Monday, July 29, 2024

This was the MOST terrifying earthquake I have ever had to endure: February 9th 1971 I would have been 23 years old

I was a college student then and visiting my parents out in the desert near Yucca Valley where they lived that winter. I had just come back from Santa Fe, New Mexico where I had visited a girlfriend and then travelled up to Colorado and Utah before I came back home for Christmas that year. 

I woke up and it was dark out still and my head was banging against the wall and it was giving me a headache. So, I got up and tried to walk and I couldn't so I got back into bed and sat on it so I wouldn't be injured by flying glass from things breaking throughout the house.

Actually, this was the most terrifying thing I likely ever experienced in my life outside of near death experiences where I also believed I was going to die. This time when you are woken up out of deep sleep with your head banging on the wall at the head of your bed you don't know what to think. At first I thought Los Angeles had been nuked and a nuclear war had begun. However, the earthquake seemed to go on and on forever and never ending like that so I came to realize it was a really big earthquake instead. After all, how many nukes have you seen yourself. That's right! mostly none.

But, this trashed a lot of southern California in many different ways.

First it killed or injured a lot of people

Casualties: 58–65 dead; 200–2,000 injured
 
It destroyed things like hospitals homes, roads and things like this. And even in Yucca Valley it took us hours to clean up all the broken things. So, actually the most hazardous part of the earthquake for me was trying to try to walk around broken glass so I didn't get shards of glass embedded in my feet before I could find some shoes where they wouldn't be punctured on the other side of the house. This was actually the most hazardous thing I had to do was get shoes on so I could grab a broom and dust pan to sweep up the glass and then to vaccuum the whole house to protect everyone and myself (especially our feet).
 
Someone I knew was going to CSU Northridge university and they said it broke all their windows on their apartment and their bookshelves all came down upon them along with all of their books. And people mostly had texts then that were hardbound so this must have been pretty painful too. They looked out their window and the telephone poles were moving and wires were hanging and the power went out and some gas mains blew up from the friction and some houses burned down too because earthquakes and gas mains don't do well together.

 

On February 9, 1971 at 6:01 am PST, a devastating M6.6 earthquake struck the densely populated metropolitan area of Los Angeles, leaving death and destruction ...
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Feb 10, 2021The quake killed 65 people, injured 2,000 more, and caused north of $500 million in property damage. But the Sylmar quake steered the Southern ...
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The 1971 San Fernando earthquake occurred in the early morning of February 9 in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California. The unanticipated thrust earthquake had a magnitude of 6.5 on the Mâ‚› scale and 6.6 on the Mw scale, and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI. Wikipedia
Date: February 9, 1971
Areas affected: Greater Los Angeles Area; Southern California; United States
Casualties: 58–65 dead; 200–2,000 injured
Depth: 8.4 km (5.2 mi)
Epicenter: 34°16′N 118°25′W / 34.27°N 118.41°W
ISC event: 787038

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