Tell your Northridge quake stories...

[Joe33]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

Wow, you had a cell phone in 1994?

I had a cellphone too. The one in rage was the Motorola Microtac. I had one in 1989. I had a transportable one in 1985. Car phone before that.

[Escort Rider]

I lived in an apartment in Glendale at the time. The shaking was truly terrifying, but surprisingly I had no damage in my apartment. We lost power for 7 or 8 hours and never did lose water pressure, so we were quite lucky compared to a lot of folks. I am now 72 which means I have clear memories of the Sylmar quake as well (1971). Those are things one never forgets no matter how long ago they were.

[SandyCo]

I remember the Sylmar quake, too. I was living in La Crescenta then, and I was seven years old. I was annoyed that nothing really happened in my bedroom. This was good, because my bed was right underneath a giant mirror! We had a Guatemalan maid who was terrified; she went back to Guatemala soon afterwards (where they also have earthquakes, of course!) There was no school that day, which felt weird.

[CA4Now]

We happened to be living further away from this one that we were from the Sylmar one in 1971, so it did not impact us as much. Although Northridge was a point higher on the Richter than Sylmar was, it did not feel as great due to the location of the epicenter. I do remember the horrific damage of both, though.

[Krispytopher]

I was 8, with a 6 and 1 year old little sisters.

Lived in a two story condo in Cypress. I had fallen asleep reading so my lamp was still turned on, when I woke up I saw the lamp rocking back and forth violently on my dresser, teetering on its edges. I stood up and ran to my door frame and yelled, "Mom, earthquake!" She, my one year old little sister, and mom's boyfriend come out of their room, my mom told me to go downstairs while she goes to get my other little sister. I go down to the front door to stand in the door frame. We all end up in front of the condo and looking back at the building, there was an odd green glow behind the building, I was told that transformers and other things were exploding.

When it ended it was oddly quiet, things were still, and I was amazed even then at what I had seen. We went back to bed after a few only to have to run out again thanks to the following after shocks.

[Big-Bucks]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I saw those! All of the buildings looked like / /. I was really stunned when they were put back together and not simply torn down.

Well then I would not want to live in one of those buildings now. Hopefully they installed steel beams and not wood to shore up those first floors.

[Cloudwalker]

Living in Santa Monica on Franklin, near Broadway. I remember hearing it before feeling it. Waiting that split second for the shaking to stop (like they virtually always do, over before you even realize it's an earthquake) but almost at the same time realizing that this was going to be unlike any other earthquake I'd experienced. Briefly thinking "Wow, so this is how it happens, I die in an earthquake, didn't see that one coming!". Finally snapping out of it and getting to the doorframe. Sitting on the lawn with neighbors from our small apartment building wrapped in blankets, drinking scotch and listening to transformers exploding.