Where were you 34 years ago?

Culled | Feb.8 05 | Self

[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.

[Danae]

I was 6 months old, grawing on the furniture in Kailua Oahu Hawaii. Man what a great place to grow up in! We left when I was 8 for Eugene Oregon (the drug culture was too much for my parents). Now THAT was a nasty change in climate in several different ways!!

[Willie Green]

I didn't know you could be a senior and still be in Nittany Halls.

Just the opposite from what I remember.
I don't recall any freshman or sophomores, most everybody was older juniors and seniors. And at least 4~5 guys in our building were vets. I think it had to do with Nittany being all single rooms, underclassman don't have the seniority to get a single and usually have to share a room with a roommate.

I had to pass through to get to the skating rink.

The football practice field was there as well.
That fall, my MWF schedule was such that as I was headed back to my room before dinner, I always passed JoePa heading home from practice going in the opposite direction. So three times a week, we had a routine of nodding and saying "hi" to each other, just like clockwork. Never really stopped to talk, of course. But it became absurdly evident that we were gonna pass each other, almost at the exact same spot.

The college shut-down enabled me to graduate on time.

That was the spring before I started.
Summer term was peaceful, but they were expecting more trouble when everybody came back in the fall. In the fall, there WAS some commotion along those lines, but not bad enough to shut the place down. I avoided that crap like the plague. I was a freshman engineering student and had classes to go to. I didn't have time for that nonsense.

[Redcloak]

We were living near Pasadena. My mom had to drag me out of bed. I'd have slept through the whole thing otherwise!

[ChefKeith]

10 and in Houston for me.

You should come over to Texas, we got some fault lines but most of them are demonrats.

PING

[Mather]

I was 3 months and 3 days old. I was more concerned about baby formula and getting cleaned up than anything else. It was a stressful time. I cried more than you can even imagine.

[Coldwater Creek]

I also lived in Rowland Heights at the corner of (at the time) 5th avenue and Otterbein. Small world.!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Coldwater Creek]

We lived in Rowland Heights as well. For years on the corner of Otterbein and Colima Rd. Then on Abert just off of Otterbien. When we first moved there on a Pig farm, it was all country. The last time that we were though there, I couldn't' even read the street signs for all of the Oriental presence.

[nicmarlo]

Very small world! I remember when they were building the Pomona Freeway through Rowland Heights.

[IamConservative]

I was Daddy's little squirt.

[Coldwater Creek]

The missile silos were up on the hill.

[Coldwater Creek]

My children went to Sheldon when it was first new. I can't remember the name of the first school that they went to on the other side of the High School.

They went to RH's High School in 75 and 76. You probably knew them.

[geege]

A smart a** 10 year old in Catholic school driving all
the nuns crazy!!!

[Rider on the Rain]

I was on the Southeast Asia Mainland.

[nicmarlo]

I may well have....I was there at that time!

[nicmarlo]

what missile silos? there were missile silos?

[roaddog727]

Back home watching the Viet Nam War on tv and holding high expectations for our manned moon program

[KevinDavis]

I was 4 months old when the earthquake happend... Don't remember it at all..

[Blue Collar Christian]

In Trona, CA, a small village west of Death Valley. Still in high school, it was 6:30 for the alarm clock in our house, but we didn't need it that day! No damage, but a long and strong enough shaking to wake up everybody. Being the oldenst of 4 boys and 4 girls, it was bunk beds for us all, and we each thought our bunk mate was shaking the bed.

[Coldwater Creek]

Yes, at the top of Otterbein there were Nike intercepts. You could drive up to the gate and turn around and see the San Gabriel Valley lights for miles and miles.

[nicmarlo]

I don't think I ever drove up Otterbein, not past the high school, anyways. I never knew about those silos. You remember the hills south of Alvarado Jr. High? I remember one year there was a huge fire coming up the back end of it, from La Habra.....the flames were so high, you could see them from afar....and they cast an eery orange/red glow in the evenings....of course, soot was all over the place. I don't remember when that was; I'm thinking late 60's. And I used to love driving "over the hill" from Rowland Hts. into La Habra...I don't remember the name of that winding, then-forested road. There were deer there, too, I think. I imagine it's not like that anymore...probably trees all ripped out for homes. : (