Remember the '94 Earthquake (Glendale: hotel, home, unemployed)

[SandyCo]

I was living in Glendale at the time, and I launched myself into the doorway. My bed was against an outside wall in my apartment building, and I was picturing the wall peeling away, and my bed flying out! No, that didn't happen. We had some cosmetic cracks and that was it. Power was out in Glendale until about 11:30 a.m., and then I watched the news all day. I couldn't believe that the exact same freeways in the Newhall Pass that failed in the Sylmar quake in '71 had failed again!

My roommates and I were all unemployed at the time, and that day we finally took the Christmas tree out to the trash (yes, we still had our Christmas tree up on January 17th!!!).

Yeah, the aftershocks were numerous, and not much fun.

[SandyCo]

Originally Posted by abstrak_tokatl

Me and my brother were on our way to school and a telephone poll nearley fell on us. It ****en ruled.

You were on your way to school at 4:30 a.m.?!! Or are you talking about an aftershock?

[BeenAroundTheBlock]

I lived in Bakersfield at the time and remember waking up to a slow shake that began escalating and then my whole house was seemed like it was tossed from side to side! 100 miles away! I thought, man, that's a big earthquake somewhere!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I couldn't believe that the exact same freeways in the Newhall Pass that failed in the Sylmar quake in '71 had failed again!

I was nine years old living in Canoga Park in 1971. Very scary. Living near Moorpark College in 1994. There were some eerie similiarities to the Sylmar quake 2/9/71 5:59 AM and the Northridge quake 1/17/94, 4:31 AM.

Both days were warm and windy Santa Ana winds days - in the dead of winter. (I distinctly remember shooting hoops in 1971 in my front yard (school cancelled) with this warm wind blowing.)
Both hit when many people were in deep sleep, awakening to dark, loud, and disturbing confusion.
Both ruined overpasses in the Newhall pass

So, next time it is 85 degrees and breezy in January, check your flashlight batteries.

[Rats]

I was living in Palmdale with my family. Luckily we were far enough to escape any damage or injury. However, my mom and dad had a really tough time commuting to work after that because of the collapsed 14/5 interchange (that was a spectacle). Virtually everyone in Palmdale and Lancaster who needed to get to work had to take clogged detours, with the most common being the Angeles Crest Hwy., which was extremely unsafe at the time because it didn't have barriers like it does today.

[fastfilm]

My two neighbors across the street from me were killed, 2 of the 60 fatalities. This made everyone on the block minimize their own personal property damage (which was considerable here, less than 3 miles from the epicenter) because the rest of us didn't have loss of life. They were nice people. I was part of the non-rescue party.

The earthquake changed the demographics of my neighborhood forever with all the foreclosures due to inability to mount repairs, even with FEMA help. We lost also lost all professionals that could afford to move within the next 6 months. Now we have gang slum, since the government put various programs people in the empty houses: when these people moved on, they put their illegal relatives in the houses, who have trashed the block and turned a nice little low-to-moderate income area of nifty old houses (we are a Historic Preservation Zone) into an area that more resembles the third world slum that these dwellers came from initially. That's a lot of bad economic fallout besides mere destruction of property in the quake.

Here's the site to see last night's ( or any time's) seismic activity. You can see that last night's was over 4.0
Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada - Index Map

[James T]

Originally Posted by fairweathergolfer

Wow. Santa Monica huh? I wasn't familiar with that either. I definately will have to read up on that. Was there much damage? Were you north or south of there when it happened? What you two are saying about the Northridge/Santa Monica earthquakes is incredibly scary. I knew the main quake was very, very bad, but did not know there were aftershocks so frequently and for so long after.

I noticed the mercalli scale (for the Chatsworth Earthquake) is recording Santa Monica zip codes right next to me in Brentwood as being a level higher then my zip code and we are right next to one another. I wonder if what you said about the ground and its heighten response to shaking makes it respond to earthquakes further away more intensely as well.

Maybe this will help my property value in Brentwood!!

That should be our motto, "Move to Brentwood and have a smoother ride on Earthquake LA!"

I believe it was the History Channel a few months ago that mentioned the second quake in Santa Monica, though i suppose to a degree it's subjective -- I'm no seismologist. We lost chimneys in various places on the Westside, and some buildings on Wilshire in Santa Monica were condemned.

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by James T

I believe it was the History Channel a few months ago that mentioned the second quake in Santa Monica, though i suppose to a degree it's subjective -- I'm no seismologist. We lost chimneys in various places on the Westside, and some buildings on Wilshire in Santa Monica were condemned.

I would say it's subjective... or, inaccurate.
I've been studying Seismology (the study of earthquakes) for over 30 years and the '94 Northridge quake since that one happened and have not found any info at all about a separate quake in Santa Monica, nothing about ruptures on Santa Monica's fault lines, magnitudes, etc. There was, though, a 5.0 magnitude EQ in Santa Monica in 1930.

Again, the soil in Santa Monica (along with Sherman Oaks and Fillmore) was the reason for the damage out of proportion to its distance from the epicenter of the main shock in Northridge.

[desertdawgx]

I was living in a 4 story apartment building near Parthenia and Reseda in 94,i was on the bottom floor.It threw me 3 feet in the air and i could see the four by fours in the wall bending blowing drywall paste and the paint on the walls all over the apartment.My front door would not open as the everything was crooked,my refrigerater fell over,the big mirror in bathroom shattered,my Toyota 4x4 was sidesways in the underground garage.Most windows in the building shattered,the juccuzi was only 1/4 full.I have pictures I will post later.I have daybreak pictures of the collapsed apartment buildings on Reseda and Plummer.The 118 collapse the Hospital on Devonshire and Balboa deystroyed.I was one more jolt away from being under rubble.When i saw people die and lose everything i refused the FEMA money as I was just happy to be alive and felt others needed it more than I.

[greggd]

I was lucky not to have any damage except a grandfather clock that fell over.

In Santa Monica there were several apartment buildings that had quite a bit of damage. I recall one property on 16th street sat for about 10 years, red tagged, with heavy foundation cracks and shifting. They finally rennovated it a few years ago.

There were a few older apt. buildings between 4th and 7th streets that had very heavy damage.

I believe the worst damage out in the valley was to buildings that had tuck under parking and ones that were not shear walled/plywood paneled on the framing.