Earthquake Rattles San Francisco Bay Area*

Wednesday October 31, 2007 7:46 AM

By RON HARRIS

Associated Press Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A magnitude-5.6 earthquake shook the San
Francisco Bay area Tuesday night, rattling homes and nerves, but there
were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

The moderate temblor struck shortly after 8 p.m., about 9 miles
northeast of San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Residents reported feeling the quake as far east as Sacramento and as
far north as Sonoma.

The California Highway Patrol has received no reports of damage or
injuries, spokesman Tom Marshall said.

It was the strongest tremor in the Bay Area since 1989, when a
magnitude-7.1 quake killed 62 people.

The epicenter of the quake was near Alum Rock, in the Diablo Range
foothills east of San Jose - not far from the home of San Jose Mayor
Chuck Reed.

Pictures fell off the walls of Reed's house, but the mayor said there
was no major damage there.

``It was a pretty strong ride here, a lot of shaking but nothing
broken,'' Reed told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his
home. ``I've talked to a few people and we have no reports of injuries
or damage. There was a lot of shaking, but it wasn't the big one.''

Amrit Shergill, a night cashier at Alum Rock Shell gasoline station in
San Jose, said there was no damage other than some small items that
toppled off a shelf - but the intensity of the shaking sent her outside
and crouching on the sidewke running because the roof might come down on
my head,'' said Shergill, who was born in India. ``I've never felt
anything like this in 16 years in the United States.''

Rod Foo, a resident of south San Jose, about 10 miles from the
epicenter, said everything in his house shook for several seconds, but
the electricity never went out and his telephone was still working.

``I could hear it coming up the street before it hit the house,'' said
Foo, a former reporter with the San Jose Mercury News. ``I thought it
was the kids messing around at first, then I felt the house shaking and
I knew it was an earthquake. ... It was rattling for a long time and
really loud.''

The USGS reported 10 aftershocks, the biggest with a preliminary
magnitude of 2.1.

In downtown San Jose, the quake caused a pipe to break, streaming water
into the parking garage of a condo building, according to the Mercury News.

An employee at Beverages and More, a liquor store in Milpitas, a few
miles from the epicenter, reported a few broken wine bottles.

Allison Guimard, 25, a technology executive who lives in Mountain View,
about 18 miles west of the epicenter, said her china started shaking and
she grabbed her dog. It was the first significant earthquake for Guimard
and her husband, Pierre, who moved here from New York six months ago.

``It felt like the apartment was rolling - shaking and rolling,'' said
Pierre Guimard, 25, a home entertainment installer. ``Almost like a boat
on the water.''

Bob Redding, a dispatcher at the California Highway Patrol dispatch
center in the Central Valley town of Atwater, 70 miles east of the
epicenter, said the office had received calls from numerous locations in
the valley, but CHP had received no reports of injuries.

``When it first hit, we thought a truck might have hit our building,''
Redding said. ``But it was just one jerk.''

A representative of Caltrain, which runs light rail between Silicon
Valley and San Francisco, said all trains were stopped as soon as the
earthquake hit, and they've been running at restricted speeds ever
since. There were no reports of injuries or other problems. The trains
were expected to remain in service until midnight.

A spokesman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, which runs
underground and aboveground trains throughout the region, said all
trains were stopped soon after 8 p.m. for five minutes. Train operators
were then instructed to run trains at half their normal speed, and look
out the windows and perform track inspections at every stop.

``There's no damage so far and we're not anticipating any,'' said BART
spokesman Linton Johnson. He said trains were running five to seven
minutes behind schedule but were expected to get back on schedule later
Tuesday evening.

The magnitude-7.1 quake in October 1989 struck just before the third
game of the World Series at Candlestick Park. The quake, centered in the
Santa Cruz Mountains on the San Andreas fault, caused nearly $3 billion
in damage.

Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the state
would ``will review and inspect all important infrastructure,''
including levees in the coming days.

Earthquakes powerful enough to be felt through the Central Valley have
been of increasing concern since Hurricane Katrina because of their
potential to weaken the earthen levees that channel rivers throughout
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

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