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My kids slept through the Northridge quake also, but I was about 50 miles from the epicenter (near Ventura). I was awake, however, because our infant youngest daughter had awakened at 4:00 a.m. to be fed. So I was wide awake and sitting on the edge of the bed, as my wife put the baby back to sleep. Being the geologist that I was, I started counting the seconds between the first P-wave arrival and the first S-wave arrival to calculate how far I was from the epicenter. As the surface waves rolled in, I thought better of my dedication to science and took a position next to my wife, on floor, covered in blankets and pillows. I rode out the remainder of the earthquake with only my butt exposed to danger.

Perhaps paranoia . . .

but contemplating moving back to Taipei . . . eagerly . . . and the prediction that there will be an 8.X in Taipei . . .

Have been wondering what kind of 4 X 4 structure I could arrange around and over my bed for safety! LOL. Concrete multi-story apt building steel frame is the rule.

Didn't know you were local to S. California or that you are a geologist, Capitan. Did you see Kate Hutton just now on KTLA?

She was explaining that the earthquake occurred on a thrust fault zone. She also mentioned that in comparison, this quake lasted perhaps 3-4 minutes whereas the 1994 Northridge quake lasted 10-15 seconds.

The Northridge quake seemed more like 2 minutes to me. Of course I was hanging on to my bed for dear life so that I wouldn't be shaken off of it.

"Telling signs" I saw a day or two before the 1994 quake were two large runaway and deceased dogs on the Ventura Freeway where I had never seen runaway dead animals before.

My cat was trying to dig a hole to China in the litter box about one hour prior to another large quake. Quite startling. She'd empty the entire box of the clean litter, I'd dash out, sweep it up and place it back in the litter box, and then she'd start all over scratching and pushing it out again and again.

Then I heard a very deep moaning sound, and I thought she was getting ready to throw up a large fur ball or that perhaps she had found a mouse or something. Then kapow, crash bang and she hissed and screamed and I thought someone had broken in. Then came relief upon the realization that it was "just a quake."