Earthquake

Seismologists have upgraded the earthquake that hit near Santa Clarita today to a magnitude 4.3. The temblor was logged five miles southeast of Santa Clarita at 1:47 p.m. today, according to the US Geological Survey . Mild tremors were felt in downtown Glendale, and there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake hit at a depth of about one-tenth of a mile, according to the earthquake tracking center. More than 100 people notified the center's online website that they felt the quake.

On Tuesday morning a 5.4 magnitude earthquake rocked the foothill area. Centered in Chino Hills, the quake struck at 11:42 a.m. According to the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station, no local injuries or major damage were reported. Paul Dutton, commander of the foothill CERT team (Community Emergency Response Team), arrived at the sheriff's station moments after the earthquake hit. Captain David Silversparre of the CV Station reported that his office had identified "critical facilities" (hospitals, schools)

GLENDALE — Tuesday’s magnitude 5.4 earthquake that rattled Southern California has reminded some Glendale residents of the need to prepare themselves for potential disasters. Suzanna Vardaanyan, 49, of Glendale was inside an elevator at her apartment building when she felt the elevator sway and shake about 11:42 a.m. during the temblor. “I was scared a lot,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything but pray for God.” Vardaanyan said the shaking was intense enough that she believed the elevator was going to crash down the shaft.

It is almost a certainty that at least one, possibly more, earthquakes have shaken California today. They may not have been large, but they were all significant because these small quakes release pressure from faults. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a fault is a three-dimensional surface within Earth where rocks have broken. The rocks on one side of the fault have moved past the other side. A fault line is where the fault cuts the Earth?s surface. With the help of an airborne radar system, scientists at NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge are studying these faults throughout the state to create a type of earthquake map that will allow them to get a better understanding of which faults are most active and which are more likely to have large earthquakes in the future.

Claudia Peschiutta NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Thanks to the efforts of students and faculty members at Glendale Community College, more money is on its way to El Salvador to help victims of this month's devastating earthquake. The Assn. of Latin American Students and the Ethnic Studies Department collected more than $1,000 for the relief effort in El Salvador, said Wendy Grove, who works in the college's public information office. Donations were collected over a period of about a week at a table set up in front of the college library.

GLENDALE — A search-and-rescue crew searched through a makeshift building Friday and looked for two victims who were reported missing as part of a mock scenario demonstrating the aftermath of an earthquake. But while they found the victims hidden in nooks throughout the collapsed building, they also rescued another two victims, which were test dummies, outside the building. One victim, who was uninjured, was trapped under a car, while the other’s arm and leg were pinned under a concrete block.

With the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s devastating earthquake approaching, Glendale resident Vehanush Chilgevorkyan turned to the Internet for answers about what happened to her homeland. What she found was beyond her imagination: a photo of her father, Arsen Chilgevorkyan, helping with the relief effort. Vehanush Chilgevorkyan has no recollection of living through the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck at 11:41 a.m. Dec. 7, 1988, in the Lori region of Soviet Armenia, destroying the city of Spitak and severely damaging the city of Gyumri, where she lived with her family.

A local specialist is hoping to help a growing number of Haitian amputees by sending prostheses to the nation, which was devastated by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake last month. Spencer Doty, president of New Mexico-based Active Life, which was founded in Glendale, was spurred on by reports about Haitian amputees. Doty’s collection efforts will end Friday as he hopes to send a shipment of used prosthetics equipment to the shaken nation, he said. While the need for prostheses is expected to increase in Haiti as more amputations occur, parts for the devices are expensive, said Doty, whose organization specializes in prosthetics and orthotics.

Seismologists have upgraded the earthquake that hit near Santa Clarita today to a magnitude 4.3. The temblor was logged five miles southeast of Santa Clarita at 1:47 p.m. today, according to the US Geological Survey . Mild tremors were felt in downtown Glendale, and there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake hit at a depth of about one-tenth of a mile, according to the earthquake tracking center. More than 100 people notified the center's online website that they felt the quake.

BURBANK — Sitting in the comfort of his Burbank medical office, orthopedic surgeon Stephan Yacoubian flipped through photographs of a far different environment. Ranging from snapshots of Haitian school children eagerly accepting candy to shots taken during surgical operations, the photos chronicle Yacoubian’s recent mission trip to Milot, Haiti with a team of 16 other medical professionals from across the U.S. “You really gain a lot of perspective,” said Yacoubian, who made the trip with Dr. Raymond Raven, one of his partners at Orthopedic Surgery Specialists in Burbank.

LA CRESCENTA — A mock 7.1 earthquake struck the Sylmar area Saturday morning and damaged the Crescenta Valley town library, where some people may have been trapped. The responsibility of searching and rescuing the victims rested on volunteers from the Crescenta Valley's Community Emergency Response Team, and they came prepared. Emergency volunteers worked feverishly Saturday morning during the mock training scenario as they carefully shifted wood blocks in an attempt to find the missing people.

It is a matter of when, not if. That was the message Thursday at Providence High School in Burbank, where representatives of Chile's emergency services division joined local and state officials for a simulated earthquake response. The drill was in conjunction with the statewide event, the Great California Shakeout. Now in its third year, the Shakeout included 7.9 million participants at businesses, schools and hospitals up and down the state, the largest such drill in the United States, said Mark Benthien, director of outreach at the Southern California Earthquake Center.

Aftershocks from the Northridge earthquake of 1994 are still being felt by local hospitals, which are spending millions of dollars to meet seismic standards deadlines enacted just five weeks after the destructive temblor. Glendale Adventist Medical Center estimates it will spend roughly $240 million — most of that in the form of a new tower — to meet standards state legislators set in February 1994, with deadlines of 2013 for hospitals to ensure higher levels of safety for buildings housing patients.

With a big sigh, he begins. ?After the earthquake, I was utterly devastated and distraught.? Speaking to me by phone from his office in downtown Los Angeles was Andrew Devon Tashjian, a Mormon missionary who resides in La Cañada Flintridge. I had the opportunity to speak to Tashjian on Tuesday morning about his experiences working in Haiti on the heels of the monstrous earthquake that hit the impoverished nation in January. ?I didn?t know who had lost their home; I didn?

While volunteering for the earthquake relief effort in Haiti, Glendale Adventist Medical Center emergency medicine doctor Evelyn Wong witnessed many miracles. Two came right down the driveway of the medical clinic where Wong and her team of doctors and nurses were stationed. As the team prepared for a high-risk baby delivery, Wong stepped outside for a moment to find a man in scrubs. He asked if he could help. The man turned out to be an obstetrician and had even happened to bring along the medicine necessary to care for the woman, Wong said.

A local specialist is hoping to help a growing number of Haitian amputees by sending prostheses to the nation, which was devastated by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake last month. Spencer Doty, president of New Mexico-based Active Life, which was founded in Glendale, was spurred on by reports about Haitian amputees. Doty’s collection efforts will end Friday as he hopes to send a shipment of used prosthetics equipment to the shaken nation, he said. While the need for prostheses is expected to increase in Haiti as more amputations occur, parts for the devices are expensive, said Doty, whose organization specializes in prosthetics and orthotics.

NORTH GLENDALE — Nearly three weeks after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed up to 200,000 Haitians and left roughly a million more homeless, a 15-year-old Glendale boy staged his own Haiti Relief Concert. Multicolored flashing lights, backup dancers and a sound system promised to bring each of his neighbors into the courtyard of the gated apartment complex in the 1100 block of Thompson Avenue. Harut Kazaryan, a freshman at Hoover High School, had fashioned a white banner over the swimming pool railing to reflect the strobe light and trained a rag-tag troupe of younger dancers to perform his signature brand of choreography.