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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rynddxc8kI4

30 years ago this morning, we in Southern California were experiencing powerful aftershocks from the #Northridge #California #Earthquake.

The main quake was at 4:31 AM PST, 6.7 on the Richter Scale.

I started recording as soon as I found KNBC-TV Channel 4 on the air.

This is the first six hours. I'll post the link for the afternoon hours later. (1/x)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rynddxc8kI4

At the time, I was living in Santa Ana, about 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles and 65 miles from the epicenter. I was in bed, as were most of us, so I covered myself with pillows and rode it out.

If you live in quake country, be sure nothing is around your bed that can get airborne or fall on you. It's also a good idea to keep a pair of shoes and socks next to the bed so you don't have to walk on glass. (2/x)

Having trained as a first responder, after the main shaking stopped I grabbed a flashlight and went out to check my apartment complex. All was quiet. We didn't lose power. (3/x)

Later that morning, I went to work in Cypress, which was about 50 miles from Northridge. It was a three-story building. The first floor was fine. The second floor had a few items that fell. The third floor was a mess, including a broken water line. Any cabinets that weren't locked flew open and dumped their contents. We had cracks in the stairwell.

I brought my camcorder to document it all, but the battery was dead! Lesson learned. (4/x)

My supervisor let me go home around 10:30 AM PST so I could switch VCR tapes and record the afternoon's quake coverage. I'll post that later.

I'll also post later a History Channel two-hour program from 1997 that looked back at the quake and its aftermath. (5/x)

My personal "uh oh" was when I saw this on TV. I did a one-year internship in 1984-85 with the City of Anaheim. One of my projects was a new scoreboard.

The Angels wanted the board mounted on the overhang. The architects said no, the overhang can't hold the weight. I left before it was resolved, but clearly the Angels got their way.

When I saw this on TV, I contacted some news reporter friends and told them there's a memo somewhere documenting "We told you so." It eventually surfaced. (6/x)