The Northridge earthquake - 15 years later

[spunkymonkey]

I was home with my little brother who was 16 at the time (i was 22). I was living in Tarzana and our house felt like a train was going through it. The swamp cooler on the roof fell through the roof and all of our glass sliding doors came crashing down.

I was going to Cal state northiridge at the time, and the building that housed all my classes ended up being condemed. It prolonged my senior year.

[alphabassetgrrl]

That was the morning I learned that in an earthquake, a waterbed moves in all possible directions simultaneously. Nothing bad happened to us, just got a couple days off work. I do remember getting lost getting to Santa Monica; I navigated the closed streets reasonably well, but I was trying to get onto the 10 freeway which was 75 feet above me. I'd pulled over to read the map book and somebody walked up to my car window and gave me directions.

That was my first earthquake since moving to CA.

[TacAlert]

I to was close. I originally thought a plane hit our house since I lived only a few blocks from Van Nuys Airport.

After making sure mom and grandma were OK and taking about 30 minutes to get out of the house, I got the gas turned off since it was obviously leaking.

Went to check on a friend's (Robert) parents a couple blocks over to make sure they were OK.

Surveyed the damage of the kitchen I just remodeled for my mom who got home from NY that morning about 1am.

Went with my mom to check on her bank (Cal Fed) over in North Hills. I remember a customer coming up and asking why the bank wasn't open. HELLO!!!!! Don't you see the roof collapsed inside of the bank. Sorry your money won't be available today.

By noon, going to Universal Studios to assist with the cleanup of the park. Yes, that afternoon we were cleaning the park of all the damaged merchandise to get the park open the next day.