I think most long time Californians are used to earthquakes. I've been hearing about 'the big one' coming since I was a kid.
I was here for the Sylmar quake (6.6) and the Northridge quake (6.7) and I'm still here.
I was pretty young during the Sylmar quake and all I remember was my family driving over to a friends house to see if it was still standing since it was at the epicenter.
Sylmar-San Fernando Earthquake: 45 years ago Tuesday, 64 killed
The Northridge quake woke me up and was unbelievably loud. It sounded like a semi was crashing through my house, and at first that's what I thought was happening. I have had a car crash through the wall before and I was thinking, "oh, no, not again". I was lucky that I had minimal damage, mostly just stuff falling.
Of course the power went out so we (my daughter and I) went outside to talk to the neighbors and there was a strong smell of gas. I ran back inside to take a quick shower before they turned it off, since I figured it was going to be the last hot shower for awhile.
With the electricity off we had to listen to the radio in our cars to get information. All the phone lines were jammed with people calling friends and family to check on them, it was awhile before I could get through to any of them. All of us except for my brother had little damage. His apartment had severe damage and was
red tagged, and he had to leave immediately with whatever he could take in only a few minutes. He asked to borrow a neighbor's dolly to move something heavy and when he returned it, they charged him $100 for the use. There were a lot of lowlifes taking advantage of the situation. In my area all the retail stores were closed down for days and the only place open for miles was a KFC. The line was literally blocks long and they took advantage by charging more than double their normal prices. A lot of places got in trouble for gouging, I hope they were one of them.
There were large aftershocks for days, and driving anywhere around town you could see the destruction, houses crumbling, people sleeping on their lawns, roads damaged, it was surreal. Once the power was on, we were glued to the TV and watching the news. We watched a lot of rescues of trapped people. That inspired me to get
CERT training so I could help if there was another disaster. Both my daughter and I did the training and even though she was technically too young, they still let her attend and do all the exercises.
The Northridge Earthquake: 20 Years Ago Today
Lots of amazing pictures on the Northridge earthquake link above.
