This was originally written in 2008. I blame any info that seems dated, on that fact. :-)
The Northridge Earthquake occurred 20 years ago, yesterday at 4:30AM. Earthquakes seem to cluster around this time of the day and I can't tell you how many times, over my 33 year marriage, I have found the bed shaking and Hubby and I woken up by one of them. That particular night we were woken up at around 2:30AM by our then 3 year old son, who came running into our bedroom screaming about 3 snakes. He scared our cat (who was sleeping at the foot of the bed as usual) and of course, us. He had never done anything like this prior to that evening, but we rolled with it and put him between us and the three of us (and cat) went back to sleep.
2 hours later, we wake up to the house violently shaking in a North/South movement. Logical, since Northridge is to the south of us. It felt like we were riding a bucking bronco (not that I know this first hand, but I am sure that's what it probably feels like). We rode it out, looking at each other and our son between us and I remember us commenting to each other, "Who got to this child?". Someone, something, whatever...he was warned. We both thanked whatever it was and dealt with our new life, living and walking on land that was suddenly alive.
It was the worst for the first week and unsettling as all get out, feeling shakes, shimmers and all sorts of things almost too small to feel, but there anyway. As we took stock of our situation, we found out that my area of the world was almost totally cut off from the rest of Los Angeles, by the failure of 2 freeway overpasses. Due to that fact, my Husband spent one afternoon driving my car through the collapsed interchange area and eventually getting my car to Glendale Station. I had been toying with the idea of taking the train in to work. I would leave my car there with just a club on the steering wheel and then drive the last few miles, to work in Hollywood. In one of those serendipity things, Metrolink gave us a free week, during the Christmas Holiday and I had tried this very thing and was going to put it into operation, sometime in January. Well, the earthquake DEFINITELY put it into operation. My car never returned home after that day, living in Glendale for it's final 6 years. It stayed there and was even given to someone else, from there. I always kidded that I lived in Santa Clarita...but my car lived in Glendale. :-)
Metrolink, to get people out of our valley that first week, put 11 cars on each train (the normal amount of cars on a train were 3) and may I state for the record, that those cars were PACKED! Standing room only on 11 cars. Scared commuters, going through the San Fernando Tunnel each day and then right into the middle of the shattered Interchange. It was not for the faint of heart, but it got us to work, when there was no other way. They opened the Interchange by the weekend, but it was 6 months before the overpasses were fixed, so life didn't get better for us, until then.
I have never been through something like that and it still affects me, all these years later. Just the other day, when we bought the new piece of furniture to put our TV on, I fought for something shorter, while Hubby wanted something taller. I was thinking Earthquake, he was thinking ease of viewing. He won, but I still wish it was lower. lol
Things have been amazingly quiet these past 2 decades and I hope it continues.
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