Originally Posted by
big john
My first earthquake experience was the 1971 Sylmar quake, a 6.9 with lots of damage. One of the casualties was the VA hospital in Sylmar, which was leveled. Rather than rebuild it the fed gave the land to the county which made it into a beautiful park. The border fence to that park is 5 houses away from where I live now, oddly.
We got back from Scotland the night before, and woke up to that the next morning. I can't remember where we were that day, but we ended up living right down the street from South Coast Plaza.