A 4.1 earthquake struck northern San Luis Obispo County on Tuesday morning, with local residents and businesses feeling the widespread shaking.
Paula Scallan was at her home in Templeton, ready to take her dog Lucy to the dog park, when she felt a violent shake.
“I was in my bedroom, and it felt literally like my roof was going to cave in. It just shook,” she said.
At Grey Wolf Cellars, winemaker Brad Ely was driving a forklift when he felt a sudden jolt.
“All of a sudden, it felt like I had been hit by a truck or something,” he recalled. “The whole lift jumped off the ground.”
Occurring just before 10 a.m., the earthquake originated near Highway 46 in Templeton, about five miles west of Highway 101, according to the USGS.
At Grey Wolf Cellars and Grain+Vine Craft Distillery, bottles and glassware were toppled, but surprisingly, that was all that was damaged.
“Everything was on the floor, not dissimilar than it was back in 2003. Not quite as many bottles like in 2003. This whole thing was on the floor,” owner Joe Barton explained as he walked through the tasting room.
Barton has experienced a few big earthquakes, including the deadly 6.5 San Simeon earthquake that caused major damage in downtown Paso Robles.
While Tuesday’s quake was far less devastating, it was memorable, especially for students of Pat Butler Elementary School who felt it on the playgroun, a memory Principal Christy Holman remembers having as a kid.
“I remember being on a soccer field and experiencing an earthquake, and I’ll never forget the feeling, so I absolutely think our students will remember today,” she said.
Holman says her students were prepared after taking part in the Great Shakeout earthquake drill just last month.
“We were very prepared for the real situation. Today, our students and our staff were ready to respond to an earthquake, an actual earthquake today,” Holman said.
Waking up to a shaking roof, crashing glass, driving a rattling forklift, or running around on the playground, the effects were felt throughout the North County area.
“They feel more like a rolling [feeling],” Ely described of other earthquakes he’s felt. “This was such an abrupt kind of stop that that didn’t feel like anything I had felt before.”
“We forget like we are in earthquake country. It’s going to happen. We’re very fortunate that this is the just the size of it because when it gets bigger, it gets a lot more dangerous,” Barton added.
Paso Robles Police reported that they had not received any calls related to damage from the earthquake as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.
