I lived the first 58 of my 78 years in southern California.....home of earthquakes! The first one I remember was when I was 8, rolled me right out of bed! The 2 that really stand out were the Whittier and the Sylmar ones. I have lost count of how many I felt there.
The Whittier Quake happened about 8 in the morning while I was at work in Pico Rivera (about 7 miles from the epicenter). I was working on the then top secret B2 Stealth Bomber project. The ceiling fell, water lines broke and the lights went out. I was Manager of about 125 engineers and we evacuated to the parking lot and I had each one of my managers and lead engineers take role of everyone making sure everyone got out and was accounted for.. A couple of us went back in to secure all the secret material that was everywhere. About 6" of water on the floor, water pouring down from the pipes in the ceiling and only emergency lighting, then a large aftershock and lots more stuff falling. We got the hell out of there, I said "screw the secret crap, let's go". What a mess, plant shut down for a week and all the major tooling had to be re-mastered and re-calibrated.
The Sylmar one happened at about 5:00 in the morning and I was on a freeway on my way to work on the F-18 program. Chunks of concrete fall from overpasses and electrical transformers exploding with an erie green glow...I thought we were being bombed. Got to work and sent everybody home (again for about a week), again with the same problems as on the B2 quake.
Both times my home was not damaged, just pictures and wall hangings falling and one cracked window.
Sure nice not living in earthquake country anymore!
