Obligatory, due to this clip's instant viral appeal -- and safe to laugh, because everyone is okay. Some St. Patty's Day cheer, courtesy of the KTLA morning show crew:
Details on the seismic event itself:
A shallow, magnitude 4.4 earthquake was reported Monday morning five miles from Westwood, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 6:25 a.m. PDT at a depth of five miles. There were no reports of injuries or damage. The quake was felt over a large swath of Southern California but especially in the Westside and the San Fernando Valley. The earthquake demonstrated the success of an early earthquake warning system being tested by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. The center’s offices in Pasadena received some seconds of early warning. The farther an earthquake epicenter is away, the more seconds of warning the system can provide. “It certainly worked in terms of notifying ahead of time, before the shaking arrived,” Graves said.
It's fairly obvious that the media was not notified ahead of time. Hats off to anchor Chris Schauble for being able to laugh at himself:
It's already my profile pic! "@WilliamBautista: @ChrisKTLA this pic will now be my screen saver lol”
— Chris Schauble (@ChrisKTLA) March 17, 2014
For what it's worth, the frightened television hosts' response to the quake was straight out of the disaster survival textbook. From California's official earthquake guide: "If you're indoors, stay there. Get under -- and hold onto --a desk or table, or stand against an interior wall." Finally, also via Twitchy, the LAPD felt compelled to tweet this admonition out to residents:
Please do not call 911 to report the #earthquake. We are well aware of it. Lines need to be kept open for emergencies pic.twitter.com/joEwpfgPnC
— LAPD Communications (@911LAPD) March 17, 2014