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Update, Thursday, Oct. 19: A notification for today’s regularly scheduled earthquake drill at 10:19 a.m. went off at 3:19 a.m. instead, NBC Bay Area reported and the USGS confirmed on X/Twitter.
An emergency alert for an earthquake in Sacramento County reached Bay Area residents’ phones Wednesday morning, Oct. 18, causing confusion among residents who were not close enough to the earthquake to feel it.
The 4.2 magnitude earthquake took place in Isleton, 62 miles east of San Francisco, at 9:29 a.m. A mobile alert from the U.S. Geological Survey at the same time encouraged residents to take cover.
“Earthquake detected! Drop, cover, hold on. Protect yourself,” the alert read.
The notification was part of ShakeAlert, a new early warning system in California, Oregon and Washington that monitors for earthquakes as they start and aims to alert residents located near the source of an earthquake as soon as possible. This early notification will allow people time to evacuate or take other safety measures, according to the system’s website.
It also happened to come just one day before the annual International ShakeOut Day, during which people around the world practice earthquake drills and earthquake safety.
The proximity of Wednesday’s earthquake to Thursday’s drill lead led some people to confuse the alert with the drill. They took to social media to express their concerns about whether the alert was a misfire of the drill notification. Others criticized the notification for not describing where the earthquake was taking place.
The earthquake comes just one day after the 34th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake that left 63 people dead and destruction across the Bay Area.