A hurricane hit Northern California in early to mid-February, killing five.

Of course, they stopped laughing and joking at 2.41 that afternoon, when news came in that an earthquake had hit California.

In the 1980s, a new epidemic of phylloxera hit California, devastating many vineyards, which needed replanting.

The center deals with the catastrophic damage caused by the floods, mud slides and storms that have hit California.

But the real change came when hard economic times hit California several years ago.

Even before the earthquake and all the other disasters hit California, she said, the state was loosing tourist dollars because it was not advertising enough.

The culprit: a citrus-killing freeze that hit California, which supplies 95 percent of the nation's navel oranges in the winter.

Grey had been handling the assignment on a temporary basis since the energy crisis hit California in the winter.

The following day, a magnitude 3.6 earthquake hit California.

Soon after, however, the recession hit California, and the project died.