Magnitude-4.4 natural disaster shakes Southern California suburbs

British Columbians quickly turned to Twitter to share updates, post tips, and comment on B.C.’s preparedness.

There are no reports of any injuries or damage after a magnitude 4.3 natural disaster struck near the Victoria area late Tuesday night.

The commission is preparing similar actions in response to the December 29 quakes near Edmond, but has not finalized a plan, said spokesman Matt Skinner.

The Los Angeles city and county fire departments reported no immediate damage or injuries, although surveys of stations and personnel was ongoing. The epicenter was recorded about 60 miles northwest of Eureka, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“It was felt by thousands of people across British Columbia to distances of about 200 kilometres”, he said.

SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines were shut down for approximately an hour as a safety precaution to ensure the elevated guideways were not damaged by the tremors.

The quake had a depth of about three and-a-half miles, the USGS said. Washington residents said pictures fell off shelves and the shaking woke them up.

“I was sitting in my chair in the living room and there was this boom… like a vehicle had hit the house”, said Vancouver resident Darren Birch.

The agency said it is also important to have a smaller emergency kit in your auto, and that buying or making one is as easy as visiting a grocery or hardware store or pharmacy. Experts say that a quake with a magnitude of 7.3 could prove catastrophic, resulting in as many as 10,000 deaths, while some buildings would collapse, the Vancouver Observer reports.

The USGS said aftershocks of magnitude 3.8 and 3.2 came minutes later, and dozens of tiny aftershocks followed over the next few hours. It’s another reminder of the potential for the Cascadia Subduction Zone to unleash a huge quake off the coast of Washington and Oregon.