4.4 Magnitude Quake Felt From LA To San Diego, Swaying Buildings

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 4.4 magnitude earthquake was strongly felt Monday afternoon from the Los Angeles area all the way to San Diego, swaying buildings, rattling dishes and setting off car alarms, but no major damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The temblor caused a pipe to burst at the ornate 1927 Pasadena City Hall building, where TV news helicopters showed water spilling from an upper floor. Elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, an ESPN interview was interrupted, and the ground swayed in Anaheim, where Disneyland is located in Orange County.

Dishes rattled in the storied Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, home to many celebrities, and photos on social media showed shampoo bottles and other items littering the floor of a Target store in LA.

The quake was centered near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park, about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) northeast of LA’s City Hall, and about 7.5 miles (12.1 kilometers) below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt from greater Los Angeles south to San Diego and east to the Palm Springs desert region, according to the USGS community reporting page. A small number of reports were filed from the southern San Joaquin Valley about 100 miles (160) northwest of LA.

Pasadena public information officer Lisa Derderian confirmed that the water leak at City Hall was caused by the quake. About 200 employees safely evacuated from City Hall, and one person was rescued from an elevator, she said.

There was no obvious damage to Pasadena’s century-old Rose Bowl, but an engineer will do a full assessment, Derderian said. There was no immediate assessment of the city’s 1927 Central Library, which was closed in 2021 for a pending seismic retrofit. “We have