Earthquake shakes Southern California

[Mechanic]

An earthquake shook parts of Southern California today at approximately 4:53pm PT. The magnitude 5.4 quake was centered approximately 28 miles south of Palm Springs according to the US Geological survey.

 

The center of the earthquake was about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

 

According to the Associated Press, Sheriff's departments in Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties have no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

 

Rides at Disneyland were briefly halted according to Fox40 news in Sacramento.

 

The USGS initially reported the earthquake as a 5.9 and then downgraded the quake to 5.4 magnitude.

 

Kim Daniel, director of sales and marketing at the Borrego Springs Resort and Spa, told the AP that the quake lasted about 10 seconds. She said the earthquake was the strongest that she's felt in 13 years of living in Southern California.

 

Borrego Springs is just a few miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.

 

At least a dozen aftershocks have been recorded, with the largest measuring magnitude-3.6.

 

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[socalMAN123]

I was at Magic Mountain yesterday, in fact I was on Goliath when this happened. They let us finish our circuit and then they shut down all the rides in the park for about 30 minutes. Pretty interesting to be inside SFMM and not see any of the rides running.

---Brent

[Mechanic]

Did you actually get to feel it while riding? I know it's a somewhat irrational fear, but I sometimes have earthquakes in the back of my mind when I ride SoCal coasters.

[coasterfreak101]

It's funny they shut everything down afterwards. When I was in California, my mom and I were talking to one of the ride ops at (I think) Disneyland and they said that protocol says not to shut rides down in the case of an earthquake because doing so creates the illusion of a big problem with all the rides. They told us that if an earthquake hit, they were supposed to keep operating the park as usual.

 

Also, I wish I could have experienced an earthquake while I was there!

[Moose]

^I would think that the rides and the buildings they are housed in would need to be checked for damage before they are opened.

[socalMAN123]

Yeah I felt the brake run sway quite a bit when we were stopped there for about a minute. It was a pretty cool feeling.

---Brent

[greatamerica1990sfan]

When I was at Disneyland July 2008 there was an earthquake. I was waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion! & Thought for a minute that was a new special effect but then I realized it was an earthquake. The rides were shut down for 3 hours.

[ECZenith]

It's funny they shut everything down afterwards. When I was in California, my mom and I were talking to one of the ride ops at (I think) Disneyland and they said that protocol says not to shut rides down in the case of an earthquake because doing so creates the illusion of a big problem with all the rides. They told us that if an earthquake hit, they were supposed to keep operating the park as usual.

 

Also, I wish I could have experienced an earthquake while I was there!

 

It's not to avoid an illusion, protocol for most rides would be to cycle out the vehicles/trains already on the circuit rather than just stop them dead in their place because if there were a major earthquake or catastrophe, you would want the vehicles to have a chance to get back to the platform rather than have a building come down on top of riders who are strapped in with a seatbelt or lapbar.

 

I was operating Indy at the time and did just that.