@sudsmaster
Yup... 3.5 is definitely "nothing" in terms of an Earthquake.
The epicenter was really close. It wasn't a big earthquake (actually it was literally one jolt only and 2-3 seconds of rolling) it sounded almost like a bomb instead of that "train" noise.
The earthquake itself didn't break the line. When the heater panel fell, one of the corners (sharp) got stuck in the line and the weight of the panel worked as a lever, making a hole on it. It's a super short line, like a stove line, that goes from the seismic valve to the furnace control valve.
When I came back inside, the panel was hanging at 45° and the only thing holding it was the gas line.
If the dogs didn't start barking like crazy seconds before, I wouldn't have dropped and covered under my desk (I'm glad I did it). The Shakealert went off with that annoying siren but as I am an Uber driver, it's mandatory to have the "public transportation" version of the shakealert that goes off for anything above magnitude 1.0. That darn thing goes off 50 times PER DAY and in two days I learned to simply ignore it.
Anyway, if I waited for the shakealert to do something I'd be in trouble because it went off 1 second AFTER the shaking. (at least the screen flashing like a strobe helped me find my phone in the dark). the initial alert was magnitude 4.1, 2 minutes later they corrected it to 3.5.
Other stupid thing about the shakealert, it looks like it first posts on Facebook and then the alert arrives to the phone. Other times it posts on Facebook the alert "only" 12 to 24 hours late. Other annoying thing is the alert comes in Spanish "Alerta Sismica" instead of "Seismic Alert" in English or at least both languages. It looks like they copied EVERYTHING from Mexico because it sounds exactly like the Mexican earthquake alert. I first thought it was something I could change in the app but no, they have only that tone.
........
The apartment i live is 100 years old but it was retrofitted after the Northridge earthquake. Before I signed the contract I made sure and let the real state agent know I wouldn't rent anything that hasn't been earthquake retrofitted.
Also, with the gentrification, this is one of the tricks the city hall use to make homeowners desperate to sell their properties for pennies to Asian investors. Earthquake retrofitting is MANDATORY in Los Angeles and it looks like every year they find a new thing to make mandatory (Unfortunately for most people it's impossible to keep up.) At this point, gentrification sucks. I can see my neighborhood is losing its personality, historical homes being demolished to give room for multi-family "boxes" You know... "Luxury" 2-bedroom apartments with open-concept kitchens, "real hardwood-looking" cheap laminate floors and stainless-steel Magic Chef or Panda appliances and so small that if you sneeze the windows explode (For "only" $5000 per month)
By the way, here in LA they now have a new hype word to match the open-concept kitchen: "Bistrô dining room", which is nothing more than a dining room so small that two people fit comfortably..... stacked on each other.