08-25-2003, 04:36 AM
I'm not sure how many of you remember the 1994 Northridge Earthquake (some places might call it the Los Angeles Earthquake also), I'm sure anyone who lived on the west coast at the time would remember it, or who were old enough to pay attention to the news. I can't believe that on January 17, it will have been 10 years since it happened, I remember it so clearly, could have happened last year. I know January isn't very close, I only bring it up because I just felt a nice 3.2 tremor about 45 mins ago, and wanted to share my tale.
Ok, so to set the record straight, I mentioned in another post that I live in Northridge, and I lived in the same house back in 1994, basically in the epicenter. I was 8-years-old. I remember the Sunday night before, it was really surreal, because I was talking to my mom about how great the weekend had been, things seemed to be going so well, and Monday (the 17th) was going to be great because it was a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr Day). It's a cliche thing among people who live in earthquake areas to talk about how animals act, but I do remember our springer spaniel being very weird and active, for such an old dog. And so I go to bed.
Hours later, at 4:30 am, I was immediately woken up. Some earthquakes that I've experienced, you dream about something shaking, then you suddenly realize what's going on and you wake up. But this one, I was immediately awake, wide awake, hearing my 13-year-old brother let out a bloodcurdling scream. I kept quiet, just gripped the side of the bed really hard, and I actually put holes in the sheet. Everything was blurred it was shaking so hard. When it stopped, my mother was calling me from outside my door, and I just didn't answer. Thing is, she had a hard time getting to my room because the linen closet outside emptied all its contents, blocking the way to my door temporarily. Finally I responded, and I came out climbing over the mountain of blankets and towels.
We grabbed some towels, and all moved slowly through the living room with the towels beneath our feet, sliding instead of walking, to make sure we didn't cut ourselves on the glass that was possibly all over the place. We made our way to a large doorway between the living room and an enclosed porch, and just gripped the wall. This earthquake's aftershocks were almost as bad as the quake itself. The original was 6.8, there were several aftershocks in the 5.0+ range. Everytime one hit, it was so tough to keep balance, we just held onto the wall and doorway. We basically stayed there until the sun came up, the aftershocks were mild, and we got outside
The first thing of course, a brick wall had fallen, and the other was about to fall. It eventually fell later with an aftershock. We stood around, trying to get reception on the radio, and my brother commented that downtown LA must be in ruins, because we figured the epicenter was probably further south near LA. It turned out later, of course, that we were almost standing on the epicenter. Next thing was to just check out the damage, and my father went with some neighbors to see what was happening and possibly help anyone. They saw a large building at the Northridge Mall/Fashion Center that was completely collapsed, a building that if the earthquake hit during the day, would have been filled with hundreds of people. A Sportmart had a train slam through the back of it, because it derailed, jumped an aqueduct, and hit the building.
A few blocks north were apartments that had the bottom floor crushed by the top two floors... weird seeing balconies touching the ground. And of course, Cal State University of Northridge had many buildings badly damaged, and a very large parking structure collapsed. My mom's workplace was destroyed. We spent the night huddled up watching the news, seeing the damage around the city. And for the next few days, weeks, and months, aftershocks were almost a daily occurance. And they continued for years. Now the slightest tremor... man, it all comes back. And the one I just felt, I haven't felt in a while. Sorta scares me, aftershocks are almost assuring, because it means there probably won't be any big earthquakes... we haven't had one for a while, probably overdue for one.
Anyway, I am curious if any of my fellow Southern California residents remember anything, have any stories, whatever, or any comments and opinions. Once again... I stress that we should be thankful this didn't happen during the daytime, there would be thousands of deaths, rather than about 70 at 4:30. A few hours makes a big difference.
Ok, so to set the record straight, I mentioned in another post that I live in Northridge, and I lived in the same house back in 1994, basically in the epicenter. I was 8-years-old. I remember the Sunday night before, it was really surreal, because I was talking to my mom about how great the weekend had been, things seemed to be going so well, and Monday (the 17th) was going to be great because it was a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr Day). It's a cliche thing among people who live in earthquake areas to talk about how animals act, but I do remember our springer spaniel being very weird and active, for such an old dog. And so I go to bed.
Hours later, at 4:30 am, I was immediately woken up. Some earthquakes that I've experienced, you dream about something shaking, then you suddenly realize what's going on and you wake up. But this one, I was immediately awake, wide awake, hearing my 13-year-old brother let out a bloodcurdling scream. I kept quiet, just gripped the side of the bed really hard, and I actually put holes in the sheet. Everything was blurred it was shaking so hard. When it stopped, my mother was calling me from outside my door, and I just didn't answer. Thing is, she had a hard time getting to my room because the linen closet outside emptied all its contents, blocking the way to my door temporarily. Finally I responded, and I came out climbing over the mountain of blankets and towels.
We grabbed some towels, and all moved slowly through the living room with the towels beneath our feet, sliding instead of walking, to make sure we didn't cut ourselves on the glass that was possibly all over the place. We made our way to a large doorway between the living room and an enclosed porch, and just gripped the wall. This earthquake's aftershocks were almost as bad as the quake itself. The original was 6.8, there were several aftershocks in the 5.0+ range. Everytime one hit, it was so tough to keep balance, we just held onto the wall and doorway. We basically stayed there until the sun came up, the aftershocks were mild, and we got outside
The first thing of course, a brick wall had fallen, and the other was about to fall. It eventually fell later with an aftershock. We stood around, trying to get reception on the radio, and my brother commented that downtown LA must be in ruins, because we figured the epicenter was probably further south near LA. It turned out later, of course, that we were almost standing on the epicenter. Next thing was to just check out the damage, and my father went with some neighbors to see what was happening and possibly help anyone. They saw a large building at the Northridge Mall/Fashion Center that was completely collapsed, a building that if the earthquake hit during the day, would have been filled with hundreds of people. A Sportmart had a train slam through the back of it, because it derailed, jumped an aqueduct, and hit the building.
A few blocks north were apartments that had the bottom floor crushed by the top two floors... weird seeing balconies touching the ground. And of course, Cal State University of Northridge had many buildings badly damaged, and a very large parking structure collapsed. My mom's workplace was destroyed. We spent the night huddled up watching the news, seeing the damage around the city. And for the next few days, weeks, and months, aftershocks were almost a daily occurance. And they continued for years. Now the slightest tremor... man, it all comes back. And the one I just felt, I haven't felt in a while. Sorta scares me, aftershocks are almost assuring, because it means there probably won't be any big earthquakes... we haven't had one for a while, probably overdue for one.
Anyway, I am curious if any of my fellow Southern California residents remember anything, have any stories, whatever, or any comments and opinions. Once again... I stress that we should be thankful this didn't happen during the daytime, there would be thousands of deaths, rather than about 70 at 4:30. A few hours makes a big difference.