Posted on 02/08/2005 8:21:37 PM PST by al baby
TIME February 9, 1971 / 6:01 am PST LOCATION 34° 24.67' N, 118° 24.04' W MAGNITUDE MW6.6 DEPTH: 8.4 km TYPE OF FAULTING thrust - ANIMATION FAULT INVOLVED San Fernando fault zone; minor offset reported on the eastern Santa Susana fault zone
Also known as the Sylmar Earthquake, this earthquake occurred on the San Fernando fault zone, a zone of thrust faulting which broke the surface in the Sylmar-San Fernando Area. The total surface rupture was roughly 19 km (12 miles) long. The maximum slip was up to 2 meters (6 feet).
The earthquake caused over $500 million in property damage and 65 deaths. Most of the deaths occurred when the Veteran's Administration Hospital collapsed. Several other hospitals, including the Olive View Community Hospital in Sylmar (pictured below) suffered severe damage. Newly constructured freeway overpasses also collapsed, in damage scenes similar to those which occurred 23 years later in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Loss of life could have been much greater had the earthquake struck at a busier time of day.
34 years and a few months ago, I sat through a hurricane that blew the anemometers away.
2nd floor bedroom of my parents house, in north Glendale. Really bounced us kids out of bed.
so it stuned your beebers
I was preparing valentine day cards for my 4th grade class in Kennesaw GA. LOL!
Heh, heh. Yep, the beebers blew down the street with the palms and cars.
Yeah the Shack! I remember that Dockers Beach that is when you could hang out on the beach with a fire Pit and do things your proably would never do today!
Bounced me out of bed too! But we didn't have to go to school because our school building was damaged
I was very young, and onstage at Kingston Mines Theater in Chicago, for the THIRD night of the ORIGINAL, FIRST EVER production of the musical GREASE. Don't remember hearing about this earthquake. We were more concerned with hoping the band was going to play in tune, and that we'd all remember our lines.
I was working in L.A. for Northridge but live about 60 miles away in the small town of Santa Paula.
In 28 years of living in CA I have only encountered inconvenience from the earth moving! (but I did have to wear a hardhat for a week digging the company out from the damage from Northridge)
I do however remember losing 2 roof's and a curtain wall to twisters in St. Louis.
I was four years old, living in Los Angeles with my parents. Was sound asleep when the quake hit, but I had actually gotten up in the middle of the night and slept-walked to the guest bedroom where there was a clean, warm pile of unfolded laundry on the bed. I crawled under that pile and went to sleep.
Good thing I did -- a very heavy painting in an ornate frame was above my bed and it smashed down on my bed in the quake.
Our house was over 80 years old -- pretty old by California standards -- one of those Spanish style houses. Lots of cracks started showing up in the living room wall, etc. And the chimney slid off the side of the house into the driveway. Roof on the guest house started leaking and apparently water sloshed out of the pool. We had statues in niches on the wall going up by the circular staircase and two of the four statues crashed onto the staircase and cracked into several pieces.
I remember Dad having to go to San Diego that day for a business meeting -- Mom was none too happy about his leaving her with that mess. Mostly I remember that warm laundry...
I was 3 years old.
I was 10. We just moved to AZ 2 or 3 days before it hit.
Sitting in Turkey wondering why all the Army men had their guns at the ready. (Just a kid.)
I was in San Luis Obispo. Missed the whole thing
We were brand new newlyweds, we were planning a late honeymoon in Acapulco for the following June, I wasn't into the news at all...Nixon was president, I was learning to cook and clean, Hub was teaching school...I don't even remember the earthquake, never felt a thing in St. Louis...
I was just about to leave for work when it hit and when I got to the office 20 minutes later the phone was ringing and it was one of the owners of a 13 story building that we repaired after the major quake 19 years earlier. He wanted to make sure that he was 1st in line since he had to wait for 2 months to get his building repaired before.
The funny part of that morning was that when it hit it was just starting to get light and it was slightly foggy in Glendale and when I looked out the window at first i thought we were being attacked. There were booms and flashes toward downtown L.A. and I soon realized that it was transformers exploding on the poles.
Me too. Them younguns think they're funny, don't they?
What I want to know is, WHERE THE HELL WAS ROVE!?!?!?! He must have had something to do with it....
I grew up in Rowland Heights (from about '71-87) but wasn't there during the quake. We lived in Downey (I think) in an apartment and my mom remembers the building swaying. I was, literally, a babe in arms.
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