[bd476]

Remembering the 1994 Northridge, California quake and those who lost their lives, those who lost loved ones and those who survived.

Forty minutes from now, it will have been exactly ten years ago a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Northridge, California.

[bd476]

Ping.

[commonguymd]

Can't believe it has already been ten years.....

[bd476]

THE FACTS
Time: January 17, 1994 4:31 PST
Location: 34° 12.80'N 118° 32.22'W
20 miles WNW of Los Angeles
1 mile SSW of Northridge
Depth: 18.4 km
Magnitude: Mw6.7
Fault: Northridge Thrust (also known as Pico Thrust)
Rupture Area: 300 km2
Economic Loss: $20-$40 billion
Deaths: 57 people
Displaced from homes: 20,000+ people

[DaveMSmith]

I was living in West LA near Santa Monica then.... I remember that day very well.

[shield]

Is another one coming soon? There are several folks whose been saying CA in LA area will be hit within next 2 wks. This earthquake will cause a cascade effect...many more to soon follow throughout the American West.

[bd476]

Ping.

[watsonfellow]

I remember the day clearly. But my friend, it's been eleven years. We are now in the year of our Lord 2005.

[nightdriver]

Eleven years ago (as of right now, as a matter of fact) I was driving north through the city of Everett, Washington on Interstate 5 when all the lights went out. Complete darkness except for the automobile lights on the roads.

Seems the earthquake in So. California tripped off most of the electrical utilities' generators, and since the Northwest supplies so much electricity to California, our generators overloaded too, and tripped off.

Wierd feeling seeing complete darkness in a large city at 4 AM.

[Route101]

Yeah...I remember it....On Duarte Road in San Gabriel at the time. The apartment building was dancing to rock and roll....

[Route101]

The Sylmar Quake was no fun either. We lived in Granada Hills, near Van Norman Dam. They thought it would break so everyone was told to leave their homes that night. Our family stayed in our house because we were to the west off Rinaldi Blvd. high enough so water would'nt get to it. But it was very strange...No power and helicopters flying over all night long....a lot of damage to the house.

[truthkeeper]

I remember it well. We got a hard, hard shake all the way in Whittier/La Mirada. I recall a couple of pretty good aftershocks as well. The 1971 Sylmar quake still remains the Queen Mother of shakers for me though...whew...

[bd476]

The Northridge Meadows Apartments is shown in this Feb. 16, 1994, file photo after a 6.7-magnitude earthquake centered in the Northridge section of Los Angeles struck Jan. 17, 1994. Of the dozens of people killed by the quake throughout Los Angeles, the most deaths in any one place, 16, came at the complex near the quake's epicenter. What remained of the apartments were razed and replaced with a new residential complex. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)



Rescue workers walk past the Northridge Meadows Apartments that collapsed during the earthquake in Los Angeles in this Jan. 17, 1994, file photo. Ten years later, it's hard to imagine that so many parts of Southern California lay in ruins on Jan. 17, 1994, thousands of its buildings smashed, millions of its people shaken both emotionally and physically, 72 of them killed. The remains of apartment building at the epicenter of the quake was torn-down and replaced with a new residential complex. (AP Photo/Eric Draper, File)

[bd476]

[arasina]

I'll never forget it. My sister called me from where she used to live in Sherman Oaks and said "We're having an earthquake and it's a really scary one this time!" and then the line went dead.

I was able to tell everyone in the newsroom minutes before the alert came across the wires, but man, was I nervous and upset until I heard from her again. They had damage but nothing major or irreplaceable and no one was injured. She said their cat had been acting strangely for about two days so he must've known it was coming.

She described that first day as something like a scene from 'an end-of-the-world movie', with people coming outside in the eery light, all confused and...well, shaken.

[bd476]

[bd476]

[bd476]

[bd476]

[ErnBatavia]

Shake, rattle and roll bump! Ah, for the days back then when our Earthquake Insurance was just a couple of hundred bucks a year (if that), with a 6250 dollar deductible....

State Farm lost money on us...

[Christian4Bush]

Remembrance BUMP

I was living in South Los Angeles at the time. I had the day off of work (at the time I worked in Santa Monica), so I had no reason to get up early. That is, I didn't...until the world started rockin' and rollin'.

I've been through some quakes, but this was the worst of my memory (I was 24 at the time). I remember turning on the news, and some of the anchors were so anxious to get on the air, they hadn't gone through makeup yet. (I think I had a waterbed, too.)

I remember thinking how much worse the effects of the quake would have been, had it not been the King holiday. I heard about the CHP officer who drove right off of the Antelope (14) Freeway interchange to the 5--he didn't realize that there was no road there. I went back to work the next day, and there were papers all over the place. It looked as if a tornado had hit, instead of an earthquake.

It was a different day, a different time...definitely a day of somber reflection, mixed in with hopeful redetermination for life.