I thought a freight train had gotten loose. The bed bucked so hard I had difficulty staying on it. I heard the crashing of falling furniture. The whole thing took place in absolute blackness. The electric snapped off immediately and there was no ambient light. Jim had invented a Bed Pocket for the science fair at Los Encinos and I had the prototype on my bed. When the first quake stopped, I reached into the pocket and got my flashlight. There were flashlights in every room but they al all rolled off during the shaking. I screamed to Matt Gibb and Jim Corbin not to move till I got there. I dont thing they listened. When we saw the mess in the kitchen - a mix of broken glass and sticky syrup and spaghetti sauce, I sent them back for shoes. We made our way through the kitchen to Christopher Corbins room. He was still sleep dazed. The TV had missed his head by two inches. Then we all went to Moms room. Her dresser had fallen but she was unharmed. Terrified as were the rest of us. I grabbed the phone in her room and called Barry Corbin. No answer. I called his mom and said Were safe. Then the phone lines went down. We couldnt call my side of the family. Jim and Matt checked on the neighbors. I got the battery operated radio working and we all sat out the aftershocks on the floor in Moms room listening to the radio report till daylight. One idiot reported mentioned that this might be a pre-quake. We really didnt need to hear that. Then we inspected the rest of the house. When we went outside, the whole back wall of the yard had crumbled. And we smelled gas. So we turned off the gas. LizElizabeth A. Gibb later found a printout from Cal tech on the quake. The size of the quake in Northridge proper and Sherman Oaks was closer to an 8.8 Two days earlier we had gone to The Shrine Auditorium to the Comic Relief Benefit. Robin Williams did a great bit on the California earthquakes and fires. When are we going to realize that California is Gods Etch-A-Sketch? Felt really true.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:32:08 +0000
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