The southern
California town of Brawley has taken the unusual step of declaring a
state of emergency after a swarm of earthquakes rattled nearly 20 mobile
homes off their blocks and forced a slaughterhouse to close, the mayor
said on Wednesday.
It is uncommon for quake-hardy California
cities to declare emergencies due to tremors, but Brawley mayor George
Nava said the earthquake swarm is a unique case because it has lasted
for days and caused millions of dollars in damage.
The
cluster of relatively small quakes, which are caused by water and other
fluids moving around in the Earth's crust, began on Saturday evening
and climaxed the next day with a 5.5 temblor, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey.
The tremors were continuing on Wednesday and geologists say there have been hundreds in total.
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