California earthquake swarm rattles nerves

Residents of the California town of Brawley are coping with rattled nerves as they assess the damage from hundreds of small and moderate earthquakes that have shaken the region since Sunday. They say it is a reminder to stay prepared because they live in earthquake country.

Workers in Brawley are repairing damage from earthquakes. Since Sunday more than 400 quakes - the highest at magnitude 5.5 - have rocked the town of 25,000 people.

Furniture store owner Mary Lourdes Miller lost two front windows.

“And all of a sudden you have it hit and you are not sure if it is going to be another seven-pointer or it is going to be a three-pointer or a four-pointer. So you are on touch and go for quite a while until they completely stop,” Miller said.

Medicines tumbled from the shelves at Raj Lunagaria's pharmacy.

There are cracks in the walls and the stock room is a shambles.

The quakes have died down, but Jay Robertson, a construction worker says it has been been scary.

“All day long, all night long. You hear thunder. You do not know if it is going to hit again or if it is below us, or what is going on. It is a clear day, so it [is not] thunder from the sky. It is thunder from the ground,” Robertson said.

Officials here are assessing the damage, says interim fire chief Chuck Peraza.

“We have had some major damage to a mobile home park here in the city of Brawley, where 20-plus units shifted off their foundation. We've had some old businesses dating back to the 1940s, unreinforced masonry that sustained some damage,” Peraza said.

Despite that, the students are back at school after summer vacation, with a one-day delay, says high school district superintendent Hasmik Danielian.

“One day late, and we made sure that the safety of the kids is not compromised under any circumstances,” Danielian said.

San Francisco was hit by a devastating quake a century ago, and the San Andreas fault, which caused it, runs through much of the state.

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are studying the network of fault-lines beneath the desert community and others.

California Institute of Technology seismologist Kate Hutton says people need to be ready.

“Any earthquake is a reminder that we live in earthquake country and you had better prepare.” Hutton said.

Hutton says, we do not know when, but we know that some day, a big earthquake is coming.