At 11:16 a.m. on December 22, 2003 an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 occurred on the Central Coast of California. The epicenter was located approximately 6 miles northeast of the community/town of San Simeon. The earthquake was felt as far as the Los Angeles region and the San Francisco Bay Area. Major damage was reported in the City of Paso Robles, with damage also being reported from other neighboring towns and cities such as San Miguel, Atascadero and Cambria. According to newspaper and TV media reports, there were two casualties and approximately 50 injuries reported.

The historic downtown area of Paso Robles was the hardest hit. Many of the buildings in this area were built around the turn of the century. Damage was heaviest to unreinforced masonry structures. The location where the two casualties occurred was the Mastagni Building, an unreinforced masonry structure, with a clocktower and a flat roof, built in 1892.

The two casualties were a 55 year old individual and a 19-year old individual. According to information from individuals in Paso Robles, these two individuals worked in a neighboring store, and upon feeling the earthquake, had run out of their store. They were crushed by the falling roof and clock tower. The roof and side of the building moved sufficiently to crush several cars that were parked on the street alongside the building. At least two other unreinforced masonry buildings adjoining the Mastagni building were also found to have collapsed.

One of the policemen who was one of the first responders informed us that they were also able to rescue at least two other individuals who had been trapped under the rubble, without any major injuries. The earthquake was also followed by widespread power outages in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

Our trip to the area affected by the San Simeon Earthquake was on Wednesday, December 24, 2003. We began the survey in Paso Robles, and then traveled to Atascadero and Cambria before returning to San Jose. The day was rainy and cold.

The response and recovery effort in Paso Robles was in full swing. All of the affected areas had been cordoned off with yellow police tape. The buildings had been inspected and red, yellow and green tags were posted. The dramatic collapse of the Mastagni Building was very clearly visible from the park in city center, as were the adjacent buildings that had also collapsed. There were several other unreinforced masonry buildings in the same general area that had been red-tagged and access to these buildings was not available. Even passing near these buildings, on the street, was prohibited. Chain link fences were being brought in to cordon off the hazardous areas more securely.

The major activity going on at the time of our visit was the capping off of a hot spring well. This was in the parking lot right next to the Public Library. The Paso Robles area has hot springs. One hot spring well which had been capped off some time back had its cap knocked off by the earthquake. This general area had the odor of sulphur from the hot spring. Approximately 15 fire fighters were involved in this capping effort.

A variety of other jurisdictions and agencies had obviously come in to assist with the response and recovery effort. Most noticeable were police from the California Highway Patrol and fire fighters from the California Department of Forestry. Other jurisdictions whose presence was deduced from their vehicles were San Luis Obispo Fire and Orange County Fire.

The Red Cross was present with a disaster relief van and trailer. Salvation Army personnel were also present.

According to the Paso Robles policeman we spoke with, due to recent preparedness training related to homeland security, the town’s response to the earthquake emergency went quite smoothly. He felt that they had been adequately trained to respond to an emergency. However, there was no general awareness, among the residents, of a potential earthquake threat. (This area was supposed to have had its last earthquake in 1952.) This policeman also informed us that the damage was primarily to unreinforced masonry buildings that had not been retrofitted. Apparently some of the building owners had paid themselves for retrofitting of their buildings, and these buildings sustained very little if any damage. This is something that needs to be verified.

One of the motel/restaurants located on Spring Street (the main street running through Paso Robes) appeared to have had significant damage to its roof, which was a tile roof. There was already significant activity going on – associated with the removal of the existing tile roof.

Many of the shop fronts had sustained glass damage, and had been boarded up with plywood. Some shops had signs posted, stating that they were closed due to earthquake damage.

Very little damage, to single family wood frame structures, was noticeable. We traveled along Vine Street, a major residential area, and found several homes had chimney damage. The chimneys had mainly broken off near to the roof line, with the rubble lying either on the roof or on the ground below. In at least one case, damage to the roof as a result of chimney damage was clearly visible.

One single family residence had lost its front porch, which had collapsed. Another single family home had the front shored up with 4 x 4 s.

Several residents we spoke with informed us of significant damage to the contents of their homes, while they thought they had sustained no structural damage.

No structural damage, outside of the historic down town area, and its immediate vicinity, was noticed.

The town of Paso Robles was founded in the late 19th century, and has a population today of approximately 30,000.

Our next destination was Atascadero. The City Hall had been reported to have been severely damaged. Outside of the City Hall itself, no signs of structural damage were easily visible. The City Hall had significant damage at the 4th floor (?) level, where the brickwork immediately below the roof dome had mostly come loose and fallen off. Some cracks were visible on the walls of this building, at the first floor level. The building had been inspected and red tagged. A U-Haul moving van was parked in front of one of the entrances, perhaps indicating that they were in the process of removing all the documents.

The township of Cambrian is a relatively small community located on the coast of Highway 101, and is a very popular tourist destination. The downtown area is divided into two sections, called East Cambria Village and West Cambria Village. Most of the buildings in Cambria appear to be wood frame. No structural damage was noticed, or reported, in Cambria, to our knowledge. Many of the shop owners we spoke with reported severe shaking, and moderate to significant loss to the contents of their stores. There are several shops in Cambria that sell relatively expensive art glass. The most prominent art glass store, by the name of Seekers, apparently lost about 50% of the merchandise on display. (This was estimated to exceed $100,000). Other store owners reported varying amounts of damage. One store owner had expensive glass items on display, and when the earthquake started, he held onto the shelf containing these items so that they would not fall off. Fortunately the large glass window behind this particular shelf did not break – otherwise he could have sustained significant injury. In the grocery store – Soto’s – most of the merchandise on the shelves spilled on the floor. Over 250 bottles of wine were reported to have broken. There was also one kitchen fire in the township of Cambrian. This was extinguished by the Fire Department.

All of the store owners we spoke with also reported of damage to the contents in their homes. None of the people we spoke with had earthquake insurance. They were also concerned with the fact that the insurance deductible on their policies was $47,000 for their contents. As such, most of them did not expect to be able to claim anything from their insurance companies.

All of the stores in Cambria were open for business on Wednesday, including one store which had some of their windows which had broken taped up with plastic sheets. They had all cleaned up the broken items, and replaced them with other items from their inventory.