Dang, I Missed It!

Vaughn McMillan

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Just saw this float by on the headlines...

4.5 Earthquake in LA

We're pretty close to Chatsworth, but I didn't feel a thing. (That would explain why the dogs were acting a bit strange earlier, though.) After you've been through a few, they feel kind of cool. The little ones can be downright fun. The big ones definitely get your attention, though. :eek:
 
Just saw this float by on the headlines...

4.5 Earthquake in LA

We're pretty close to Chatsworth, but I didn't feel a thing. (That would explain why the dogs were acting a bit strange earlier, though.) After you've been through a few, they feel kind of cool. The little ones can be downright fun. The big ones definitely get your attention, though. :eek:
Are you saying you want it like it was in '73 for you folks up in Tujunga? You are right next door to where the overpasses collapsed in Sylmar, right? I've been through most of the big quakes in L.A., lived 5 miles away from the Northridge, and that was the worst I've been in, we lost almost all our dishes, wedding memorabilia, etc...(house was close to Victory/Balboa).

Once I was working downtown when the Whitier quake hit, and we had a new guy working for us. The building was on rollers, many of the large buildings downtown L.A. are like that. We were on the 39th floor. The new guy was pretty fresh from China, couldn't speak english too well even. I think he laid a potato in his pants. He left and never came back, never told my boss he was leaving, never called back and we never heard from him...:huh: (Security Pacific Bank Headquarters, now BofA)

Quakes are strange, sometimes you can be close and not feel too much (your case of this one in Chatsworth), but others farther away are more impacted. The Northridge quake did more damage in Santa Monica than it did in many parts of the Valley. My neighborhood lost all of their north/south brick walls around the yards though...my walls survived though. We were evicted during the Sylmar quake, the Van Norman dam was in danger of breaking and they evicted many cities under it, we were just moving to Granada Hills (i.e., in the middle of moving when the quake hit).

Good that you're ok.
 
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I wasn't here for the '73 quake, but remember Northridge vividly. Aside from the damage and loss of life, it was fun, it its own strange way. Then again, so am I. :rolleyes:

Our office building was in Glendale at the time...on the 6th floor of an 8-story building. It was also on rollers. Later in the day after the Northridge quake there was a group of us who'd gathered at the office to check things out and get systems running again. We were sitting in a circle of chairs just shooting the breeze, when one of the beefy aftershocks hit. The conversation didn't even pause as the building swayed back and forth for a bit. After it was done moving, I commented how that day before, what we'd just felt would have been a major quake. But after what we'd all been through earlier that morning, that aftershock didn't even interrupt our conversation.

As it turns out, LOML did feel this morning's quake, and she was sleeping on a waterbed. I, OTOH, sitting at a computer, didn't feel a thing. :huh:
 
Not being in Tujunga in '73 would explain your exuberance towards quakes.:doh:

When you get a taste of one closer that really shakes things around, you might feel a big different. The Northridge is the biggest I've been in, when we lived in Van Nuys, before that I remember going through the Sylmar when we lived in Canoga Park, but that was child's play in comparison. My son was only about a year old, sleeping in our bed at the time, and he slept through the Northridge, which is amazing to me.:eek:

The Northridge quake left the building I was working at next to the Santa Monica Airport in a sad state, as it did the IBM building by the water garden. Our building in Santa Monica had the concrete walls seperated about 6" from the floor to the roof, and the IBM building by the water garden was condemned.

We're certainly not quake-free in NorCal, but get less than SoCal it seems.
 
Not being in Tujunga in '73 would explain your exuberance towards quakes.:doh:

When you get a taste of one closer that really shakes things around, you might feel a big different. The Northridge is the biggest I've been in, when we lived in Van Nuys, before that I remember going through the Sylmar when we lived in Canoga Park, but that was child's play in comparison. My son was only about a year old, sleeping in our bed at the time, and he slept through the Northridge, which is amazing to me.:eek:

The Northridge quake left the building I was working at next to the Santa Monica Airport in a sad state, as it did the IBM building by the water garden. Our building in Santa Monica had the concrete walls seperated about 6" from the floor to the roof, and the IBM building by the water garden was condemned.

We're certainly not quake-free in NorCal, but get less than SoCal it seems.

The Northridge quake was definitely noticed in Tujunga. The rental house I was living in had no structural damage, but it emptied the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and broke quite a bit of stuff. (Still have a small scar where I stepped barefoot through the glass of a framed picture that ended up leaning on the wall.) My (now) wife lived in Granada Hills when the Northridge quake hit. Her house had some structural and cosmetic damage.

Despite my cavalier attitude about them, I recognize quakes can be ugly beasts. I just figure I may as well try to glean something other than stress and worry from them. If it's my turn to go, it's my turn to go, regardless of whether I'm happy or bummed. May as well be happy. Sorta like Slim Pickens riding the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. ;)
 
Our office building was in Glendale at the time...on the 6th floor of an 8-story building. It was also on rollers.

Building on rollers? Are we talkin' near Brand Avenue here? Oh well, native son of a native son, etc. of SoCal, I often hear about the quakes on the radio as opposed to feel them anymore. The little ones are noticed by some small part of my brain that acknowledges "that was a quake" but it rarely even interrupts conversation.

The larger ones (like the one that danced my bed out into the middle of my bedroom way back when) are very serious and my heart goes out to those effected by them. I've always gotten by with cracked ceilings or dancing furniture and such.
 
701 North Brand, to be exact. How'd you know? :huh: :)

When I worked for a mainframe shop as a network geek we did the Sears Financial Centers rollouts (Sears bought Allstate S&L). Remember that fiasco? An ATM in every Sears store. It was so frustrating watching the Sears folks waste more money in a day than I made in a month. You could literally sit in the meetings and hear the money hitting the floor. Anyway, spent quite a few hours a week in those twin blue buildings 20-odd years ago (they were blue weren't they?).
 
...Anyway, spent quite a few hours a week in those twin blue buildings 20-odd years ago (they were blue weren't they?).
By the time I moved out here in '91, they were concrete colored. I seem to recall being told that they had been re-faced though, so they may well have been blue when you were in them. Although our company moved to Burbank in 2001, I have a lot of fond memories (and plenty of war stories) from the Glendale days.
 
4.5? I'm surprised that even made the papers... ;)

That's like a catagory 1 hurricane... only really scary for people who don't live there and are watching on tv... ;)

but this:

"We're certainly not quake-free in NorCal, but get less than SoCal it seems."

If I wrote something like that, I would be throwing salt over both shoulders, knocking on every piece of wood I could find, etc... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Always surprises me at how ..... casual you Left Coasters are about earthquakes. But then I see how bad tornadoes scare you when you move here. We stand outside looking for one and your in the bathroom hiding. :D I would probably be that Chinese guy in an earthquake.

I have felt two earthquakes here. New Madrid fault is well North of us. Sometimes we will get very small quakes here. Nothing you guys would even call a quake but sure gets my attention when the floor and wineglasses start vibrating.

One night my wife said she heard and felt something and just at that moment I drove her truck down the drive by the kitchen window. She was thinking "What has he done to my vehicle!" She said the floor and glasses were rattling. :rofl: Turns out it was a small quake and but she was convinced I had done something BAD to her truck!
 
Hey Vaughn,
Glad the quake was small. Maybe that will ease the stress and put off the next big one for a while.:thumb:

Your mention of the animals acting strangely reminded me of a story, one that kinda debunks the idea that animals know when a quake is coming.

I used to live in San Francisco. Missed the big ones but was there for some door rattling and furniture dancing. One afternoon I was reading a book while the cat was napping in the middle of the floor. A small tremor hit, felt like a big truck rumbling a couple of inches behind you. I swear the sleeping cat jumped straight up in the air two feet and when she landed she looked at me convinced that I had done this to her. Then a small aftershock, another two feet jump, she hissed at me and ran into another room.:rofl: Go figure.:dunno:
 
Always surprises me at how ..... casual you Left Coasters are about earthquakes. But then I see how bad tornadoes scare you when you move here. We stand outside looking for one and your in the bathroom hiding. :D I would probably be that Chinese guy in an earthquake...
I understand what you mean. I grew up in lightning country, and I really like a good thunderstorm. Most of the folks I've met out here are scared to death of lightning, and run inside at the first sound of thunder. Tornadoes also intrigue me. If I lived in that part of the country, I'd probably be one of those guys on the front porch with the video camera as the twister took out the neighbor's house.

Hurricane folks have it made...days of advanced notice. Where's the sport in that? :D Plus free turning wood when it's all over. :p

Seriously, I do respect Mother Nature, and feel for anyone who suffers losses as the result of things like earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. But I figure since we won't be able to change how she affects us, we may as well try to enjoy the ride while we're on the planet.
 
........Tornadoes also intrigue me. If I lived in that part of the country, I'd probably be one of those guys on the front porch with the video camera as the twister took out the neighbor's house......

I used to be that way. Have one come down the vacant lot between you and the next door neighbor while you huddled in the bathroom with the wife, dog and two screaming scared to death cats. Suddenly they are not so fascinating for some reason. :dunno:

Wouldn't bother me if I never hear another one.
 
Earthquakes are nothing to worry about, you might as well worry about the sun coming up, nothing you can do about the quake happening.

Being prepared for an earthquake, not that is a whole other story. :thumb:
 
Last year I was sitting at the computer just like I am now and heard this rumble. At first I thought it was a logging truck going by, but seeing nothing I next thought it was some neighbor blasting ledge with dynamite. Finally I realized it was a earthquake. Now don't laugh, it was something like a 1.0 quake, but we don't get many of those here in Maine. Two in my whole life and I am 33 years old.

As for the hurricanes, now I thought those guys were impressive. When I was out in MN we had a tornado and I could not figure out what the fuss was all about. Except for some heavy rain, hail and a bit of wind, the storm was over in twenty minutes. Big deal hurricanes last for a long, long time. Again here in Maine we are blessed by goo weather. By the time those guys get up here, they pretty much have blown themselves out.

We get noted for our blizzards, but really a bit of snow is nothing. Neither is the cold, but I think it tends to keep out the riff-raff. They just can't seem to take it and that is fine by me. I must say though, the Ice storm of 98 did us in. We could not handle that. 2 inches of ice on everything. Here where I live we were without power for 14 days. The next year the population of maine jumped by about 100,000 if you know what I mean :rofl: :rofl: :huh:

hickson1.gif
 
I am native from SoCali, but I'll tell 'ya something...I have never experienced so many small tremors, than when in Japan. However Japan is positioned in relation to the earth's plates must have something to do with it, but there's constant small tremors all the time...somehow you just get used to it...
 
I am native from SoCali, but I'll tell 'ya something...I have never experienced so many small tremors, than when in Japan. However Japan is positioned in relation to the earth's plates must have something to do with it, but there's constant small tremors all the time...somehow you just get used to it...

I agree, many small tremors. However there is one location in southern Kanagawa Prefecture (Yokohama, Kawasaki) that sits centrally on three plates; the North American, Philippine and the Eurasian. People there are a little nervous about quakes.
 
I was there

In the "73" earthquake. Hard wood floors and slide the bed across the entire bedroom. They say that people can not walk in a quake, but my wife could run to the kids bedroom. Neither of the children woke up. It was horrible though to say the least.
Chuck
 
Alex,

On the edge of 3 plates sounds unstable...:( Japan does get a lot of earthquakes, certainly, it's always rockin' and rollin' over there...Cousins lost their place in the Kobe shaker...that's the only effected family I think we have in the recent quakes that have rolled through Japan, they got hit with a few mostly up north it seems.

Chuck,

Surf'd through the Sylmar '73 quake in Canoga Park, bookshelves, came down on me as it shook, and we lost a couple statues in our entry way of the house, it was the first big one I had gone through, and grew up in SoCali. Next door neighbor's pool tossed half it's water in our yard and on the house. It was one big splash!;)

We were in the middle of moving to Granada Hills, and that area was evicted because of the Van Norman Dam crack. They evicted about 20 square miles or such.

Was closer to the Northridge quake, about 5 miles from epicenter. My son slept through that one.
 
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