Residents of the California town of Brawley are coping with rattled nerves as they assess the damage from hundreds of small and moderate earthquakes that have shaken the region since Sunday. They say it is a reminder to stay prepared because they live in earthquake country.

Workers in Brawley repair quake damage, as scientists at the California Institute of Technology learn more about the network of fault-lines beneath the desert community.

Since Sunday more than 400 quakes - the highest a major shaker at magnitude 5.5 - have rocked the city of 25,000.

Furniture store owner Mary Lourdes Miller lost two front windows. She went through a major quake here in the 1970s.

“And all of a sudden you have it hit and you are not sure if it is going to be another seven-pointer or it is going to be a three-pointer or a four-pointer. So you are on touch and go for quite a while until they completely stop,” Miller said.

Stocks tumbled from the shelves at Raj Lunagaria's pharmacy.

There are cracks in the walls and the stock room is a shambles.

Construction worker Jay Robertson says it has been been scary.

“All day long, all night long. You hear thunder. You do not know if it is going to hit again or if it is below us, or what is going on. It is a clear day, so it [is not] thunder from the sky. It is thunder from the ground,” Robertson said.

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