Then, life goes on, because it must.
The AES power plant in Redondo Beach is often used for filming television shows, movies and commercials. Sometimes the effects performed by production crews rattle the windows in the surrounding neighborhoods. So when the quake hit, Redondo Beach Fire Chief Dan Madrigal turned to City Manager Bill Workman and told him not to worry, since he knew there was filming Tuesday.
"My guess is, it's an earthquake," Workman replied.
Like many civic buildings across the region, Redondo's City Hall and library were evacuated. Inspectors checked for structural damage and found none. Twenty minutes later, employees went back to work. Readers filed back into the library. And the production crew at the power plant started its next take.
Then comes the disconnect -- those few days when the rest of world is convinced that California is on the verge of falling into the sea.
Media calls from as far away as Toronto flooded the offices of fire officials in the Chino area, while at Fire Station 6 in Chino Hills, Battalion Chief Ruben Guerrero said the situation was well under control. He relaxed during lunch with a tuna fish sandwich and a newspaper, explaining that a few gas leaks were caused by the quake.
"It was a pretty good shaker," he conceded. "But the guys are working away like it's a normal day."
Julie Hummel, 24, moved to California a year ago from Portland, Ind., a town of roughly 7,000 on the Indiana-Ohio border. She was at work Tuesday at the Chino Hills Branch Library, where she is the young adult specialist and volunteer coordinator.
By the time she realized what was happening, she said, she hadn't even had time to run for shelter. "It was already over," she said.
Not a single volume of the library's more than 10,000 books tumbled from the shelves. Hummel went back to work, planning a murder mystery pizza party for teenagers scheduled for Tuesday night. But the phone started ringing immediately. Her mother called from Indiana, as did her brother and a friend, also from back home. So did the "The Today Show."
"All of my family called to make sure I'm alive, which is kind of funny," she said. "I told them I'm fine. . . . They think it's really cool I lived through it."
Most of Chino Hills had settled back into its languid pace by early afternoon.
Horses that had bolted during the quake were once again grazing lazily in the rolling hills.
