Our morning news meeting was interrupted with notice of the earthquake in Indonesia along the same fault line that caused the December tsunami.

It was of keen interest in the newsroom because there is a Westlake Village group of volunteers now in Sri Lanka working to rebuild a fishing village damaged by the tsunami. And they are accompanied by a reporter and photographer from the Star.

We got first word of the quake from the photographer's mother, who lives in Indiana. She beat the AP alert. We had just moments before hung up from talking to reporter Tom Kisken when Matt McClain's mom called to ask what we knew about the quake. Of course, we didn't know anything.

But we got on the phone to Sri Lanka. Calling cell phones and satellite phones, the best we got were answering machines (it was about 10 p.m. there). We finally reached someone connected with Knightsbridge, the charity group overseeing the work. He wasn't aware of the quake but promised to try to reach the group. He assured us that even if there was another tsunami, they would be safe because they were on the second floor and above of their hotel.

About 30 minutes later, we got a phone call from one of the church members who said that Kisken had called a Knightsbridge representative who then called the church member to let us know that everyone was safe, in their fourth floor rooms and monitoring the situation.

Tom got through to us a little while later and updated his blog, which he'll update throughout the day every chance he gets.