FORMER RESIDENTS SHAKEN BY CALIFORNIA QUAKE

LOS ANGELES -- Former Cape Girardeau resident Bryan Walker received the jolt of his life Monday.

"We were terrified. We panicked," said Bryan Walker, who -- along with his wife Monica, and 7-week-old son Ethan -- fled from their Glendale, Calif., home when the earthquake hit.

"We didn't fool around. We got out of there as soon as we could," the 28-year-old Walker said Tuesday. "All of a sudden it was like a train hit the house."

Robert Denton -- who lived in Cape Girardeau from 1974-1984 and is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University -- was also rudely awakened Monday morning.

"Image someone picking your house up and shaking it for 10 seconds," said Denton, slightly shaken himself, but uninjured in the quake. "It seems like 10 minutes rather than 10 seconds. It sure did shake things up around here."

Denton, who is an attorney in the Los Angeles area, lives with his two cats in a two-story home in the Santa Monica mountains, about 12 miles south of the quake's epicenter.

The quake struck at 4:31 a.m., shattering the sleeping Los Angeles suburbs.

Walker said that he and his wife grabbed the baby and ran outside to the safety of their car. "We got out of there in 10 seconds. I was in my underwear. I grabbed my jacket on the way out.

He said his wife was clad in pajamas.

"It was 4:30 in the morning, so it was dark. You couldn't see a thing," said Walker. "It was pitch black and the tremors were coming every 15 minutes.

"It's kind of like contractions," said Walker.

"It's the first time in the history of Los Angeles that the power everywhere was gone. Nobody had electricity."

Walker said they sat in the car for about 20 minutes before congregating with others at a neighbor's house.

"It made us feel more safe," he recalled. "We were drinking coffee. We were watching a television that was battery powered."

Walker said the power wasn't restored to his area until 4 p.m. Monday, nearly 12 hours after the quake struck.

The major quake lasted about 20 seconds, he said.

But after-shocks continued in the Los Angeles area into Tuesday. "We had one this (Tuesday) morning that lasted 45 seconds. It was a 4.5 (Richter scale) tremor," he noted.

In all, he estimated, the area was hit with about 50 to 100 tremors, with at least 25 of those above 5.0 on the Richter scale.

As he spoke to a Southeast Missourian reporter by telephone late Tuesday afternoon (Midwest time), another tremor struck the Los Angeles area.

Although Walker's home is only about seven miles from the epicenter of the quake, his home and others in the area were spared any major damage.

In his neighborhood, the only outward damage was to brick chimneys. "All the brick chimneys around were gone."

But nearby, buildings suffered major damage. At a local mall, a three-tier parking structure, about three times the size of Cape Girardeau's West Park Mall, was destroyed, Walker said.

While Walker's neighborhood was spared the disaster of some other areas in Los Angeles, there was considerable damage nearby.

A musician and carpenter, Walker grew up in Cape Girardeau and attended Cape Girardeau Central High School. His wife Monica is from Chaffee and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University.

This was not the first earthquake Denton has endured since moving to the Los Angeles area in 1984. In October 1987, a quake which registered 5.9 on the Richter scale caused the high-rise building he was in at the time to sway, but not crumble.

"This time, I was at home in my bed when the earthquake hit," he said. "My house is not designed like the high rise. When an earthquake hits, the house shakes and rattles like the dickens!"

Denton said he awoke almost immediately to the sound of pictures falling off his walls, dishes falling out of his kitchen cabinets and the windows rattling.

"I just laid there and held on to the bed," he said.

"The worst part of all was that as soon as the shaking started, the power went out," Denton continued. "So when everything quieted down, it was pitch black. I had to find a pair of shoes to go downstairs to get a flashlight."

Denton said he could see his neighbors wandering out in the streets with flashlights -- many of whom had gone out to disengage their car alarms, triggered by the quake. The power was restored to the area 22 hours later, he said.

One of his first concerns was his children, who live in another part of the Los Angeles area with their mother. Since he could not reach them by phone, due to many lines down and the rest jammed with calls, Denton went to visit his children Monday afternoon.

His house received minimal damage -- just a few broken dishes and trinkets. His two cats did not come out from hiding behind the furniture until Tuesday morning.

The first call Denton received Monday was from his sister, Diane Daume, in Cape Girardeau. It was a voice he was glad to hear.

"I had never thought too seriously about the earthquakes in this area until this one hit," he said. "We have little earthquakes all the time; they sound like someone is just bumping your house with a truck or something.

"But this was different," he continued. "I'm not so sure I could survive what everyone calls `The Big One', meaning an earthquake which registers 7.0 - 8.0 on the Richter scale."

Denton has not slept much since the earthquake first shook his house in the early morning hours Monday.

"There is a constant barrage of aftershocks -- some of them are pretty strong; others are less violent," he said. "It's very unnerving living like this. Everyone is on edge out here; every little bump sets you off."