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Living in California I would like to say that I am used to Earthquakes. I am not. They still scare the holy crap out of me. Even when the quake is small, I never know if it was close or far away, and worst, who might I know where the quake was the strongest. While the quake is going on you never know if this is the big one or will it get worse?

I still have overwhelming vivid memories of the Northridge Quake. Living in Simi Valley we were hit really hard. I remember my little sister running towards my room, I grabbed hand held her in the doorway telling her that I lover her and it will be ok. I heard things breaking around me and wasn’t sure if the house would come tumbling down upon us. That was the most afraid I had ever been, and the first time in my life I found myself up against something that I was not sure if I would survive.

My girlfriends neighborhood look like a war zone, and she wasn’t there. I remember at 5 am my father driving me across town to see if Amy was at her fathers. She was. I will never forget that drive, though I try hard to. It was the amount of dead dogs that I saw that I really have never got over. I am guessing when fences fell the dogs darted into the streets were hit by people that were driving to check on love ones after being awaken early on a holiday morning.

I will never forget the faces of the people waiting in line for water. It was around 4pm. We were all awaken by a collective bad dream. We had no communication will people outside of our neighborhood. It wasn’t until 8pm before the lights went on.

I would write more, but I try to remember only bits at a time.