Being a Southern California resident, I've experienced many earthquakes and I think it's important to realize one thing when evaluating them. Just like Real Estate, it's location, location, location.
The recent 5.1 La Habra quake may seem minor from a purely statistical perspective but for those who lost their chimneys, suffered broken windows, lost water service because of a broken waterline flooding streets and even those that just had dishes flying out of the cabinets or pictures shaken off the walls, it's not minor.
Part of the misunderstanding comes from having experienced a quake a distance from the epicenter. When I felt the 1971 Flintridge 6.6 shaker I naturally thought, 'so that's what a 6.6 quake feels like', not even factoring in the 100 mile distance I was experiencing it from. I got a better understanding in '87 when the Whittier Narrows quake hit. Being only 10 miles away, while it only measured a 5.9 on the scale, the sensory experience was much greater. I spent the next 2 years rebuilding stacks and re-stuccoing houses in those Whittier neighborhoods. Even after a year, many of my customers were still traumatized by that morning jolt.
I live within 2 miles of this recent 5.1 quake and while I had minimal damages, it was a violent shake. Minor in its range but anything but pansy___ to those who suffered loss.
Sometimes I complain about the oppressive seismic requirements in the current building code but events like this are a good reminder as to why they are there. Most of the tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars of damages from the Whittier quake were to older homes and businesses that weren't built with the many seismic countermeasures most of us enjoy today.
