I Love A Circus

Wednesday April 22, 1992

I call Maria at work to ask them out to dinner at El Torito. She says the Circus Vargas is in town tonight and tomorrow. I get excited. I love a circus and insist we go tonight. Later Gary agrees to go and at 7:00 they arrive at our house. Gary drives. It's a fun circus.

As we leave I ask Frank what time is it? He says 9:50. When we turn on the TV at 10 p.m. news we learn there was an earthquake at 9:50, centered in Desert Hot Springs. It's a 6.1 so should be some damage. I try to call Mom but lines are down.

At 8 a.m. Thursday I begin again. I finally get through to Mom at 1:30 p.m. She's fine. Hardly felt it, just a little damage. No big deal for her.

It sounds like Mom had a premonition about the earthquake, as it would be impossible for her to actually feel it from hundreds of miles away. Her mother though lived right at the epicenter. Grandma Helen lived in a mobile home, so there could have been substantial damage with alot of shaking. 6.1 is a pretty large quake.

Earthquake!

Friday June 28, 1991

Up early again to leave with the boat for Pollock Pines at 8 a.m. Frank leaves to get gas in the truck. I'm curling my hair upstairs at 7:45 when a 6.0 earthquake rocks me nearly out of my chair. Frank's mom called all shook up. Frank returns--he didn't feel a thing while driving. The radio says Pasadena was hit the worst so I call Cathy. She says alot has fallen from shelves. Luckily, according to the radio, no major damage except Pasadena, some old buildings.

We're OK with the earthquake and leave for Pollock Pines. It's raining lightly. When we get close to Sacramento, it really rains hard all the way to Donna and Bob's. Marck, Ivana and Heather are all there and we all have dinner lasagna.

The trip was fine except I'm achy all over from the walk yesterday. My back is still bothering me too. Otherwise, I feel fine.

The earthquake was later revised downward to a 5.8 magnitude. It occurred on the Clamshell - Sawpit Canyon fault, an offshoot of the Sierra Madre fault zone in the San Gabriel Mountains. Because of its depth and moderate size, it caused no surface rupture, though it triggered rockslides that blocked some mountain roads. Roughly $40 million in property damage occurred in the San Gabriel Valley. Unreinforced masonry buildings were the hardest hit. Two deaths resulted from this earthquake -- one person was killed in Arcadia, and one person in Glendale died from a heart attack.