<p>We were on the freeway and didn’t feel it. The funny thing is that in the old days we might have heard about it at some point in passing conversation or on the news but as soon as we came home and checked facebook there it was – update after update after update.</p>
<p>I was sitting safely in my dorm when I got about 50 Instant Messages from family and friends about it, at the same time as my facebook exploded with messages about it.</p>
<p>I remember the one last summer…very scary and one of the strongest I’ve felt. </p>
<p>In 10th grade, our science teacher was from Chicago. I remember going over earthquakes in class, and she asked us what “earthquake weather” was because she had never experienced an earthquake before. I also remember her joking that it was good we were all so experienced with earthquakes because she had trouble describing them.</p>
<p>KCAL (channel 9 in LA) was live on the air when it happened. They reported immediately. They (and I) were on the CalTech website at the same time. I LIKED knowing the details at once. It was comforting in a weird way. I could check the web, and move on.</p>
<p>Yes, I like to know details right away. Was it a little quake whose epicenter was somewhere close to here or was it a honker of a quake far away? Makes a big difference even though both quakes would feel the same here.</p>
<p>I remember feeling the Northridge quake while in San Deigo, which was the longest, rolliest quake I’ve felt in my time in Southern California. You prayed it was a bigger quake close to us rather than a humongous quake somewhere else. When we turned on the TV in the morning, it was clear that it was a huge quake that caused a lot of damage someplace else. :(</p>
<p>I remember feeling the Northridge quake and we are about one mile from Northridge. If anyone recalls the gas main that exploded taking out houses – that’s the main street to our house and we heard the explosion shortly after the quake. Of course we had no power or running water and the phones were out and since it was 4:30 a.m. it took a while before it was light enough to try to find a portable radio for news. My sister-in-law and her husband were in Ohio at the time and when they saw the news the first thing they saw was the apartment building that had collapsed – which they had lived in for many years. What anyone who has been in a major quake will tell you is that it is the noise that is so awful as well as the movement. The noise was deafening because everything in the house was coming down – bookshelves, everything out of kitchen cabinets, things off of walls, retaining walls outside – plus there is a sound to the earth moving and the house moving. We had three kids at the time (I was pregnant with the fourth) and my husband and I split up to run to the kids. My husband got to our three year old who was shaking and saying “Daddy, save me.” The older kids were glued to their beds in fear which was a good thing as all their bookshelves fell. Since then, every big piece of furniture in our house is bolted to the wall with cables. Every cabinet in the kitchen has a special latch that stops it from swinging open (the kitchen was a sea of glass.) Because our area was hit so hard, it took a long time for the infrastructure to come back online. It was quite the experience.</p>