Tuesday quake had plenty of company 

Billie Jo Jannen
The Alpine Sun
     “It felt like the end of my house was picked up and dropped...Everyone was really surprised that it was only a four point,” said Nancy Slaff of Campo. “And it was really loud.”
     “It made a loud blast of noise, like something blew up, and it knocked the antique tools off my dining room wall,” said Vonnie Sanchez of Alpine. “My cat started running around the house. She was scared."
     Christy Scott, a former resident of Canada and currently living in El Cajon, was a bit less blase about her first earthquake, which woke her and her husband out of a dead sleep: “Poor Greg,” she said. “I squeezed his arm so hard it was bruised. He looks like he was attacked by something with three-inch claws.”
     A good many, however, slept right through it, as did the Jannen household halfway between Campo and Potrero.
     Tuesday morning’s 4:06 a.m. earthquake, originally clocked as a four point event on the Richter scale, was later downgraded to a 3.9.
     It was also not an isolated event. According to United States Geological Survey records, there has been a quake a day for almost a week in both urban and rural south county. The Tuesday morning event, followed by a 2.3 aftershock, was the largest and, therefore, the most noticeable.
     Events characterized as “micro quakes” by the USGS logged in as follows: a 1.0 shake 11 miles northeast of Pine Valley on Wednesday, April 6,  6:21 p.m.; a 1.6 shake six miles east of Chula Vista Thursday, April 7, 2:51 p.m.; a 1.6 shake four miles east of Julian, Friday, April 8, 2:38 p.m.; a 1.9 halfway between Pine Valley and Ocotillo on Saturday, April 9, 4:29 p.m; a 1.7 three miles west of Ocotillo, Sunday, April 10, 4:34 p.m.; a 1.9 shake 12 miles southeast of Jamul, Monday, April 11, 4:25 p.m.
     These and numerous others throughout the state are scattered along mapped faults that run northwest to southeast along much of the length of the state.
     According a USGS website that collects and displays reports from people in areas affected by earthquakes, over 4,000 residents from all over San Diego County checked in, as well as a few from Imperial and Riverside counties.
     Most of the reporters viewed the event as light to moderate — but definitely noticeable.
     The website may be viewed at USGS earthquake hazards program.

Web posting of agendas now offered by The Alpine Sun Online
     ALPINE — Beginning this Friday, The Alpine Sun will offer online agenda posting to run concurrent with public meeting posts in our paper edition.
     Newspaper agenda customers will be able to request this additional posting as yet another means of reaching members of the public  or to ensure that the agendas are available in a timely manner, as our webmaster will be able to do same-day posting of agendas that arrive by e-mail during regular business hours.
     “We wanted to give our customers who are subject to public meeting laws this added option and make it affordable for them to cover all their outreach needs in one place,” said Editor and Webmaster Billie Jo Jannen. “Customers who already post in the newspaper will have the option of doing a concurrent posting for a flat rate fee that is, in many cases, a fraction of the cost of the paper posting.”
     The offering does not apply to regular legal ads or to commercial display advertising, though management is working to set up a pricing structure that will offer commercial advertisers broad Web exposure at affordable rates.
     “Ultimately, we will have something to offer every different type of advertiser,” Jannen said. “Our goal is to be the first newspaper people think of when they want to read news.”

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