jp,
I didn't realize you had lived up here so recently. Where were you and what were you doing when it hit?
I was driving and waving a greeting to a friend in a passing car. I just thought my car had started to miss, or something. It wasn't until about 8:30 that evening that I learned we'd had another "Big One." My aunt down LA way called and excitedly asked me if I was all right. I was puzzled by the tension in her voice and told her I was fine. She then told me about the earthquake we had had. And I said something to the effect of, "Oh good, there's nothing wrong with my car after all. It was just another tremblor." She then said that it was much more than a tremblor and that I should turn on my TV and see for myself. I did, and WOW. That is still all I can say, "WOW." I stayed glued to the TV for the next week, or so.
The previous weekend, I had gone to visit a friend in Half Moon Bay and thought I had felt some shaking as I crossed the Bay Bridge. I've crossed the Bay Bridge only four times since the Loma Prieta Earthquake, preferring to avoid it.
Re sort of big earthquakes in LA, there was one in Whittier in October 1987. There were two or three in the Pomona/LaVerne/Ontario areas in the early 90s. There was a really big one in LA that broke up some freeways a few years ago, around the time of the Japan earthquake. I'm a little hazy on the dates because there were so many and so close together.
Of course, there was that really big one in 1971 in Sylmar that leveled a brand new hospital and some brand new freeways and bunch of other stuff, but brought about a bunch of new earthquake legislation. That's what made the extensive damage from the quakes of the late 80s and eaerly 90s so surprising; we thought they had taken care of everything after the 1971 Sylmar quake, and such devastation would never be repeated.
Our earthquakes have made us see why many of the California Indian tribes were into making baskets rather than pottery. <g>
Holly |
