1994 6.7 Northridge Earthquake
 

You can see a flood, Hurricane or a Tornado approaching.
But when the ground underneath you starts to act like Jello, it really sends you for a loop.
I was @ the former Rockwell Rocketdyne site in Chatsworth near the epicenter that day. I was about 50 miles from home. I was standing in the high bay building when it started. First thing that happened was the pipes were all clanging together over my head and the noise was deafening. I struggled to keep my balance and started running. It felt like I was stepping on rocks in the middle of a flowing stream as I ran. Next thing was all the dust everywhere it was very disorienting, the ground is moving and the sky was falling and I was shifting into full flight mode. Now the fire sprinkler pipes have sprung a leak and black water is pouring down into the building. My walkie talkie is telling all the facility folks to go to their meeting places and I go to the main switchgear for the facility.
About 5000 people are trying to keep it together and remember what to do. Meantime the call comes to pull the power off to the facility. I'm there with the Electricians scrambling to put on their 40Cal gear. The guy that pulled the pole switch had a huge arc form over his head until the blades got far enough apart to stop the arcing.
Hearing 12Kv trying to reach out and get you is something I'll never forget.
As designed the 6 inch high pressure Gas line that fed the facility had an earthquake valve and it worked. I ended up working for 30 hours that day that I'll never forget.

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I had a Behind the Scenes tour of one of our local hydroelectric dam generators right at the turbine pit. The "wire" coming off it was Highly Pure Copper Bar that was 1" x 6" solid.

My first REAL job was with Ma Bell here in jersey. Our garage was directly behind a power sub-station. Whenever a circuit breaker blew it sounded like a rifle shot. More than one time I jumped out of my shorts when those things went off.

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I lived on el Cerritos and woke up just before dawn with the quake. Grabbed a jacket and gun and went down to the boulevard to see what was happening. The city was blacked out. Street punks were smashing windows and looting. Pipes burst in the galaxy theatre and the two escalators became waterfalls. Strangely beautiful as the sun came up.

The walk of fame buckled and Bugs Bunny’s star had come loose. Spent most of the day trying to figure how to get it into my trunk without being seen. Consider that one of the great missed opportunities of my life.

Now you see why HV stuff is on 60' poles. The guys nearby are making noises for two reasons, the sight they see and the feeling of all the hairs on your body standing on end.
Hard to explain the feeling, so I just call it "touched by the hand of God" :eek:

Why did you want to get in your trunk? :confused:

You were up early that day at work. It happened @ 4:30 am exactly.

The 14 frwy collapsed onto the 5, cutting me off from work. No power, water, or gas for days. The local Miller brewery filled bottles with water and handed them out at the local park. Still have them.

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I remember that day well. I was living in Glendale and worked downtown, my wife worked in Northridge. My house shook and rolled, not an unfamiliar feeling in SoCal but more than I was used to. Other than chimney, no damage to my house - wood frame houses are pretty earthquake-resilient as long as they stay on their foundations.

One of my friends was a reporter for NPR (Andrea Kissack). She asked me to drive her around while she did live reporting. We got in my Land Rover and did that. She was very scared, her voice was shaking, but the moment she was "on the air" her voice completely changed and became cool, and calm. A professional - and quite a looker then too.

My wife's courthouse was damaged and closed, they worked in temporary trailers for a year. I went back to my office downtown after a few days. No WFH then.

I looked up the casualty data for that quake a couple years ago. Very few fatalities from collapsing buildings or falling pieces, even with all the older masonry buildings around then. Almost all fatalities were from heart attacks, inability to get medical care, and car crashes - people were driving like zombies. I checked on that because Portland was trying to essentially outlaw older masonry buildings - make them uninsurable and inoperable, close down the businesses in them, get them demolished, - and I and others were fighting the effort. The city's effort failed.

Shook me - literally - out of bed. Wife was 8 months pregnant and too frightened for me to leave her and head to work. We lost some stuff - nothing huge - but plates etc out of cabinets and a clock came off the wall. But that one REALLY shook - for us, more than ever Sylmar, but I was only 7 for that one.