Northridge Earthquake - 25 years ago today

[Bigbore500r]

The Northridge Earthquake was 25 years ago today.

We lived in Van Nuys, about 4 miles from the epicenter of the quake. I was 13, my brother was 9, and my sister 5.

It was insane. I woke up to my entire shelving unit and ceiling mounted speaker just laying on top of me, completely covered by shit. Just laid there under the pile under the 1st round of shaking stopped. Once we got out of the room and into the hallway, discovered that my sister's door was jambed shut from a dresser flying across the room and tipping over. Parents got her out.

All 5 of us were in the livingroom hallway when the next round of shaking hit. Watched the kitchen table jump up off the floor and crash back down over and over, it was at least 2' in the air. The shaking sounded like a freight train. Once that subsided, we stumbled thru all the spilled and broken stuff on the floor and made it out the front door. No power, everything pitch black. No cell phones for the most part back then either. All the neighbors were running around screaming, checking on each other. Some had flashlights.

Neighbor across the street had a generator he fired up and set up a little black and white TV on his front yard, everyone gathered around and watched the news as the aftershocks continued to roll thru, some only minutes apart. Original reports were that the magnitude was over 7.0 that morning. It was dark as hell, but you could see all the stars - which was the first time I ever saw a sky full of stars, living in the middle of Van Nuys. You could see the glow of fires in the distance.

My dad hopped in our RV and tried to take it to get gas, so we had fuel to run the generator. Most gas stations were without power and you couldn't get gas. He found a station that had power, people were practically fighting over the pumps.

As the sun came up, we started looking at the destruction around us. Every block wall in the backyard that ran "east - west" had fallen, you could see 30 housed down across the entire street from your backyard. Dogs and animals were everywhere going nuts. Everyones chimney's had blown apart and seperated from their houses. Some peoples patio covers and front porches had collapsed. My dads cars in the driveway had moved 3-4 feet, his Chevelle had rotated almost 45 degrees and the ass end of the car was sitting square on the neighbors lawn by a tree.

Nobody had earthquake supplies for shit.....
Most stores were closed, everyone was mobbing open buisinesses trying to get all the water and food they could. The local Helm's bakery delivery guy was driving around handing out free donuts from whatever stock he had.

I remember trying to roller blade around the neighborhood to look at the damage later that day, and the aftershocks would hit out of nowhere, strong enough to knock me on my ass. We lived in the motorhome for about a week, terrified to sleep in the house. My grandmother lived in valencia, which was almost completely cut off from access due to the freeway collapse. Traffic was horrible.

We learned a few days later that several of my classmates from St Bridget's school had died in the Northridge meadows apartment collapse. I don't remember going back to school for a few weeks. Teams of inspectors were canvassing the neighborhoods and checking houses, many were yellow tagged and red tagged. Crazy experience I will never forget, as a 13 year old. Remember it like it was yesterday.

 

[500bbc]

We were about 2 miles from ground zero, heard it coming before it hit, it did sound just like a freight train coming through the house. Good Times!

 

[johnnyC]

lived in granada hills at the time but was at my mothers house at the time in tehachapi, it woke me up with the bed rolling, took 4 hours to get home by going down the 15 to the 10, got home and the house was a mess, it broke a lot of stuff but the one thing i missed the most was an old melmac bowl that my dad and then myself used for cold cereal! my house was about 1/2 to 3/4 mile from where the gas line blew on balboa blvd and my next door neighbor said you could feel the heat from it

 

[Runs2rch]

The sounds and smells are still fresh. I was 12. We lived in Chatsworth. Our German Shepard Cash use to sleep in my room. A few minutes before he was going crazy. My Dad worked construction so was already up. I remember him calling Cash and putting him outside. Then boom it hit.

TV and everything else everywhere. Made it downstairs to the laundry room right as first round stopped.

Kitchen wreaked of red wine, white wine, Kalua, vodka you name it. All of it was on the floor.

BigBore on a side note my father in laws company did the demo of Northridge Meadows. Something he said he hopes he never has to do again. The way it was built those people never had a chance.

 

[monkeyswrench]

I remember the quake, but we were 25 miles away. My Dad had been in the hospital almost the entire summer before...the quake I'd almost forgotten from the whole timeline. I was 14. The quake was horrible for most, but in a messed up way, it saved my family. When my Dad was cleared to work, there was lots of it. It's really messed up, now that I think about it. Many people lost their homes to the quake, it saved ours.

Side note, this is why my toyhauler always stayed stocked and full tanks. It had suspension, and in a worst case, we could move quick.

 

[Bigbore500r]

The sounds and smells are still fresh. I was 12. We lived in Chatsworth. Our German Shepard Cash use to sleep in my room. A few minutes before he was going crazy. My Dad worked construction so was already up. I remember him calling Cash and putting him outside. Then boom it hit.

TV and everything else everywhere. Made it downstairs to the laundry room right as first round stopped.

Kitchen wreaked of red wine, white wine, Kalua, vodka you name it. All of it was on the floor.

BigBore on a side note my father in laws company did the demo of Northridge Meadows. Something he said he hopes he never has to do again. The way it was built those people never had a chance.

Wow, that's crazy about Northridge Meadows. I actually have another friend whom i met later in life, he lived on one of the upper floors. He said he exited thru his patio sliding door, and his 2nd story balcony was at ground level. He just walked out.....

 

[RitcheyRch]

I remember it well. We lived in Sunland and I was just getting ready to walk out the door for my commute to work. The house shook pretty good and we had no damage. I remember one of the neighbors running out of her house and she was naked. Sure wish I had a camera at the time because she was pretty hot.

The police officer that died on the portion of the 14 freeway interchange that collapsed was my friends uncle.

 

[RCDave]

Yup. At the time we lived about 5 miles from the epicenter. It was quite a violent quake. Moved my waterbed almost a foot off its pedestal. Never forget touring the area seeing the Northridge Meadows apartments, fire and water coming out of the streets, seeing buildings collapsed, etc.

 

[johnnyC]

went buy the northridge meadows apts it was erie to think that people were still in there, the granada hills hospital slowly collapsed one floor at a time over time after that or was it the 71 earthquake

 

[shintoooo]

I lived in Northridge. Right by Brent's Deli. I will never forget that day.

 

[JD D05]

Crazy to read all the comments in here.

 

[HotRod82]

I did the damage assessment for the HVAC mechanical rooms for the college in Northridge. The 150 ton chillers were sitting on vibration isolators which were made of 3" thick steel plates, they were torn in pieces. They looked like a telephone book that had been torn in half. Did their job though, kept the chillers on their foundations and very little of the piping was compromised. Insane amount of energy to cause that....

 

[500bbc]

Strange sights:
Street on fire, ruptured gas main with a burned out car in the middle of it. Left to burn for a least a week.
Neighbor lived by herself, I got her out her house and she slept on our couch for two weeks, terrified. She asked me to help her find an antique watch couldn't find it anywhere. She finally found it inside the toilet tank which means the lid was in the air as well as the watch and the lid closed on it without breaking.
Kicked her antique Ming Vase across the living room stumbling around in the dark.
The FD drove past Northridge Meadows multiple time before realizing it was one story shorter.
Took out the Colman stove and made coffee and breakfast for all the neighbors on the truck tailgate.

 

[500bbc]

I did the damage assessment for the HVAC mechanical rooms for the college in Northridge. The 150 ton chillers were sitting on vibration isolators which were made of 3" thick steel plates, they were torn in pieces. They looked like a telephone book that had been torn in half. Did their job though, kept the chillers on their foundations and very little of the piping was compromised. Insane amount of energy to cause that....

3' vertical acceleration recorded at multiple sites.

 

[Runs2rch]

We did the same. All the camping gear came in very handy.

 

[FROGMAN524]

I remember it like yesterday. Lived in Silverlake at the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RCDave]

I also remember 100's of people living in tents in local parks. Many too scared to stay in their apartments and houses

 

[mash on it]

I had a job scheduled in Chatsworth that Monday. The cancelled Sunday evening at 7 pm. I was usually at the job at 5 am, would have been on the bridge that collapsed at 4:30 ish. Just dumb luck, I guess.

Seen the carnage first hand a week or two later.

Dan'l

 

[coolchange]

I lived in an apartment at Balboa and Chatsworth. When it was done I went back in and could see all the places the bottom plate had shifted off of the footing. The place almost came down. I was amazed at the amount of people that barely had enough gas to get to the gas station, they were screwed. People had no concept of how to open an electric security gate.
People were trying to calm down. I was getting ramped up. The sky was was Orange all around us. Told my wife of my concern. Probably shouldn't have. Went to our building gas meters and the buildings next to ours, some meters were flowing wide open into into the buildings. Nobody had tools or the thought of shutting things off. Went to the Pettit Park Recreation building and there was at least a 2in gas line that sounded like a jet.
Am I prepared for the next one? Probably better then my neighbors. But not as good as I want to be. Been looking at those 300-gallon water cubes lately. I need to pull the trigger on one.
Can't imagine how I'd feel when the next one hits, with my family looking at me, and not being prepared.

 

[4Waters]

I lived in Simi and it hit pretty damn hard, my mom lived in Canoga Park off DeSoto between Rosco and Saticoy and it emptied the entire house on to the floor, knocked all of the block walls down (north/south and east/west) it also snapped a 4+ foot diameter walnut tree off at ground level in her front yard and I mean snapped off, the root system was still in the ground. I had a friend's dad with access to a calibrated but not under Cal Tech or USGS control Richter Scale approximately 8 miles from the epicenter and it registered over an 8 at that location.

For those of you that don't know the epicenter location.

 

[OldSchoolBoats]

I was in 5th grade when it happened. We lived in Santa Clarita at the time. The shaking was literally trying to throw me out of my bed. Back then I had a trundle bed and remember hanging on to it for dear life. For anyone that has never been in one, just imagine the sound of thunder breaking over your head and continuing for what feels like forever. When it stopped, the sound of my mom screaming is etched in my head. The mirror above their dresser came down and hit my dad on the head as he got up to run out of their room. He finally came to and we ran down stairs. Dad tried to open the front door, but our house had shifted off the foundation and the dead bolt was stuck. We ran to the kitchen and dad passed out again on the floor of the kitchen and laid flat like a board. More shaking and more shaking. Our little lab puppy was sitting at the back slider door waiting for us. Mom ran and yelled to the neighbors for help. Dad came to again as they were beating down the door with a sledge hammer. We pulled the Suburban out of the garage and parked in the middle of the street, sitting in it with aftershocks happening. There was an eerie glow all around.

One other thing that I will always remember is the drawers of my dads roll away that laid on the bed where our lab puppy slept. He must have sensed it coming and ran out of the garage.

It was so strong at our house that it threw our Howard Miller Grandfather Clock across the living room and onto its face. Seeing that clock destroyed really upset me.

 

[PaPaG]

WOW crazy memories. I lived at the Warner Center off of Canoga....half our building got red tagged and had to move out and gather my stuff within a 4 hour window.....a huge mess....crazy few months that is for sure.

 

[Rajobigguy]

The Northridge Earthquake was 25 years ago today.

We lived in Van Nuys, about 4 miles from the epicenter of the quake. I was 13, my brother was 9, and my sister 5.

It was insane. I woke up to my entire shelving unit and ceiling mounted speaker just laying on top of me, completely covered by shit. Just laid there under the pile under the 1st round of shaking stopped. Once we got out of the room and into the hallway, discovered that my sister's door was jambed shut from a dresser flying across the room and tipping over. Parents got her out.

All 5 of us were in the livingroom hallway when the next round of shaking hit. Watched the kitchen table jump up off the floor and crash back down over and over, it was at least 2' in the air. The shaking sounded like a freight train. Once that subsided, we stumbled thru all the spilled and broken stuff on the floor and made it out the front door. No power, everything pitch black. No cell phones for the most part back then either. All the neighbors were running around screaming, checking on each other. Some had flashlights.

Neighbor across the street had a generator he fired up and set up a little black and white TV on his front yard, everyone gathered around and watched the news as the aftershocks continued to roll thru, some only minutes apart. Original reports were that the magnitude was over 7.0 that morning. It was dark as hell, but you could see all the stars - which was the first time I ever saw a sky full of stars, living in the middle of Van Nuys. You could see the glow of fires in the distance.

My dad hopped in our RV and tried to take it to get gas, so we had fuel to run the generator. Most gas stations were without power and you couldn't get gas. He found a station that had power, people were practically fighting over the pumps.

As the sun came up, we started looking at the destruction around us. Every block wall in the backyard that ran "east - west" had fallen, you could see 30 housed down across the entire street from your backyard. Dogs and animals were everywhere going nuts. Everyones chimney's had blown apart and seperated from their houses. Some peoples patio covers and front porches had collapsed. My dads cars in the driveway had moved 3-4 feet, his Chevelle had rotated almost 45 degrees and the ass end of the car was sitting square on the neighbors lawn by a tree.

Nobody had earthquake supplies for shit.....
Most stores were closed, everyone was mobbing open buisinesses trying to get all the water and food they could. The local Helm's bakery delivery guy was driving around handing out free donuts from whatever stock he had.

I remember trying to roller blade around the neighborhood to look at the damage later that day, and the aftershocks would hit out of nowhere, strong enough to knock me on my ass. We lived in the motorhome for about a week, terrified to sleep in the house. My grandmother lived in valencia, which was almost completely cut off from access due to the freeway collapse. Traffic was horrible.

We learned a few days later that several of my classmates from St Bridget's school had died in the Northridge meadows apartment collapse. I don't remember going back to school for a few weeks. Teams of inspectors were canvassing the neighborhoods and checking houses, many were yellow tagged and red tagged. Crazy experience I will never forget, as a 13 year old. Remember it like it was yesterday.[/QUOTE

I have to ask about the Helm's guy. Helm's went out of business 50 years ago. Was this some local guy that was copying the Helm's business?

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Pretty incredible. I lived 50 miles inland or so in Upland. It woke us up, but no real damage in our home or area.

 

[Mototrig]

Reading these comments absolutely boggles my mind. I was 14 years old, 50 miles away from the epicenter. Even though it's the hardest hitting quake I've felt it's is nothing in comparison to what you guys are saying have felt. Shit, I'm feeling bad for you guys that had to see such chaos at a young age.
25 yeras later as an adult having been through a short career in ssearch and rescue I finally have perspective of the carnage in Northridge.

 

[SCV2RVR]

The thing that probably saved 1,000's of lives was that it was at 4:30am and it was the MLK holiday.

We lived in La Crescenta which is basically built on granite so there wasn't much damage. But my dad was the general manager of Casa de Cadillac on Ventura Blvd. He said the valley was basically a war zone.

 

[musicFunsun]

Wow, I had to do some research to help me remember which really didn’t!! I hardly remember the Northridge quake but I have total recall of San Fernando in 1971, Whitter in 1987 and Landers in 1992 Go figure!

 

[Bobby V]

I was on a ski trip in Tahoe for the holiday. We were glued to the TV once we found out about the quake. The flight home was quiet because there was another ski club on the plane from the valley. Everyone was looking out the windows at the darkness when we flew over the Northridge area Monday night.

 

[OutCole'd]

I lived in Northridge. Right by Brent's Deli. I will never forget that day.

I love Brents, have not been there in years...

Oh ya, we lived in Valencia, destroyed us.

 

[500bbc]

I lived in an apartment at Balboa and Chatsworth. When it was done I went back in and could see all the places the bottom plate had shifted off of the footing. The place almost came down. I was amazed at the amount of people that barely had enough gas to get to the gas station, they were screwed. People had no concept of how to open an electric security gate.
People were trying to calm down. I was getting ramped up. The sky was was Orange all around us. Told my wife of my concern. Probably shouldn't have. Went to our building gas meters and the buildings next to ours, some meters were flowing wide open into into the buildings. Nobody had tools or the thought of shutting things off. Went to the Pettit Park Recreation building and there was at least a 2in gas line that sounded like a jet.
Am I prepared for the next one? Probably better then my neighbors. But not as good as I want to be. Been looking at those 300-gallon water cubes lately. I need to pull the trigger on one.
Can't imagine how I'd feel when the next one hits, with my family looking at me, and not being prepared.

You don't need to the water cube, we drove out of the valley when we ran low on our emergency stock, asked the checker at the market if they had been busy with people from the valley, they said no. Lines out the doors at all stores we passed in the valley.
I read where it was stated that the ground does not shake any harder than it did the day, the duration made it a 6.7.

 

[Mandelon]

I was out of LA by then and living in San Diego. I worked for Northeast Savings Bank. Since I was out in the field managing the foreclosure portfolio anyway, my boss handed me a giant printout of a couple hundred homes. It became my job to inspect every one of those houses for damage.

The bank CEO wanted to know what their exposure might be to losses. As crazy as it seemed, I was out there the next day navigating around closed bridges and underpasses. I saw the CHP motorcyle that the poor motor officer rode right off the collapsed bridge, homes on fire, homes off their foundations and so many broken chimneys I couldn't count them.

In the weeks that followed I loaded my pickup truck up with tons of free red bricks that were stacked curbside in nearly every neighborhood. I built a sweet patio, block wall, BBQ and fireplace with all those free bricks. LOL

The bank's losses weren't too bad overall. For months I remember many people would not stop under the overpasses. If a stop light was red, people would stay back, or pull over and wait until the light changed. No one wanted to loiter under a million tons of concrete...

We keep a big box of freeze dried food, jugs of water and a bunch of propane just in case. First aid kits, fire extinguishers and lots of ammo are also part of the stash. A couple portable generators, a few gallons of gas, extension cords, tools... I think we are pretty well prepared.

 

[Rajobigguy]

The day after the quake I was out at Sempra Energy gas storage setting a bunch of fin fan coolers back on their foundations. We also had to realign several pieces of equipment.

I still want to hear more about that Helms truck!

 

[rush1]

The day after the quake I was out at Sempra Energy gas storage setting a bunch of fin fan coolers back on their foundations. We also had to realign several pieces of equipment.

I still want to hear more about that Helms truck!

I think someone got confused between the 71 quake and the 94 quake ! I rode through bot of them and remember them well .

 

[stephenkatsea]

It was dark and I was driving across Hueneme Rd in a Ford Escort headed to the Naval Base in Hueneme. The roads were deserted, but it felt like an 18 wheeler was passing me. Blue/purple flashes of light could be seen from the exploding transformers on poles along the road. I could see the Ormond Beach power plant across the farm fields and similar flashes were happening there. Took about 15 minutes for the radio to come back on. From KFI a calm voice said, "OK we just experienced a very large earthquake. If you can hear this you're OK. Do not use any candles for light. Ruptured gas lines are likely. etc etc". I Approached the darkened Security Post at the Base. Guard on duty said I was the first person he'd seen. Showed him my various IDs and told him I'd like to check our facility for any damage. He then manually opened the large gate. Found no damage. Returned home to Camarillo to find my family huddled in the street with a bunch of neighbors. A few cracks in our new house. But, nothing significant. Aftershocks did get your attention though.

 

[rivermobster]

I lived in Baldwin Park at the time. Woke me up Good. I looked out the window at my pool, and the water was going back and fourth real strong. When it would slosh one way, it would expose about 5 feet down of pool wall, I was thinking, that's a lot of movement, but the quake didn't feel too hard.

Got back in bed to sleep.

My girlfriend (now my wife) is calling me on the phone in pure panic (she is up in SF watching the news). I'm like, calm down, it wasn't That bad!

She's like...

Turn on fucking news dick head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Fine. I turn on the news, and I see the world pretty much coming to an end. Fire coming right outa the street! Apartment buildings demolished. Her grama lived in Northridge in a mobile home park (she owns the property Spagos sat on, so why she lived in a mobile home park, I'll never know). I rushed out the door to go check on her, and my wife's aunt and uncle that lived in Granada Hills.

The mobile home park is in shambles. Every awning down. Every home off it's foundation. I get to Gloria's house, it is demolished as well. FUCK!

I got inside, and I'm calling her name...Gloria...are you here??

Hey Joe, what are you doing here??

She is sitting there drinking a Martini and smoking a cig.

I'm like....wtf? Are you ok????? I came to check on you!!!!!

She says, yeah I'm ok, but my house fell down! Calm as she could possibly be.

(This woman had already buried three husbands and lived through more than any of us could possibly know. Not much got under her skin)

Me: So you're ok? What are you gonna do??

Her: Probably get dressed in a few minutes, after I finish my drink, and go to Vegas for awhile. I'll come back when my house is fixed.

I just laughed, and that is exactly what she did. She split! Stayed in Vegas for about 4 months, got bored, and then went and stayed with her sister in Oregon for a few more months, till her house was all fixed back up.

I loved that woman. She passed away this summer at 98. She led one hell of a life.

Hard to believe that was 25 years ago now...what a day!!!

 

[Rajobigguy]

I think someone got confused between the 71 quake and the 94 quake ! I rode through bot of them and remember them well .

I def. remember the Sylmar quake in '71. My buddy Mike and I were on our way to the desert to do some dirt biking and had just gone under the bridge @ Newhall when the quake hit. If we had been a couple minutes later it could have ended badly.

 

[500bbc]

I lived in Baldwin Park at the time. Woke me up Good. I looked out the window at my pool, and the water was going back and fourth real strong. When it would slosh one way, it would expose about 5 feet down of pool wall, I was thinking, that's a lot of movement, but the quake didn't feel too hard.

Got back in bed to sleep.

My girlfriend (now my wife) is calling me on the phone in pure panic (she is up in SF watching the news). I'm like, calm down, it wasn't That bad!

She's like...

Turn on fucking news dick head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Fine. I turn on the news, and I see the world pretty much coming to an end. Fire coming right outa the street! Apartment buildings demolished. Her grama lived in Northridge in a mobile home park (she owns the property Spagos sat on, so why she lived in a mobile home park, I'll never know). I rushed out the door to go check on her, and my wife's aunt and uncle that lived in Granada Hills.

The mobile home park is in shambles. Every awning down. Every home off it's foundation. I get to Gloria's house, it is demolished as well. FUCK!

I got inside, and I'm calling her name...Gloria...are you here??

Hey Joe, what are you doing here??

She is sitting there drinking a Martini and smoking a cig.

I'm like....wtf? Are you ok????? I came to check on you!!!!!

She says, yeah I'm ok, but my house fell down! Calm as she could possibly be.

(This woman had already buried three husbands and lived through more than any of us could possibly know. Not much got under her skin)

Me: So you're ok? What are you gonna do??

Her: Probably get dressed in a few minutes, after I finish my drink, and go to Vegas for awhile. I'll come back when my house is fixed.

I just laughed, and that is exactly what she did. She split! Stayed in Vegas for about 4 months, got bored, and then went and stayed with her sister in Oregon for a few more months, till her house was all fixed back up.

I loved that woman. She passed away this summer at 98. She led one hell of a life.

Hard to believe that was 25 years ago now...what a day!!!

OUTSTANDING!

I ventured out to check on friends, one stop, at my good friends house his mom was standing in the kitchen with a roll of paper towels in one hand and some spray cleaner in the other, totally in shock. I said sit down Annette, grabbed a wheel barrow and a shovel and cleared her kitchen, told her to save the pile for insurance.
We still had water so I put all our trash cans in the truck and filled them water, took them to friends and transferred the water to their cans so they could flush their toilets.

Few days after D-Day was helping his friends salvage what they could out of their red tagged condo where the soft story pancaked, they were on the street, ground level easy access.
Young lady asked me to please help her get her purse out of her condo, she had bolted with nothing. walked to the back of the complex with her over the floors that were heaved 2 and 3 feet, a 5.2 aftershock hit right when she grabbed her purse. Way fucking scarier than the quake itself.

 

[ArizonaKevin]

This quake happened when my mom was very pregnant with me so I don't know many details, it's crazy to read these stories and really makes you aware of how unprepared most people are these days. How quickly we forget.

Back in those days, how did it work out for you guys dealing with insurance and stuff?

 

[Racey]

Yup. At the time we lived about 5 miles from the epicenter. It was quite a violent quake. Moved my waterbed almost a foot off its pedestal. Never forget touring the area seeing the Northridge Meadows apartments, fire and water coming out of the streets, seeing buildings collapsed, etc.

That really puts the timeline into perspective

 

[RCDave]

That really puts the timeline into perspective

LOL!

 

[c_land]

I was 2 years old in Valle Vista east of Hemet. I remember the blinds in my bedroom slamming the window over and over. It has to be one of my earliest memories. I am very scared of earthquakes now.

 

[FreeBird236]

First off, kudos to all of you that went though that. We woke up in the Inland Impire and I told the wife, we just had a pretty sizable quake or LA just had an even bigger one, got up and started watching the news which wasn't good. Having worked for a water utility in San Bernardino Co., we would train for the Big One, I can only hope that some how some way it doesn't happen, because the scenario proposed( 8+ from lower desert to LA), almost all responses will be futile.

 

[500bbc]

This quake happened when my mom was very pregnant with me so I don't know many details, it's crazy to read these stories and really makes you aware of how unprepared most people are these days. How quickly we forget.

Back in those days, how did it work out for you guys dealing with insurance and stuff?

Insurance adjusters sucked.
The disaster adjusters ae used to writing hurricane, tornado, flood and hail.
First three are typically write policy limits, hail is simple.
EQ is every crack, broken tile, glass in carpet, hazmat, foundation etc., lots of work to write the loss.

 

[92562]

My wife and I were visiting my parents in Garden Grove which is not close to Northridge, and I was woken to a 6' tall book case falling on the two of us. I reacted quickly and managed to catch it in time. We were sleeping on an air mattress and I woke up about 20 seconds before it hit, I tend to do that with earthquakes. My cousin lived in Simi and I later found that that his best friend's father (whom I had known for 10+ years at the time) was the police officer who was killed when his motorcycle went off the collapsed overpass in Newhall. They say due to the curvature of the over pass and it being pitch black since the street lights were out he never saw the collapse, there were no skid marks. RIP Officer Clarence Dean.

 

[Bigbore500r]

I have to ask about the Helm's guy. Helm's went out of business 50 years ago. Was this some local guy that was copying the Helm's business?

Probably, his name was Mack. In '94 Mack had to have been in his 70's. He wore a straw hat. He had a faded cream colored 60's C10 panel wagon, the rear clambshell doors would open and there was a roll-out case made of wood, full of baked goods. Pretty sure it said Helms bakery on it, perhaps he hung onto the vehicle and just ran his own deal. He passed shortly after the quake, but i remember growing up as a kid he was always selling baked goods on the streets in our neighborhood.

 

[Hermosa]

I lived in Granada Hills, was just getting up for work. I just remember seeing the TV bounce around my bedroom like a basketball, bouncing off the wall and then the floor. The TV was in a bunch of pieces, a handful of parts and electronics torn out of it, but the screen was good. Weeks later, I thought about plugging it in and I worked!!! The only thing that didn't work was the volume down button on the remote!!! It was a cheap 25" Fisher tube TV. I wrote a letter to Fisher telling them about it because I though it was cool, and they got back to me a month later. They wanted to use my TV and the letter in a TV commercial. I got a new 27" TV and $750.00, and they made a commercial that played for months! I have it taped on VHS,, I would watch it.... but I don't have a VHS player.... ha!!! Was a crazy morning for sure, what a mess. It was amazing to feel that kind of energy and power, and not knowing when it would end. crazy.

 

[PhyrMnGil]

Remember it well. I was on duty in Uptown Whitter 2nd floor dorm. Shook like crazy.
Responded with task force to the Valley.
Overpass collapses, parking structure collapses. Fires. Pretty crazy.
Ended up at the Nortridge Meadows collapse for search and rescue . Spent that day and part of the next there.
I remember 1 aftershock while we in the building, bodies diving into void spaces, guys diving out windows.
Scared the hell out of us. Must have looked funny all the guys diving out windows.
Only time I've seen worse destruction in the City was the riots. But that's another story.....

 

[JD D05]

I lived in Baldwin Park at the time. Woke me up Good. I looked out the window at my pool, and the water was going back and fourth real strong. When it would slosh one way, it would expose about 5 feet down of pool wall, I was thinking, that's a lot of movement, but the quake didn't feel too hard.

Got back in bed to sleep.

My girlfriend (now my wife) is calling me on the phone in pure panic (she is up in SF watching the news). I'm like, calm down, it wasn't That bad!

She's like...

Turn on fucking news dick head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Fine. I turn on the news, and I see the world pretty much coming to an end. Fire coming right outa the street! Apartment buildings demolished. Her grama lived in Northridge in a mobile home park (she owns the property Spagos sat on, so why she lived in a mobile home park, I'll never know). I rushed out the door to go check on her, and my wife's aunt and uncle that lived in Granada Hills.

The mobile home park is in shambles. Every awning down. Every home off it's foundation. I get to Gloria's house, it is demolished as well. FUCK!

I got inside, and I'm calling her name...Gloria...are you here??

Hey Joe, what are you doing here??

She is sitting there drinking a Martini and smoking a cig.

I'm like....wtf? Are you ok????? I came to check on you!!!!!

She says, yeah I'm ok, but my house fell down! Calm as she could possibly be.

(This woman had already buried three husbands and lived through more than any of us could possibly know. Not much got under her skin)

Me: So you're ok? What are you gonna do??

Her: Probably get dressed in a few minutes, after I finish my drink, and go to Vegas for awhile. I'll come back when my house is fixed.

I just laughed, and that is exactly what she did. She split! Stayed in Vegas for about 4 months, got bored, and then went and stayed with her sister in Oregon for a few more months, till her house was all fixed back up.

I loved that woman. She passed away this summer at 98. She led one hell of a life.

Hard to believe that was 25 years ago now...what a day!!!

Best post I have ever read on RDP

 

[Big B Hova]

Probably, his name was Mack. In '94 Mack had to have been in his 70's. He wore a straw hat. He had a faded cream colored 60's C10 panel wagon, the rear clambshell doors would open and there was a roll-out case made of wood, full of baked goods. Pretty sure it said Helms bakery on it, perhaps he hung onto the vehicle and just ran his own deal. He passed shortly after the quake, but i remember growing up as a kid he was always selling baked goods on the streets in our neighborhood.

Mac the donut guy. He would d give us free cookies

 

[Flying_Lavey]

I was 8 when it hit. We lived in Burbank. My brothers and I we're having a "campout" in our room. We had set-up our tent in front of our bunk beds. The quake woke up my dad immediately and he jumped out of bed and ran down the hall to our room forgetting that we had the tent up. Somehow he missed the tent and ran between it and the wall which was all of about 6 inches. By the time he found us and the quake had stopped. All 3 of us would slept through the quake too if he didn't shake the shit out of the tent to wake us up.

Afterwards the entire neighborhood was in our small living room cause my parents had a stove top coffee pot and we ran an extension cord from my grandma's motorhome's generator 2 houses down. So we had TV and coffee for everybody. Of course this wasnt long after my dad, myself, and my middle brother were in Big Bear for the Landers quake. Luckily Burbank is on a more solid ground than most of the Valley so besides the few places on more fluid ground, we had very little damage in the city.

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