Community Chat

[kivah]

@Lindsays Grandma

I was born on the lower east side of NYC (now very expensive) - and when I was 9 yrs old, we moved to Brooklyn. You had a summer house - nice!!!!

In Brooklyn (Crown Heights), it was 5 of us - living in a one-bedroom apartment - rent was $50/mo.

I found the apt building on googlemap dot com - and it's still standing - although they did a lot of work on it. Brought back lots of memories --- but I'm so happy to be living in Calif. now. A much better life.

It's possible the Northridge Hospital had some damage. I know an apartment building collapsed around there. 

[kivah]

I went to Olive View Hospital once - for something minor. I didn't remember that it and the VA Hospital had so much damage. Obviously, not well constructed. WOW

[Q4u]

I was born and raised in Calif and lived in San Diego for most of that time.  I will actually feel nausous a few seconds prior to an earthquake.  If I start feeling sick to my stomach I look at the hanging lamps to see if they've started moving. The most interesting one I was ever in was out in the country while we were camping.  The boys and I were asleep in the trailer and I woke up to what I thought was DH hooking up our little Nomad to the truck and taking off!

Not so, when I looked out the window, seeing DH with the dog, I also saw a huge ground wave lifting him, the dog, the trees and the rocks up in the air and then down again as it rolled on like a huge wave of water!!!  

Amazing and very unsettling and sure beats the heck out of the plates shifting with a boom ....  

[Moonchilde]

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@kivah wrote:

I went to Olive View Hospital once - for something minor. I didn't remember that it and the VA Hospital had so much damage. Obviously, not well constructed. WOW

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The areas of the VA Hospital that collapsed were built on 1926. Olive View was built in 1920. There were no significant building regulations re earthquakes. The first requirements came after the Long Beach quake in 1933 (a 6.4, 115+ deaths). My mother remembered it very well. 

From Wiki:

"The major damage occurred in the densely-populated city of Long Beach on the south-facing coast of Los Angeles County, and extended to the industrial area south of downtown Los Angeles. Unfavorable geological conditions (landfill, water-soaked alluvium) combined with poorly constructed buildings increased the damage done by the quake. In Long Beach, buildings collapsed, water tanks fell through roofs, and houses were tossed off their foundations. School buildings were among the structures that incurred the most severe damage.

"The earthquake highlighted the need for earthquake-resistant design for structures in California. Many school buildings were damaged, with more than 230 school buildings that either were destroyed, suffered major damage, or were judged unsafe to occupy. The California State Legislature passed the Field Act on April 10, 1933, mandating that school buildings must be earthquake-resistant. If the earthquake had occurred during school hours, the death toll would have been much higher."

[fourpaws56]

We have earthquake insurance, but frankly,I am more concerned about the real threat to our well being.....

[sunshine45]

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@Q4u wrote:

I was born and raised in Calif and lived in San Diego for most of that time.  I will actually feel nausous a few seconds prior to an earthquake.  If I start feeling sick to my stomach I look at the hanging lamps to see if they've started moving. The most interesting one I was ever in was out in the country while we were camping.  The boys and I were asleep in the trailer and I woke up to what I thought was DH hooking up our little Nomad to the truck and taking off!

Not so, when I looked out the window, seeing DH with the dog, I also saw a huge ground wave lifting him, the dog, the trees and the rocks up in the air and then down again as it rolled on like a huge wave of water!!!  

Amazing and very unsettling and sure beats the heck out of the plates shifting with a boom ....  

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@Q4u

i live in the SD area part time and that is exactly how i feel. i have only experienced a few that were lower scale earthquakes. my s/o laughs at me if i mention anything under a 5. i feel nauseous and dizzy.....and pretty much get very emotional. i felt one a few years ago on the delaware ocean resorts. i was sitting on the beach and it felt like someone was shaking my beach chair. for me, it is scary, no matter what the measurement.

[shoekitty]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

It's weird how the rolling quakes can...roll. I was once on a pay phone (that long ago!) talking to home about three miles away. I started to feel a quake and said so. On the other end of the line I was getting "No we're not, you're cra....oh! Yeah, we are!" It took several seconds to move on down the coast.

I lived through the San Fernando and Northridge quakes, though I didn't live near the epicenter of either. I lived near the San Fernando quake but moved away only a year before the quake hit.

 I was on the freeway during the Whittier Narrows quake and never felt a thing. When I got to work that was all the discussion, and I was "What quake?"

I'm now not terribly far from the San Andreas fault - but because this general area is so relatively sparsely populated I don't think there have been any devastating quakes in this area for many years - certainly they would have been before I was born. A low wall in the yard cracked during Loma Prieta but that was all, nothing damaged the house.

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Shoekitty said,

loma Prieta was bad here.  But as you know, a quake can be like a tornado, hits one house not another., mainly because of structure.  With loma prieta, the houses across the street where really hit hard.  My side not so much.  Oh it shook worse than Elvis, but other than cupboards doors swinging open, we were okay.  Oh...my bust of Bach fell and he broke his nose.  I put a band-aid across his nose, where it is today.  A California nose job, lol

[Lindsays Grandma]

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@kivah wrote:

@Lindsays Grandma

I was born on the lower east side of NYC (now very expensive) - and when I was 9 yrs old, we moved to Brooklyn. You had a summer house - nice!!!!

In Brooklyn (Crown Heights), it was 5 of us - living in a one-bedroom apartment - rent was $50/mo.

I found the apt building on googlemap dot com - and it's still standing - although they did a lot of work on it. Brought back lots of memories --- but I'm so happy to be living in Calif. now. A much better life.

It's possible the Northridge Hospital had some damage. I know an apartment building collapsed around there. 

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Brooklyn today is a whole lot different from when we were living in New York.  I had relatives who lived in  Brooklyn, visited them often.  When I was growing up parents didn't talk to their kids about money and how much daddy made, at least mine didn't.  To this day I never knew what my father's income was.  As for the summer house, my parents and four other families, all relatives, chipped in and bought land on Long Island and each family built their own bungalow.  It was undeveloped land, no running water or electricity.  We used kerosene lamps, had a pump for well water, no plumbing, each family built their own outhouse.  We roughed it for years until the township finally brought in power.  Wow, we were able to have a bathroom in the house, electricity, etc., all of it was an experience I will never forget and will always be grateful for. 

Started small and kept adding on over the years.  We were by no means wealthy but always were fortunate to live in a nice house in a good neighborhood.  I don't blame you for loving CA, I do too, every minute and everyday of the forty years I lived there, miss it a whole lot.

[juperier]

@Moonchilde and @Noel7 Reading through this thread led me to do a bit of googling and I found the 25th Anniversary report KSBW did on the Loma Prieta Quake: http://www.ksbhttp://www.ksbw.com/article/loma-prieta-earthquake-25-years-later/1055157w.com/article...

I didn't see this when it aired, but glad I found it. It contains several clips of coverage at the time with lots and lots of local footage that I've never seen before. With no power for something like three days, I wasn't exactly able to watch tv! One thing they don't mention is the constant aftershocks. Those kept happening for what felt like forever.

And, yes, I remember where I was...walking down the hill to the bus stop after work, within a couple of miles of the epicenter. I literally heard large brick buildings creaking before the ground started shaking. I managed to remain upright while debating whether to try to take a couple of steps to the side where I would at least land on lawn instead of asphalt if I fell. 

[shoekitty]

So many businesses just never recovered from the destruction of the 89 quake.  Remember Fords Dept store?  They had one in santa cruz, watsonville, gilroy and another city? Oh, I loved that store.  At the time I couldnt afford much in it.  But I did buy my first really expensive dress, that is in the closet today. Lol. It was a Carol Anderson and it was 100 bucks.  Never in my life.... I. Would go in every other day and look at it.  One day I just was done in,and it was mine. Most beautiful dress.  So 80's. Big bold floral, wide tight belt at waist. and those shoulder pads, lol!  the stores closed shortly after the quake. The building was empty forever in our town.  They made the store from a 1900 movie theater.  It wasnt safe for 6 iyears until someone finally repaired it.  But just junk is in there now.  Everytime i go by there i am reminded of the quake.

it was the after shocks that effected me the most.  You could here those things coming, your heart would race.  I would brace myself, tense up.  A few weeks after quake we had to go to colorado.  At a hotel there we were given a room by the exit door.  That door would bang and rattle the room, and my heart would go bananas every time.  I finally went to front desk and told them, and they moved us right away.  The experience never leaves you.  Almost the PTSD