It was a typical Monday at the Lincoln Heights Senior Center — until the ground started shaking.
Anthony Montiel, the facility director, said the seniors handled it more calmly than he did.
“I’m more scared than anyone else, with them being seniors and having more life experience,” Montiel said with a laugh.
“It felt like a truck hit the building,” he said of the magnitude-4.4 quake centered in El Sereno. “It was like a strong jolt that lasted a few seconds, and nothing like a rolling earthquake.”
Monday’s temblor — centered near the senior center in northeast Los Angeles — caused little damage and no known injuries. But the quake, albeit modest, left many rattled.
In Highland Park, windows rattled and dogs barked, and coffee spilled off a table. Elsewhere in Alhambra, photos were knocked off a shelf, drawers opened and shoes were thrown from a rack.
The quake struck at 12:20 p.m. Its preliminary epicenter was in El Sereno, about 1,000 feet southwest of Huntington Drive and Collis Avenue.
The earthquake caused a water pipe to burst at Pasadena City Hall, where water leaked for about an hour before it was turned off, city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said.
It also caused an issue with elevators at the building, and an employee was stuck in one of the cars for about 20 minutes before being let out. The elevators will be closed until they can be repaired.
The fire department is conducting surveys around the city, and an engineer is being sent to the Rose Bowl as a precaution to assess for any issues.
Residents should take the earthquake as a reminder to always be prepared for a major disaster.
“This could be a precursor of a larger quake. We want people to be prepared, not scared,” Derderian said.
Darlene Hampton, a senior office assistant in the Pasadena city manager’s office, was helping a resident at City Hall when the shaking started.
“She was having a little bad day,” Hampton said about the resident. “I was able to calm her down, and we just said, ‘Everything’s going to work out, right?’ And then the earthquake hit. But we were doing a little prayer too.”
All employees and customers were able to leave the building safely, Hampton said, and wait outside until the fire department arrived.
“The funny thing is as she’s going out the door, I said, “You see how quickly God works?’ ”