[jyl]

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.