US earthquake alert

EMERGENCY officials and jittery residents in the high desert of Southern California braced for potentially dangerous aftershocks from a major earthquake that damaged buildings, ruptured gas lines and sparked fires near the remote epicentre.

A powerful magnitude 7.1 tremor rocked the Mojave Desert town of Ridgecrest south of Death Valley National Park since Friday night, jolting the area with eight times more force than a 6.4 quake that struck the same area 34 hours earlier.

California Governor Gavin Newsom asked for federal assistance and placed the state Office of Emergency Services (OES) on its highest alert.

“We have significant reports of fires, structural fires, mostly as a result of gas leaks or gas line breaks,” OES director Mark Ghilarducci said.

Violent shaking also caused water main breaks and knocked out power and communications to parts of Ridgecrest, a city of about 27000 that lies about 125km north-east of Los Angeles.

No fatalities or serious injuries were reported from either quake, the police said.

Ghilarducci said the full extent of damage was being assessed yesterday.

Seismologists said the initial quake on Thursday proved to be foreshocks to Friday’s much larger earth tremor, which now ranks as Southern California’s most powerful since a 7.1 quake that struck near a US Marine Corps base in the Mojave Desert in 1999. |