You’re not crazy. That was indeed a third earthquake you may have felt this morning — the earliest being a big-enough-to-wake-half-the-city magnitude 3.7 shaker, at 7:02 a.m. just off the coast past the zoo, later revised down a smidge to a 3.6.
At 9:39 a.m., the first aftershock (magnitude 2.5) hit, followed by a 3.0 at 10:48. These baby jolts led — as they do — to hesitant “did you feel it?” texts to a thousand group chats. Some friends and family members will answer “YES!!!” right away. Others will say they thought it was a truck.
It’s OK to feel a little rattled. First of all, Friday’s earthquake trio was centered in the same location as the 1906 quake. Second, in the past five weeks alone San Francisco has endured a confusing tsunami alert that turned out to be a nothingburger and our first-ever tornado warning during a freak windstorm that brought down trees across the Mission and the Sunset but may not have produced a funnel cloud.
“TAKE COVER NOW,” some smartphones blared at 5:50 a.m. on Dec. 14, lending credence to the notion that these early-warning systems are built on technologically dodgy foundations and prone to false positives. Of course, there was no smartphone warning Friday morning. The quakes were too small, and the city’s emergency sirens, which were tested at noon every Tuesday through late 2019, remain silent. They were supposed to return last year.
I want to assure everyone in San Francisco: we are prepared for events like this morning’s earthquake. As we monitor the impact, I am working with our first responders to ensure we are using best practices to keep our city safe in the event of a natural disaster. pic.twitter.com/Lz4PKYTUnc
— Daniel Lurie 丹尼爾·羅偉 (@DanielLurie) January 10, 2025
Friday’s earthquake blitz didn’t take place in a civic void, though. Mayor Daniel Lurie, interrupting a ribbon-cutting at a fancy doughnut shop, took to X to assure residents that his newness as leader had no bearing on the city’s emergency preparedness.
“I ordered city government into action immediately this morning, and our first responders have been out across the city ensuring the safety of our residents,” Lurie said in an emailed statement.
All this occurred as wildfires wreaked havoc throughout Los Angeles, to which San Francisco has dispatched 22 firefighters via mutual-aid agreement. It’s hard not to be on edge as stunned Angelenos post videos of scorched washer-dryers and smoldering pick-up trucks where neighborhoods used to be.
It’s easy to connect our brief unease to the ongoing catastrophe in L.A., with 10 fatalities and 10,000 structures destroyed, or to the fact that California’s next disaster may occur under a president with an avowed antipathy toward the Golden State and its governor. After all, they were earthquakes. Leaving everyone a little shaken is what they do.