Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck the central California coast at 11:16 a.m. Pacific Time Monday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter of the quake was 24 miles west-northwest of Paso Robles, where the Associated Press is reporting two people have been killed in a building collapse.

Paso Robles (240 miles north of Los Angeles, 200 miles south of San Francisco) is the home of Erion Honda racer Jake Zemke.

Reached via cell phone Monday afternoon, Zemke reported that he was uninjured and that his home only suffered minimal damage.

“Everything is OK on my end,” Zemke told Roadracingworld.com at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time. “A few things fell down, but other than that, not too bad.”

When asked if he felt the quake at his home, Zemke laughed and said, “Oh, yeah! It was big, real big. It’s hard to say how long it lasted. It lasted long enough to think about it and go, ‘Alright…OK…it can stop shaking now.'”

Zemke said he hadn’t heard from his parents at post time, but he attributed that to widespread power, telephone and even cell phone service interruptions in the area.