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Northridge Earthquake - g-boy - 08-25-2003

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.


Northridge Earthquake - Guest - 08-25-2003

Never actually felt an earthquake despite the fact that one had it's epicenter not very far from me. The UK doesn't get very many, but the always make the front line news because of it's rarity. Unfortunately, I have this habit of being able to sleep through most things, but anything really out of the ordinary wakes me up (like a child's screem, a creaky floorboard)... Guess my brain just things an earthquake is natural and decides not to wake me....


Northridge Earthquake - Guest - 08-25-2003

nor have i felt an earthquake, but i cna tell you what i have felt... a Tornado well anyway ill tell ya my story ok here goes. One day when i went to my grandmas it was a beautiful day everything and sunshine. I was in the pool dozzing and like 10 seconds later i saw a funnel cloud, but i never saw a funnel cloud so i wasn't sure what it was when i saw something come spiraling down. Right then i realized it was a Tornado i ran for my life my brother's were playing final fantacy 7 then i saw that t-bone (my dog) was outside. I ran so fast i almost ran into a tree i got him then i ran inside then i saw my mom wasn't here i spazzed so much you wouldn't believe it. i ran across the whole farm i never saw her anywhere.


When she came in i told her i saw a tornado she didn't believe me then i showed her then everyone went into the basement. My grandma was still outside my mom got her, but don (he's kind of like my grandpa, but he isn't) he was outside we all went into the basement (skips all the way to the end) anyway what was left of the fence was nothing and the biggest treee there... gone i couldn't believe it. there was broken glasss everywhere, well anyway that's my story


Northridge Earthquake - g-boy - 08-25-2003

Yeah... not to many places you can go in America without running into trouble... I think it's something like 90% of the world's tornadoes are in the US. Then there are hurricanes on the east coast... earthquakes in california... extreme heat in the desert states... blizzards and extreme cold in the northern states.... volcanos in the northwest. Then of course there's an island off the coast of africa that will someday have almost half the island collapse into the ocean and create a tsunami that would wipe out much of the american eastern shoreline... so yeah, bad times.


Northridge Earthquake - _Acid_Head_ - 08-25-2003

I remember it clearly, it literally felt like my apartment was going downslope for a few minutes, horrible vibrations all around you, and the only thing you can do is hide under a doorway, scary shit. Not to mention the 300 or so aftershocks in the months to come, some weak, some stronger.

edit: We took a trip to Northridge that next day, so much stuff was in ruins, I was thankful that I wasn't there, you're pretty lucky g-boy.


Northridge Earthquake - g-boy - 08-25-2003

Yeah, I was gonna ask if you were in Van Nuys at the time... you would have felt it pretty much as badly as I did, you're only about 5 miles from the epicenter... houses all stayed intact, but if I lived in an apartment, bad times.


Northridge Earthquake - _Acid_Head_ - 08-25-2003

Luckily I lived in North Hollywood at the time, a few miles further down than Van Nuys, doesn't mean my apartment and surrounding ones weren't hit bad though. What is now known as the No-H.o Arts District was hit very badly, one of the brick buildings even exploded when a gas leak went bad, left a black crater.


Northridge Earthquake - Guest - 08-25-2003

hehehu really are lucky gboy... errr are you?:unsure:


Northridge Earthquake - [CAKE]anonymity - 08-26-2003

i actually do have an earthquake story, when my aunt was dieing of cancer my uncle (her husband) asked her for a sign from god that she was ok and happy ect, on the day of her funeral, toronto was hit by a small tremor, which is quite rare for toronto. Not sure about how often we get them, but it was the only one i can remeber.


Northridge Earthquake - PIX - 08-26-2003

We here in the southeast US are expecting one big whollop of an earthquake any year now.
The New Madrid faultline which runs from south Missouri right through my town of Memphis, TN is
very unstable and expected to slip any time now. They said the last time it released it was so bad
the Mississippi river flowed backwards and formed Reelfoot lake in Northern Tennessee. They are
also talking about total devistation of the entire area with what they call 'liquification' of the soil, which
sort of turns the entire ground into a quicksand material. People on the Left Coast experience earthquakes
on a daily basis and have pretty much grown to accept them from what I hear. I respect that fear and
am glad I don't have to experience it like they do, but the big one is coming for this side of the country
and I don't think anyone realizes how bad it will be.


Northridge Earthquake - g-boy - 08-26-2003

I actually have heard about that... earthquakes out here are damaging because they're large and frequent, but we are also prepared and have buildings and freeways designed to be as safe as possible. But a larger earthquake (5.0+) anywhere else in the country would be far more devastating than like a 7.0 here. They just aren't prepared, and things would get more damage. I forget where I heard about your earthquake threat out there, probably one of those discovery channel type things.


Northridge Earthquake - Wha? - 08-26-2003

The subducting oceanic plate by Washington state is actually causing the entire seaboard to rise out of the water as it bends. Based on sedimentary layers of dry land/sea floor around the coast, and records of a massive tsunami periodically hitting Japan, the continental plate is overdue for a sudden release.

That should be interesting.


Northridge Earthquake - g-boy - 08-27-2003

This is not cool... there was just another earthquake, this time a 3.8... it was in the same exact spot as the one I mentioned above that happened on Sunday... two quakes, both over 3, in four days... man... never a good sign. What's worse is about two mins before that 3.8 one, there was one under 2... then two minutes after the 3.8, there was one about 2.7. Gah!