Newport-Mesa feels 4.9 shaker

Marisa O’Neil

Newport-Mesa got a sharp jolt and some shaking Thursday afternoon

from a 4.9-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Yucaipa.

There were no reports of injuries or damage in the area, which was

already on edge following a brief tsunami warning prompted by an

offshore quake Tuesday night. Thursday’s 4.9 temblor was recorded at

1:54 p.m. about three miles northeast of Yucaipa and was downgraded

from a preliminary magnitude of 5.3, according to the U.S. Geological

Survey.

Though it was focused about 75 miles away, many in Newport Beach

and Costa Mesa felt it.

“I was in Newport Beach in one of the boat yards,” Fountain Valley

resident John Halloran said. “I was actually climbing a metal pipe

scaffold to get something when it hit. I’m glad I didn’t fall down. I

didn’t know it was an earthquake and was looking around to see who

was pushing me and no one was there.”

Firefighters in Newport Beach took trucks out of their stations as

a precaution, but did not receive any quake-related calls for

service, Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz said.

“It was a jolt then some shaking,” Schultz said from her

second-floor office. “It was over pretty quickly.”

Newport Beach police received an increased number of calls from

residents asking what had happened, but there were no reports of

damage, Sgt. Bill Hartford said. Costa Mesa did not have any damage

reports either, Sgt. Marty Carver said.

Four schools in Newport Mesa -- Wilson, Victoria, Newport and

Killybrooke elementary schools -- reported that they evacuated

students following the earthquake.

“I was in the middle of doing a read-aloud and we were heavily

engrossed in the story, and suddenly we started feeling the

movements,” sixth-grade Andersen Elementary School teacher Shannon

Hahne said. “I looked up at the students and we all stared at each

other. Somebody said, ‘Are we having an earthquake?’ I said, ‘Yes,’

and then we all crawled under our desks.”

An employee at Target on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa said he

felt the shaking, but nothing fell off store shelves.

The quake was preceded by a 2.0 shaker at 1:43 p.m., based two

miles north of Newport Beach, according to the U.S. Geological

Survey.

The Yucaipa temblor was on a thrust fault near, but not on, the

San Andreas Fault, seismologist Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological

Survey in Pasadena told reporters in a televised news conference.

It was followed by a number of smaller aftershocks, the largest of

which had a magnitude of 3.5, she said.

The latest quake follows a period of increased seismological

activity.

A 5.2 earthquake shook Anza in Riverside County on Sunday. Then a

7.2 quake hit off the Northern California coast Tuesday night,

briefly prompting a tsunami warning for coastal areas.

Jones told reporters that geologists will investigate if the Anza

and Yucaipa quakes are related.

-- City editor Carol Chambers, staff writer Michael Miller and

Daily Pilot intern Desdemona Bandini contributed to this story.