The biggest and most destructive earthquake in recent Los Angeles history happened exactly 25 years ago today, on January 17, 1994 at 4:30am.
Northridge Meadows, an apartment complex in Northridge, CA near the epicenter, had a partial collapse, resulting in 16 deaths.
Interstate 5 near Newhall, CA had a section collapse, killing a motorcycle cop:
Interstate 10 also was damaged, and was closed for 3 months for repairs, causing major traffic issues in Los Angeles.
The quake was felt most in the San Fernando Valley, where it was centered. Many people living there felt that they were about to die as the violent shaking occurred. It was felt strongly all throughout southern California.
The quake also released a giant dust cloud in the air, which could be seen all throughout southern California.
I had an interesting story involving that quake in two ways.
First, I was at my parent's house that night, and would have likely been awake and on the computer in my dad's office at 4:30am. A large bookcase crashed down during the quake and would have injured me badly, unless I was quick enough to get out of the way. However, I wasn't home that night.
Instead, I was on a date with a girl I had met at a party line party. That's right. I didn't meet her on the party line, but rather met her at a get-together for the party line the week prior. Near the end of the night, she approached me and gave me her phone number, and I went to go take her out on the night of January 16.
She was a nice girl, and almost the exact same age as me (we were both turning 22 within 1-2 months), but she lived in a trailer in a kinda trashy neighborhood in Cypress, CA. She worked as a hairdresser and supported herself, so I guess that's what she could afford.
I forgot what we did that night, but we ended up going back to her trailer. I noticed a display shelf with lots of plates featuring cheetahs. I asked her about them, and she told me they were her prize possessions, and she had been collecting the cheetah plates all her life.
"That display doesn't look secure. It could easily go down in an earthquake," I told her.
"No, we've had earthquakes many times before. It's never gone down, and the plates were all fine," she confidently replied.
"Yeah, well I think it would go down if there was a big one. You better do something about that," I said.
Shortly after that, we were messing around, and we pretty much did that and listened to music for the rest of the evening.
We were having sex at 4:30, with KZLA (then a Los Angeles country music station) on in the background.
Suddenly, the song being played (I still remember it, "Wild One" by Faith Hill) started skipping.
It was distracting enough to where I commented on it.
"Stupid station... nobody paying attention late at night", I remarked.
I didn't realize it yet, but that was my 10-second warning that a quake was coming. KZLA's Los Angeles studios were closer to the epicenter than Cypress, where I was.
Ten seconds later, the lights started flickering. I knew what was next.
"Oh no!! It's an earthquake!", I shouted, and we both jumped out of bed.
Sure enough, the trailer started shaking violently.
I don't know what came over me, but somehow my thoughts came back to her display of stupid plates, not my own safety.
"The plates!!!", I yelled.
I jumped over to the display and held it in place. Despite heavy shaking, I was able to hold it steady enough, while blocking the plates with my body, to where only a single plate (out of like 20) fell to the ground and broke.
The shaking stopped after about a minute, and she profusely thanked me for saving the plates.
I remember driving back to my parents' house on the 405 freeway and seeing the clouds of dust in the air.
The whole thing was surreal. That was my only talk of a "big earthquake" in years, and sure enough, it happened just hours later.
Los Angeles hasn't had another major quake since.
I never saw that girl again.
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Originally Posted by Dan Druff
