Earthquake country residents set to 'drop, cover and hold on' in annual ShakeOut quake drill

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — People will duck under desks and tables in California and around the world on Thursday for an annual drill practicing ways to stay safe during earthquakes.

Up and down the West Coast, the ShakeOut drill was scheduled to begin at 10:19 a.m. PDT with a cellphone-rattling test alert from the region's ShakeAlert earthquake warning system.

For many it would be the second alert of the day, following an errant predawn message that hit some phones with a voice message announcing the test. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was likely due to a mix-up in time zones set in the test alert system.

The real thing happened a day earlier, however, when a magnitude 4.2 quake struck southwest of California's capital in the agricultural Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region.