The 4.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the San Lorenzo Valley, early Thursday morning, a little under a mile southeast of Boulder Creek, brought 24-year-old Ben Lomond resident Sherlyn Alvarez’s mind back to the disastrous 2017 earthquake in Mexico City, where she used to live. In that natural disaster, she remembered, lots of people died.
Because, even though the fault movement near her Santa Cruz County mountain home around 1:30am was technically less severe, in some ways it was more intense.
“This one freaked me out,” she said. “The house shook more.”
The earthquake dislodged drawers in her second-floor room, and sent a bunch of her younger sister’s perfume bottles tumbling.
“I was sleeping,” she said, explaining she had to open the Brookdale Diner at 7am. “It was crazy.”
The sisters and their parents raced outside, following advice they’d learned in Mexico.
“They train us since we’re kids,” she said, explaining that’s why she thought, We have to leave the house.
But they didn’t see any of their neighbors outdoors.
Did it really happen, or not?, she couldn’t help but think for a second, before they headed back inside.
Alvarez says they’ve since been told to duck under a table.
“We didn’t expect it here,” she said, adding it wasn’t that she didn’t know the area is prone to quakes—it’s just that, when you haven’t felt one in the few years you’ve been here, it’s easy to put that risk out of your mind. “This one was really bad.”
When Alvarez got to work, the cook reported nothing was out of place in the kitchen.
Felton resident David Hofvendahl, 64, happened to be awake at the time of the earthquake—which he estimated lasted at least six seconds.
“There’s absolutely nothing you can do,” he said. “It was kind of fascinating.”
He was worried it might be the fir tree that towers over his home, swaying dangerously.
Hofvendahl’s ex-wife was the first to call.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He assured her he was. Within hours, he’d hear from concerned contacts from around the country.
A terrifying quake was on the itinerary for the third day of vacation here for Trent Morrison, 27, and his wife.
“We’re staying in a tiny mini-house,” the Michigan resident said of the quaint plywood accommodations they’d selected. “It shook a ton.”
He recalled how they awakened to serious creaking noises.
“It felt like the house was gonna fall down,” he said, confirming that was his first time living through an earthquake—and sounding not too shaken-up by the ordeal. “It is what it is.”
Dave Valentine, 73, a Ben Lomond resident, said his dog Lulu woke him up in the middle of the earthquake.
“It bothered her while it was going on,” he said, adding he had multiple pets that were “pretty aggravated.”
After the shaking stopped, Valentine went around straightening picture frames.
Lulu quickly got over the commotion, curling up on the bed and sleeping soundly.
Valentine’s friend Cyndi Jarvis, 76, who lives up the road—a little closer to the epicenter—was watching an MS Now news when the ground began to tremble.
“It was frightening to me,” she said, explaining she’d lived through multiple larger earthquakes before, including in 1989.
Jarvis wondered, had his animals been making a ruckus in advance of the shaking? She’d heard they sometimes have the ability to sense an earthquake is about to begin.
No, he said, he hadn’t noticed that.
Years ago, when she lived in Scotts Valley, her fish had begun to act in a bizarre manner shortly before an earthquake, she commented.
Asher Schwarzbach, an 18-year-old probationary firefighter at the Ben Lomond Fire Protection District, said there was an overnight gas leak and a non-injury crash overnight that weren’t related to the quake.
But, he continued, “We had a non-emergency rescue related to the earthquake.”
Connor Scarborough, a 20-year-old BLFD firefighter, had just gotten back from morning call.
“That was in Brookdale,” he said, describing how the homeowner had gone outside and couldn’t get back in because the entrance had become stuck. “They just couldn’t get into their house.”
Firefighters quickly got the doorway unblocked.
Scarborough, who was not on-call overnight, slept through the earthquake. When he got up, he saw nightstand items on the floor.
Jim Phillips, who lives just north of Boulder Creek, estimated the undulation of the Earth continued for about 30-45 seconds.
“It was a hell of a shake,” he said, noting the power went off briefly.
He says it started off at one level of movement, “—then, it was, like, really violent shaking.”
Afterwards, he looked around to assess the damage. There were no broken glasses or anything like that. But—
“I found a stack of magazines that had been knocked over,” he said.
The Boulder Creek Fire Protection District said it did not receive any calls related to the earthquake.
