Now vs. 1994: A look back at Northridge

Ingrid Mendez said she remembers living in Los Angeles and going through an event she never experienced before on the early morning hours of January 17th, 1994, being close to the epicenter of the Northridge earthquake.

“It just felt like forever,” Mendez said. “We had a ceiling fan, and that starts shaking really, really bad. And I feel it cracking. So, I get myself up, and I’m on top of my little girl. And I can just feel the pieces of the chandelier, the glass pieces from the fan above us just breaking on my back.”

Mendez said she and her family survived the 6.7 magnitude earthquake that killed about five dozen people, injured more than 9,000 others and caused about $44 billion in damages. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), it was the costliest quake in U.S. history.

She said an issue she and others had in the aftermath was a communication breakdown.

“It was very hard to get through to anybody, to get a hold of someone and trying to find out if family members in other parts of town are okay, and how strong it was for them, how they felt it,” Mendez said. “Because at that point, we don’t know. So, we bring out a little radio, (and) we’re trying to listen to the radio to see if we can get information on what’s going on. Where the epicenter was. How far we were from it. Because, it felt it was right there.”

Sgt. Dan Marshall with Indio Police said he went through a similar quake in Guam while serving in the U.S. Navy.

He said the area is no stranger to that type of activity, and suffered zero property damage.

“That particular island was used to getting typhoon season, and was notorious for getting hit by typhoons,” Marshall said. “They were very well-equipped. And the way they were equipped was inside your home on the base, we had a “typhoon closet”. It was a closet that you could put a bunch of wares in. Water, meals ready to eat, you kept your generator, all of that stuff, and probably modern homes don’t have now.

He said older technologies, like landline phones, helped he and others on the island, and could help many out today if a quake similar to Northridge were to strike.

“Everybody had a landline phone,” Marshall said. “There were no cell phones, so you didn’t have to worry about that. You had a phone to pick up, pretty much no matter what. Nowadays, if a couple of key cell towers go down, it might impact our cell service.”

Another tip, he has, is carrying cash instead of just plastic alone.

“Few people carry cash,” he said. “I know my driver’s license holder should say, ‘Driver carries no cash,’ because I never have cash with me. So, if an emergency were to hit, I’d probably be at the dependent of an ATM, or a debit card reader, and if we lost power for a significant period of time, I might be out of luck.”

But Marshall said since Northridge, new systems including RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service), an amateur radio protocol designed to connect agencies, have come along that can help agencies in a time of need. He said first responders use the system every year at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

“They’re there at our call if we want to call them out, and what they can do is establish communications in the event we lose landlines, in the event we lose internet,” Marshall said. “Because most phones now go through the Internet. If we lose that, and we need to communicate with our emergency operations center (EOC), back to the city, or other EOCs. They can actually transmit for us and duplicate it. They can be the sole method of transmission, and they can transmit to other ham operators, and we can get the message through in the event we lose cell service. Because at the concerts, we have no landlines. Everything is voice over internet protocol (VOIP).

But the overall message Marshall and Mendez are putting out to other residents throughout the Southland is to expect the unexpected.

“Be prepared, because you never know when it’s going to happen,” Mendez said. “Obviously, it’s been years since we’ve had the big Northridge earthquake. But, be prepared in some way or form.”

Another technology, Marshall recommends, is keeping a battery-powered radio handy in case of an emergency.

Check out more tips on what to do before, during and after an earthquake Watch KESQ’s Earthquake Alert coverage here