With the 25th anniversary of the Cape Mendocino earthquake coming up next week, the Journal invites our readers to share their memories of those two days in 1992 when it almost felt like the earth would not stop moving.
The magnitude-7.2 temblor followed by a series of strong aftershocks, including a 6.5 and 6.6, caused millions of dollars in damage and brought new attention to the immense power of the Cascadia subduction zone lurking off our coast.
To submit your story or pictures of the aftermath for our April 27 edition, please email newsroom@northcoastjournal.com by 10 a.m. on Monday, April 24.
This article appears in Banned.
I was only four years old. I lived in Rio Dell California.. I remember watching the ground roll like waves in the ocean, the mountain side broke free and the eel river splashed over the mountain.. in the next couple days we all had to camp and canned water being flown in.. all the windows around town were broke. My neighbors house broke right in half down the middle.. the devastation was incredible.. I’m grateful to have survived..
I remember that day very well, I was living up here in Crescent City and working for the U.S. Forest Service on the handline crew, Gasquet District of the Six Rivers.
We were out burning slash units on the Canthook Ridge. I was deep on east line about 400′ or so running saw doing line improvement for about an hour or so when I was tapped on the shoulder and a crewman yelled “Drop your saw and up to the landing, there’s a earthquake”. My response, “Hell I not gonna toss my saw” and I packed it up.
So all the sup’s, burning and holding crews were at the landing and accounted for, and the whole time I thought someone was jerkin’ my chain, wasn’t none too happy at that point. Anyway, just prior to the to the earthquake alert radioed in by Fortuna, apparently all the drip torches that were filled for the burn crews were dancing around on the landing with the sway that they felt on the landing. Me, didn’t feel a thing on the end of that saw, quit a few crewmen didn’t feel it.
Surely felt for all the folks affected by the two day rumble. we were waiting to be dispatched to assist with the quake incident, never happened. That’s my story. Stedman…
Watching the ground roll and cars dance wil be an experience I will never forget. It was difficult to stand. Besides the big three quakes it did seam like the little aftershocks would never go away.
I was cleaning out the fridge and everything slide toward me. I ran outside and saw my little brother in front of a big window. Grabbed him and we watched our street roll up and down like a roller coaster.
I was 12 and we were getting ready to do the hike through Fern Canyon. None of us felt it, but the park ranger came out and said we would have to wait because trees could come down. When we started hearing about the quake none of us believed it. When we got home that day it was very shocking. My father worked out of the county yard in Ferndale and was gone everyday from sun up to sun down for weeks after helping with the clean up.
I was only 11, but I remember that day very clearly. When the first quake hit, myself, a friend and my little sister were alone in my living room (my mom was outside) and all of a sudden, everything just started shaking and harder than I’d ever felt before. The sound reminded me of riding in my grandparents motor home, all the dishes clacking together. Things spilled out of the cupboards and started to fall all around. We ducked and covered our heads like they taught us in school. It seemed like it went on forever. When it stopped, everything was a mess and immediately the fear grew of having to evacuate for a tsunami. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Later that night my whole family slept together in the living room and we had two other large earthquakes. I remember my head lying on the ground and feeling it shake under me as my mom screamed to get to the hall way, which was the “safe place. ” I remember in the morning watching the news of the Scotia stores all on fire. It seemed like the end of the world at the time.
I remember this event very well. My hubby was fishing out on the south jetty and I had planned on taking our youngest daughter to Centerville Beach. I was getting ready to go and my friend called me. She lived in Ferndale. While on the phone, she began screaming. I asked her what was wrong and she said Earthquake! I said I do not feel it. I was living in Fortuna. The phone line went dead. We began to rock and roll. I instructed my daughter to get under the kitchen table. I was trying to secure our 20 gallon fish tank while water was splashing out everywhere. I finally decided to get under the table myself.
While we sat there we watched the kitchen chairs topple over, the dishes falling out of the cupboards. We could hear things falling in the living room.
After the shaking stopped we climbed out and saw everything all over the floor throughout the house.
I remember thinking my hubby must be in the ocean. Then a calm feeling came over me and I knew he was ok. In about a half an hour he came pulling in. He said he was on his way home and he first thought he had a flat tire. He pulled off the road and the pick up felt like there was a gorilla in the bed of the truck jumping up and down. He noticed an old barn in a field falling down.
Later that evening when the second big one hit I was upstairs in bed. I just pulled the covers over my head. After it quit I went downstairs and hubby said he had to go check on the Hardware store he managed. He said there was paint all over and many things on the floor.
We soon learned that the sister store in Scotia was on fire. As we all know that shopping center burned to the ground.
We went up to bed and here came number three. Sounded like a freight train coming through the house. We lost all power and everything was black.
We survived and life went on. Pretty darned scary. A memory I will never forget.