KTLA Earthquake Reaction: Watch Anchors Panic on Viral Video
Anchors in Los Angeles were captured on camera as a magnitude-4.4 earthquake struck the area around 6:25 a.m. on Monday morning, and the video has since gone viral.
"Coming up, more problems for a troubled …" the female anchor, Megan Henderson, begins in the clip before she is interrupted by her make counterpart, Chris Schauble, who declares, "Earthquake! We are having an earthquake!"
"Yep, it's an earthquake," Henderson added in the video before both broadcasters duck beneath the desk.
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After the quake shook the newsroom, Schauble announced, "OK, it appears to have stopped," and emerged from under the desk.
As a result of their fast-acting safety skills, Henderson and Schauble have become household names with people everywhere watching the video footage during the quake. The broadcasters' well-founded panic has resonated with viewers, but also elicited laughs from YouTube users, and the video has accumulated over 5 million views in just one day.
"I have a feeling this guy is going to turn into a meme," YouTube user Chuck commented on the clip.
Another viewer Rob posted, "Now that's the up to the minute coverage of a breaking news story that other news just talk about."
Despite their funny facial expressions and panicked reaction, the anchors are being praised for adherence to safety precautions. Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geological Survey said the broadcasters' reaction was "absolutely the right thing to do."
"People who are laughing at them for doing it, you don't know at the beginning how big an earthquake's going to be," Jones told KTLA. "You might feel a little silly doing it for the small ones, but when the big one happens, it means you stay alive after the lights come crashing down."
March 17's strong quake struck six miles north of Beverly Hills- much to the chagrin of Hollywood starlets who populate the area. Twitter was flooded with posts by celebrity reactions to the quake, including Jessica Alba, who complained that her two young daughters were terrified.
"Ugh… Hate waking up that way- still shook," she posted to Twitter.
On Instagram, Alba added a photo indicating an earthquake of magnitude-4.7 near her neighborhood.
"According to my quake feed- man it was close to home," she wrote in the caption. "Jeez these never get easier, especially now w kids."
