Mother Nature dealt Southern California a one-two punch Sunday, the same day an earthquake triggered widespread tremors in Ventura County and the region was drenched by its first tropical storm in decades.
The 5.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck at 2:41 p.m., startled Southern Californians who were already bracing for the remainder of Hurricane Hillary, which brought hours of steady rain to the region’s already dry month. There were at least a dozen Aftershocks Scale-3.0 or higher.
The epicenter was four miles southeast of Ojai, about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Tres Hermanas restaurant in Ojai, Calif., shared video from the moment the 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit on Sunday.
Shaking has been reported Ventura, Camarillo, Oxnard, Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Barbara, parts of LA’s San Fernando Valley, Malibu, Porter Ranch, Manhattan Beach and Other places.
At Tres Hermanas restaurant in Ojai, security camera video captured images and shaking. A small picturesque community on the edge of Los Patres National Forest, 12 miles north of Ventura, Ojai has a vibrant downtown village area with art galleries, shops and bars.
There were no immediate reports of significant damage. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department An aerial survey of Lake Casitas Dam, Mathilija Dam and the city of Ojai found no damage.
In Los Angeles, The City Fire Department All 106 nearby fire stations conducted damage surveys and went into earthquake mode.
“It’s interesting that this place is there,” he said Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones. “It’s the first time since 1932 that we’ve had 5 in this exact location and even in the Ventura Basin.”
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake was recorded in 1941 just west of Sunday’s quake, Jones said. Some of the aftershocks of the 1994 Northridge earthquake were east of the location.
The word “tornado” was trending Sunday after an earthquake struck Southern California.
Jones said more aftershocks are likely in the coming days.
Hashtag #Hurricane Afternoon Quake began to quickly gain popularity in X.
The earthquake coincided with a rare tropical storm hitting the Los Angeles area for the first time in decades. For the first time, Southern California is under a tropical storm warning, and much of Los Angeles County is under a flash flood warning with rain through Sunday night.
No tropical storms made landfall in Southern California until September 25, 1939, when a system lost its hurricane status before moving ashore in Long Beach. The results were disastrous.
Millions of Southern Californians received a flurry of emergency alerts on their phones Sunday — the first for a flash flood warning, the second for the Ventura County earthquake.
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