Almost killed my friend, who just happened to move his bed away from the bookshelf the day before. The bookshelf smashed to the ground right where his bed had been.
We also had to dig my grandparents out of their house with shovels.
Yes. :) After the initial shock, they barricaded themselves into the storage room behind the garage, because there was a pull out couch and a phone in there. But we couldn't call them because another phone in the house had been shaken off the hook. So we drove down there as quickly as we could and when we got there everything inside was rubble, the chimney was just a pile of bricks, etc. (although the house itself was still standing).
We got shovels and started digging, calling out their names. Finally got the back and found them sleeping in the pull out sofa! We packed some of their stuff and took them back to our house since we had minimal damage (despite being thrown from bed) and then went back later to survey the damage.
At that point people in the larger multi-family buildings had all evacuated and set up tents in the median strip on the main street (Ventura Blvd). Many of those buildings were condemned.
Northridge was horrendous, but I personally didn't suffer any damage other than a book-end falling off my properly secured shelves, and my cat taking a massive piss right in the middle of the floor. My roommate and his girlfriend survived the mirror over their bed crashing down on them somehow, but other than that .. no worries. A well-built house.
My neighbours - well, lets just say that by the time I got my senses together to go outside and inspect things, they'd already packed all their shit and their kids into the SUV and were moving back to Oklahoma that instant, no time to wait - they GTFO'ed out of California... their house wasn't even that damaged, apart from its chimney laying in the street, like every other brick chimney in the neighbourhood ..
Northridge was wild. I'll never forget the feeling of walking around Hollywood that morning, looking at the kitchen and toilet sections of apartment buildings that had their walls stripped off them, like some bear had ripped open a beehive to get to the goods ..
My dad was in Northridge for two days to film on Jeopardy and was hit by the quake. he said he saw the pool sloshing around. As a contrast, I've been on NorCal for 28 years and haven't experienced anything larger than a 4.5 or so.
Almost killed my friend, who just happened to move his bed away from the bookshelf the day before. The bookshelf smashed to the ground right where his bed had been.
We also had to dig my grandparents out of their house with shovels.