It was the Northridge quake that first brought the problem of dust to my mind. It raised dust clouds off the mountains in the area, that wafted over populated areas and created breathing and possible infection problems. I’d never heard of that before.
First real sense of the seriousness of Northridge for me came when I rushed to my workplace in Burbank and the security people flagged me down and told me not to park near anything that could fall on me. I was pretty much in auto-mode until then.