Tuesday, October 20, 2020

If you are in a 7.5 Earthquake you likely think you are going to die

Luckily this quake was not on the mainland of Alaska so most people didn't think they were going to die.

The largest earthquake I ever had to ride out myself in California was the San Fernando Earthquake of 1971 when I was about 23 years old. And at first when it happened I thought it was a nuclear blast because it never ended and seemed to go on and on and on forever. Then when pictures fell off the walls and everything glass shattered and fell off things like the TV and any tables in the house and my head started banging against the wall I sat up in bed because this was at about 6 am or so in the morning and so still dark then. This is the ONLY Quake I was ever in where I was sure I was going to die then. All the rest I felt I could survive but this one. I could bounce on the bed from the quake but I couldn't stand up at all because I tried. Besides you don't want to be walking on broken glass from all the pictures and anything glass in the house breaking either. So, when it finally stopped I had to turn on lights so I didn't have to go to the hospital from broken glass in my feet. So, getting shoes on was really important when we all cleaned up the house from everything that had fallen and broken. Luckily, none of us were injured too badly that time. I had driven down to Palm Springs the night before the earthquake to see the new movie "Mash" before it ever became a TV series of long standing at that time.

The 1971 San Fernando earthquake occurred in the early morning of February 9 in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California.
Local date: February 9, 1971
Peak acceleration: 1.25g at Pacoima Dam
Max. intensity: XI (Extreme)
Duration: 12 seconds
Feb 8, 2016 — The 1971 San Fernando earthquake, also known as Sylmar earthquake, struck the San Fernando Valley near Sylmar at 6:00:55 a.m. PST on Feb. 9, 1971, with a magnitude of 6.6. A sheriff's deputy stands outside the collapsed Olive View Hospital following the quake.

 

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