Ridgecrest has been the epicenter of both earthquakes that struck Southern California this week. First, a 6.4 magnitude quake hti the area Thursday. It turns out that earthquake was just a foreshock. The big one -- registering 7.1 -- hit late Friday.
Nearly 3,000 residents in Ridgecrest were without power after the Friday quake, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Bill Sturgeon, a RIdgecrest resident, said his trailer suffered major damage.
"We're OK, (but) we got our trailer completely (destroyed)," Sturgeon told the Times. "All our personal stuff is gone."
Friday’s quake “knocked us out of bed," Sturgeon told the newspaper. "We came up here to check on our neighbors across the street. It damaged their trailer enough that it’s probably gonna be totaled now, too.”
Randall Kirkendoll, of Guadalupe, told KSBY he was visiting family in Ridgecrest when the 7.1 earthquake hit.
“A 7.1 gets your attention,” Kirkendoll told the television station. “It was kind of like being sucked out into the ocean. We were trying to go right and we were kind of floating left. It was real eerie because you had no control over the truck.”
Kirkendoll said he is staying calm despite the stress of the earthquake.
"We're just sitting out here in the dark with a flashlight," KIrkendoll told KSBY.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Las Vegas and Mexico, officials said.
College student Edith Mata, 22, was doing her homework in her room in Bakersfield when she said the walls began to shake.
"It was shaking really bad; I got super dizzy," Mata told the Times.
>> What are mainshocks, foreshocks and aftershocks?
Even in Palm Springs, nearly 100 miles from the epicenter, residents were feeling the effects of the earthquake.
Joseph Wilson tweeted a video of suddenly choppy water in a pool.
"Here in Palm Springs and just felt a massive #earthquake a few minutes ago," he tweeted. "Woah. Check out the pool moving for a minute."
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