I’m a deep sleeper. Deep. I slept through the first 10 seconds or so of the Northridge earthquake back in ’94. My dad threw a shoe or something at my head to wake me up…and wake up I did.  They say it lasted about 20 seconds but I remember it to be more like 2 minutes.  Everything was in slow motion: door frames swaying, my bed sliding across the room, mirrored closet doors shaken loose off their tracks, dogs barking, my Super Nintendo games flying through the air. It was like we were on a boat in the middle of a great storm with a drunken captain at the wheel.

I had just turned 14 then. My pubescent brain couldn’t quite process what was happening. I would love to say that my heroic instincts kicked in and I valiantly carried my unconscious mother and dog to safety but honestly I was scared out of my pants and frozen stiff.  My mother was fully conscious and was yelling at me to get the heck out of my room.

It was the great quake of ’94 and those of us that were there will never forget it. Everything changed after that from building and structural engineering codes to our daily vernacular to how we arrange our furniture.  We even had our own geographic malady for a while:  “valley fever,” remember that?  57 perished, over 5,000 were injured, and $40 billion plus in damage.  But like any great community we endured, rebuilt, and are standing strong today.

Tonight our Councilmember Mitch Englander is hosting an evening to commemorate 20 years since the Northridge Earthquake.  Community members are invited to come and share their stories of that day and their experience afterwards.  It should turn out to be a nice event to quietly celebrate the triumph of overcoming that tragic morning.

AfterStories – Commemorating the Northridge Earthquake
Northridge Recreation Center
10058 Reseda Blvd.
Northridge, CA

Friday, January 17, 2014, 6 – 8:30am