Governor Warns Millions as Earthquake Hits Los Angeles

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) says that early Thursday morning, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake hit the Los Angeles area. Its location was in Malibu, California. There was an aftershock of 2.8 magnitude two minutes after the quake and a shake of 3.4 magnitude 12 minutes after the first event.

A statement from Governor Gavin Newsom’s office says that California’s Earthquake Early Warning System warned millions of people ahead of time about earthquakes. They were sent out through the state’s MyShake app, which sent out more than 425,000 alerts. In the three hours after the earthquake, more than 20,000 new people downloaded the app.

The warning system, which was made with help from Google, works with Android phones and automatically takes safety measures like turning off utilities and opening firehouse doors. “Lots of people got alerts on their phones when the shaking started,” Governor Newsom said.

According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, there was no major harm.