Jumping the gun a bit ... Tomorrow morning is the 30th anniversary of the #Northridge #California #Earthquake.
The main quake, a 6.7 on the Richter Scale, was at 4:31 AM PST. I started recording on the VCR at 4:41 AM, as soon as I could find a station on the air.
If you want to follow in real time in the morning, start this video at 4:41 AM PST / 7:41 AM EST.
@WordsmithFL that was a terrible time. It would have been so terrifying. Was there for some of the aftershocks…14th floor of the Sheraton downtown LA swayed really good. Sure glad I missed the main event and that you’re ok.
@NorCalCherylLyn Our office building in Cypress was built to Japanese building codes. It had rollers on the column bottoms, so it was designed to sway rather than snap. That's why the third floor was such a mess. I'm sure the same happened to the Sheraton.
SoCal was quite seismically active at the time -- Whittier Narrows in 1987, Upland in 1990, Landers in 1992, Northridge in 1994, Hector Mine in 1999.
@WordsmithFL building to Japanese earthquake standards might have prevented so much damage.
The Northridge quake was so shallow it really damaging. I remember the Sylomar quake in ‘71. Lots of friends woke up hitting the floor after being bounced out of bed.
@WordsmithFL in the shower would be a bad place when a one hits. All hard and painful to smash on. 🤕
@NorCalCherylLyn I very well remember Sylmar. 6:01 AM. It was time for me to get up to go to high school.
My French teacher lived up in the valley. He said he was in the shower when the quake struck. He was slammed around the shower stall, which lost water. He was a bit disheveled.
The same happened to me with a Landers aftershock. I was scrubbing the shower when I got slammed around. I decided, screw it, and let it be.