they take what water they have and their toilets and Water Heaters and making sure they know how to use it. I think just stay put and you know, try not to disrupt the efforts of people rushing around fixing things. I guess just be ready for aftershocks. Theres not that much special to do aside from preparing what they can prepare. As far as earthquakes go, what does a 7. 1 mean as compared to a different number, higher or lower . Is this how significant is the number 7. 1 . Well, just for comparison, the 6. 4 yesterday probably only had about a fifth of the Energy Release so this event is much bigger. It looks like the fault that broke was 20 or 30 miles long. It probably moved three or four
yards, three or four meters. In this earthquake. You know, its not nearly as long as the big one in Southern California which would be 200 or 300 miles of the San Andreas Fault system, not just 20 or 30 kilometers. But 7 is as big as anything weve had in the past couple of decades. We have to go back to the 90s And Landers Earthquake to find the last one close to this big. All right. Professor john vidale, thank you very much for all that information. We appreciate it. Good luck. Thank you. Lets go to lester holt, Nbcs Lester Holt who is in santa monica. Hi, lester. Good evening. What did you experience . Well, i was with my wife and one of my sons. We were in a Movie Theater in downtown santa monica, and began to feel a tremble. I held my wifes hand. We looked at earthquake, there
was no panic, you could hear everyone in the theater saying the same thing. Then it seemed to kick into a second gear and then people started to get up. We you know decided to get out. Theres something freaky about an earthquake in a dark theater. Everyone was orderly. We made our way to the stair well. And i went down several floors to the street level. There was no panic. There was one woman who was sobbing, was you know, very distraught. Understandably. But we got on the street and it was hard to tell who felt what. If youre out on the town, maybe you didnt feel it. But across the street, there was a hotel. We could see people gathered in the lobby around the tv watching the local News Coverage of this. I just spoke to one of my neighbors who was here in our building who talked about this is the strongest one she has felt and it was absolutely scary. Neighbors were knocking on doors
checking on other neighbors here. So it was ive been in a lot of quakes and a lot of parts of the world. This one got my attention. Ill tell you that. Did you feel the aftershock . And as a person who has been through this sort of thing before, do you have any kind of understanding what to expect from here out . Well, its a little confusing. I was just watching some of the coverage. My understanding is that, please back me up on this is theyre now saying what we experienced yesterday was a foreshock and what would happen here within the hour was the actual quake. Ive never quite seen that happen that you would go from a large quake to an even larger quake as an aftershock or a foreshock. You know, thats out of my wheel house. But last i heard there had been 1400 aftershocks from the event yesterday and there were two smaller ones before that. There was one apparently in the middle of the night around 4 00
a. M. My wife and i both woke up and didnt know why. It must have been that one. Keep in mind im in santa monica. Im standing where i am right now is about a black and a half from the beach. About 120 miles from ridge crest. The epicenter of this latest quake. The fact that we felt it this strong folks, ive spoken to were all looking at each other saying what if this had been closer to los angeles, 10, 15 Million People here. What that would have been like. I think its certainly raise agawareness now of our vulnerability to these things and looking around at construction and all the Earth Quake Retrofitting over the last several decades and really making people consider that question are we prepared. Have you seen any of what mayor gil garcetti has described at the somewhat door to door effort among First Responders . Weve been listening to sirens and seeing Emergency Vehicles. And seeing video of First Responders looking at homes, looking at the roads. Are you witnessing anything like that . No, i mean, you may have heard background Emergency Vehicle just went screaming by. Thats friday night in santa monica. Hard to know if thats related. I havent seen any of that. I frankly didnt know what to expect. We walked out of the theater due to the intensity shaking. I certainly was thinking we were going to witness some daniel outside. We saw none of that. I immediately came home and collected all our rooms and pictures and things that might have fallen off. Everything seemed in order. You know, i noted when we were talking about yesterdays quake that it seemed to go on for a very long time. This one also had the same rolling motion in which you kind of feel it and you think okay, were going to ride through this but it was that second jolt that you starred thinking okay, i dont know how much this thing is going to intensify. So lets get out of here. I dont frankly know if that was the right thing to do if we were in danger being in the theater but somehow, i think our natural instinct is you want to get out. I dont blame you. It seems like the news is officially following you at this point. Im. So much for days off. No kidding. People are describing, ive only felt an earthquake once in my life. Ironically it was in New York City a few years ago. You probably remember that. I remember things shaking and a couple of things falling off the shelves. Being a native new yorker, i didnt even know what was going on. It certainly seems like people in that area are taking it with a Grain Of Salt and smiling about it. Hopefully theyre not going to go home to find damage and hopefully no injuries. What theyre all describing is this feeling of vertigo or like a seasickness. Is that what it really feels like. Yes, i grew up on the west coast mostly in california but spent four years in alaska and
my father was in the military and we had earthquakes there. And here. I can tell you that i didnt necessarily feel it this time but often they start off so slightly that you almost feel like youre trembling like its you. Like youre suddenly feeling faint or something. Then as it begins to crank up, you realize its an earthquake. I know that feeling that vertigo feeling. I have been in quakes not only along the west coast but i covered the horrible disaster in haiti i think it was 2010 in which there was a huge loss of life. Some of the aftershocks from there biggest i can remember was about 6. 5. There were some very large ones. I also covered the earthquake and Nuclear Disaster in japan. I believe that was 2011. I think that was 2011, and again, we had some very, very big aftershocks there. But most of the ones ive been in tend to be a sharp jolt and short in duration. Both of these felt very long. I havent heard what the official duration was but they seemed to go on for a very long time. Was we got to our feet to exit the theater its hard to know at what point it stopped. Were making our way downstairs again, as orderly as possible. And there was no direction from the theater staff. I dont blame them. They wouldnt have had time to react that quickly. As i said, it felt like the right thing to do. Lester holt, thank you so very much. Sorry for ot interruption in your vacation time. Thank you. You can blame mother nature. Exactly. Thank you. Lets go to nbc news molly hunter who is in ridge crest, the actual epicenter where this latest official earthquake happened followed by an aftershock. Molly, what did you feel where you are . Melissa, hey, it was incredibly strong. So we were actually in the hotel. I was actually already asleep
ahead of today show live shot. We were in bed lights off. It was really, really strong. All of a sudden. Kind of started quite gradually and got really violent. It was so much stronger than anything i felt the 5. 4 this morning. Quite forcefully. But this was extraordinarily scary and very strong. Everything in the hotel started shaking, the room absolutely kind of there were a Couple Archways started creaking but of course, when youre sound asleep and kind of wake up, youre not exactly sure Whats Going On. Quickly grabbed our stuff. The alarms in the hotel started going off loudly, kind of Curtains Cape down in the hotel. A u few things on the deck went off. And just grabbed our stuff, ran out of the hotel as the alarm was going off. As soon as we got out of the hotel, everyone else in the hotel was running out, lots of families, kids without shoes and
looked over and saw huge plumes of black smoke, got in the car, drove a few blocks. It was a big house on fire. Firefighters were already on the scene but huge thick plumes of black smoke. And i know you guys dont have the video yet. We shot krid video on the scene and spoke with the family that was inside that house at the time. Were feeling another aftershock right now. Really strong. Sorry its still going. All right. Molly. Really strong. Youre describing certainly much more violent than whatever else weve been hearing. I need to interrupt for a moment. There is a Press Conference going on with the usgs. Up north its just slightly to the northwest of the main shock our Early Warning system is saying 5. 7 with 26 seconds till it gets here. The one that was a 5, 4. 9, we felt, so this assuming that the
magnitude isnt really estimated my guess is well feel this as it comes through. In about ten seconds. Can we expect this magnitude of aftershocks throughout the rest of the evening. Yeah, the largest is likely to be a six. Here we go. Feeling it now. There it is. There it is. There it is. Feel it . Yeah. That was the phone ringing. That was less than i felt from the one that was labeled as 4. 9. Yeah. All right. So clearly were a long ways away from the erg quake. Remember that the people in ridge crest are going through a lot worse than this. We already had damaged houses and Structure Fires out of the first earthquake. This is going