The rest of Southern California prepared for a regional earthquake drill at 10 a.m. Thursday, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to pull the switch for his own staff a few hours beforehand.
The governor woke up shortly after 5 a.m. and told an aide to inform his staff that he was calling his own 7.8-magnitude earthquake at that hour, according to spokesman Aaron McLear.
Schwarzenegger then flew by helicopter to an Office of Emergency Services location at Los Alamitos, where he received some simulated briefings before taking a tour of the operations center and meeting with his Cabinet secretaries.
The governor's staff was told it had to operate as if the quake were real, so the press office wrote releases informing the imaginary media of what was occurring.
Some aides had to jump on earlier flights to Los Angeles after the governor surprised them with the 5 a.m. call.
"He wanted to make sure people were prepared to be caught off-guard by a natural disaster, because that's what happens in real life," McLear said.
Thursday's drill was based on a fictional magnitude-7.8 event on the southern San Andreas Fault. If such a quake occurred today, scientists estimate it would kill 1,800 people and cause $200 billion in damage. Some high-rises would fall, sections of freeways would crumble and gas pipes would crack.
Organizers said about 5 million people signed up to participate in the mock "Big One" – an earthquake drill billed as the largest in U.S. history.
The exercise coincided with an annual disaster preparedness exercise held by the state. Unlike in previous years, the simulation involved scores of governments, first responders, schools, businesses, churches and residents, all following the same script.
Meanwhile, legislative leaders met in Schwarzenegger's office for two hours on Thursday morning with chief of staff Susan Kennedy – but no governor – to figure out how to deal with a very real $11.2 billion budget shortfall. The governor flew up to Sacramento for the afternoon.
Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
