Moderate quake strikes California

A strong earthquake hit Central California today and was felt from San Francisco to the L.A. area.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the temblor, which occurred at 10:15 Pacific time, had a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale. It was centered 9 miles south of Parkfield, Calif.

Several aftershocks hit the area, one measuring 5.0 and three others 4.1 or above, the Associated Press reported.

According to news reports from the area, there were no reports of significant damage or injuries.

The quake did, however, affect WorldNetDaily’s servers, which are located in the city of Palo Alto. Readers may experience slowness in accessing various pages of the site until repairs are made.

Schools were evacuated, but most children returned to class shortly after the temblor hit.

“It rattled everything hanging on the walls and the chandelier was swinging. It didn’t do any damage to our house. There were two shakers, one right after the other,” Ben Brown, who lives in Paso Robles, told AP.

Parkfield, with a population of 37, is considered the earthquake capital of California. It is located on the San Andreas Fault.

“This is earthquake country. It’s a larger earthquake than what usually occurs, but it’s not unprecedented,” USGS spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna is quoted as saying. “We expect big earthquakes in this area, but don’t know when they’ll occur.”

On average, Parkfield is hit with a 6.0 earthquake every 22 years.

Two people were killed in an earthquake in the area last December.