Earthquake Warning Period Finished, Southern California Residents Still Anxious Over Possible Shake

The officials advised the Southern California residents to prepare and be alert for the increased possibility of a major earthquake in the past days. Although the earthquake advisory period was over and the risk had lessened, the impact of the warning is still felt by the Southern California residents.

Los Angeles Times reports that the Southern California residents are preparing for the Big One. They are checking their quake safety lists and installing safety latches on kitchen cabinets. They are also securing their televisions and other properties.

The City Hall of San Bernardino, which is the San Andreas Fault, had closed the operation last Tuesday. They are also planning to vacate the building within the next few months. Mark Scott, the city manager said that they haven't had an alert like this. They are not trying to indicate that the alert is an impending catastrophe but they are just trying to observe caution to protect the public and their employees.

The warning was issued by the Governor's Office of Emergency Services following a swarm of earthquakes that battered the Salton Sea earlier this week. The areas that might be affected are Los Angeles, Ventura, Imperial counties, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego and Riverside.

Koin 6 reported that the researchers estimate the probability of an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 or higher on the southern San Andreas fault that could be triggered as high as 1 in 100 and as low as 1 in 3,000. Meanwhile, the average chance of an earthquake with a given week is 1 in 6,000.

 Some experts said that the risk is declining. Rob Graves, the research seismologist from U.S. Geological Surveys said that it's getting pretty close to the background level, which is not zero. He added that there's always a chance of having a major earthquake. He also said that it's been almost a week since the swarm activity has subsided and so that's about the time window that they had been looking at for its defects to diminish.