22 years since the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles

Photo: FEMA

I've posted about this event before on previous versions of Doobybrain (oh, the good 'ol days!) and every year I get so wrapped up in looking at all the insane photos from that day in history. I wasn't living in Los Angeles at the time of the Northridge earthquake nor was I at an age where this event would have taken a hold of my attention (even on TV), so what I know about it was learnt entirely in retrospect. The Northridge earthquake was such an incredible show of force by nature that ever since then, Angelinos have been anticipating the next "big one" in reference to this particular event.

The Northridge earthquake killed 57 and hurt thousands more. Buildings collapsed, freeways buckled and fell, fires raged on, and as expected, building codes were revamped (those "soft-story" houses were made illegal to build in Los Angeles).

If you want to see more photos from that day and days immediately following the January 17, 1994 event, the Los Angeles Times has a great gallery and so does The Atlantic.

Here is 3 hours worth of footage from various news channels about the Northridge earthquake.