5.7 Quake Jars N. Calif., Sways S.F. Skyscrapers

A strong earthquake jolted Northern California today, causing San Francisco skyscrapers to sway and briefly halting commuter trains, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injury.

The 11:43 a.m. temblor registered 5.7 on the Richter scale and was centered about 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz and 15 miles south of San Jose along the San Andreas Fault, Ann Becker of the UC Berkeley Seismograph Station said.

Earlier, the state Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento said the quake hit 5.2 on the Richter scale, while the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park said the quake registered 5.0.

“It was a biggie,” said Ginger Johnson, who works on the 21st floor of the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid in downtown San Francisco. “The whole building moved.”

‘A General Sway’

Earl Thompson, manager of the Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Services, said there were no immediate reports of damage other than some disruption in telephone lines.

“I’m on the top (11th) floor, and there was a general sway to the building,” Thompson said. “There was no damage. Nothing fell. It was not strong enough to disrupt anything.”

“It felt pretty scary,” said a dispatcher at the San Jose Police Department. “We just sat here and maintained our positions. We don’t get to run into the doorways. We have to stay until the bitter end.”

The quake was felt over a large area, extending from Santa Rosa, about 60 miles north of San Francisco, to the Santa Cruz area 70 miles to the south.

The temblor lasted up to 10 seconds in many areas. The 38 trains running on Bay Area Rapid Transit lines were halted briefly to allow a check for track damage and then allowed to resume operation.

‘A Caffeine Rush’

“It hit real hard like something going into the side of the building. Nothing fell, but light standards swayed back and forth,” said Tom Honig, city editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Walt Glines, news editor of the Dispatch in Gilroy, said half the workers in the newspaper’s city room “didn’t even notice” the rolling quake, which he said seemed to hit that area in two waves.

“The first time, I thought it was a caffeine rush. But when the second one hit, I knew,” he said.

A South San Francisco police dispatcher, who identified herself only as Pat, said her department had received a few calls, but none reporting damage.

“I sure felt it,” she said. “There were two shocks.”