If you want to know stats about the quake you can google search it. Its everywhere. Some information for my readers who don't know much about it are as follows. It occurred on January 17th, 1994 at 4:31a.m. It lasted about 10-20 seconds (but felt longer). It had a magnitude of 6.7, but it felt stronger (even felt in Las Vegas) 57 people passed away because of the quake and more than 5,000 people were injured. It was estimated that there was at least $20 billion in property damage making it one of the most costliest natural disasters in U.S. History. Crazy right? And I was there!
My story goes like this though...
I was just five years old when the earthquake happened. My house was damn near the epicenter, which was crazy! It is so weird because it is one of my most vivid memories as a child. I remember it like it was yesterday. I cannot believe it has been 20 years already!
Many lives were lost, and many buildings were damaged, and destroyed beyond repair. It was pretty devastating.
At the time my bedroom was on the opposite of the house as my parents, and thankfully for this earthquake that changed.. anyways.. I awoke to a lot of shaking and noise and things falling. At first I thought I was just dreaming, or that my Dad was just trying to wake me for school. Obviously I was seriously, seriously wrong. The force of the quake had caused my door to slam shut and it was stuck shut. No matter what my parents did it would not open... SO SCARY! Somehow they got it opened and my Mom rushed me to the doorway by their room to stay somewhat safe. Meanwhile my Dad had run out of the house and had gone around to all the houses in the neighborhood with another Dad from the neighborhood.. Sidebar: It was my friend Heathers Dad, Bruce. They went and turned everyones gas off so nothing would explode. Could you just imagine.. would have made matters worse.. Especially since the quake had caused fires such close by, as well as caused CSUN parking garage to completely implode.
Finally the shaking and rattling stopped and it was silent. Finally my mom and I could hear yelling coming from outside from My friend Heather and her mom Ellen calling our names making sure we were okay. Somehow we made it outside, and oddly enough Heathers Mom had gone back inside their house and gotten me shoes because I was barefoot. All of us close neighbors spent the rest of the night outside sitting in front of one of our neighbors houses on their brick fence just waiting for the light to come. Funny enough once it did our neighbor wen inside his house and got us all Nutri-grain Bars, and somehow I still find that funny to this day.
That next day was spent surveying the damages to our homes and trying to stay safe while we were hit with aftershock after shock. My family preceded to spend the next night in a tent on our neighbors front lawn, and then spent the next three months in a motor-home while our houses was renovated from the damages caused by the quake. So just imagine three people and three dogs. Yeah, talk about tight quarters.. After our house was fixed, you would have never known it had been damaged so severely.
After all these years the memories are still there though, and I even found out that there was an earthquake in the valley today, how fitting.
Those are my memories from the quake.. if you were there, what were your memories if you can remember?. I mean everyone has a different story.
Here are a few pictures that I found from the quake online..
Crazy right??? I know. I cannot believe I was there and lived through that. I am so glad everyone I knew made it out and was safe!
Peace and Love
Molly
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