1960

Our Los Angeles classmates got shaken, rattled, and I rolled by the 4:30 a.m. earthquake on January 17 and its aftershocks, but otherwise are healthy. JohnBarchilon, who lives in Sherman Oaks, about 4.5 miles from the epicenter of the quake- but says it felt like the epicenter was in his bedroom—apparently is the only one who suffered structural damage to his home. Next most affected was Ken Reich, who rolled out of bed and immediately was hard at work as the Los Angeles Times's chief earthquake correspondent. Others I reached suffered little or not at all.

Ken says, by the way, that the Richter scale is out as a measure of earthquake intensity. The 6.6 magnitude assigned to the L.A. quake really measures its duration more than its intensity, and the experts Ken's talked to say that the horizontal force generated by the L.A. quake actually was much greater than 6.6 suggests. Ken lives in Van Nuys, about seven miles away from the epicenter, but the quake did little damage to his home other than to knock books out of the bookcases. But two buildings Ken part-owns suffered structural damage somewhere between $65,000 and $115,000. After years in L.A., Ken thinks he might not stay—not because of earthquakes, but because of crowding, crime, racial strife, and the omnipresence of homeless people. Two nights after the quake, for instance, he was accosted by a robber with a knife, whom he dodged by running into a store. "L.A. may well be uninhabitable," he says.

John Barchilon says he's staying in the San Fernando Valley despite the loss of his chimney and all the crystal in his house, and a harrowing run through pitch-dark hallways amid "incredible, deafening noise." John's wife, Jeri, got knocked to the ground and suffered bruises, but is okay. A cardiologist, John has written two books and has developed a TV book-review show, "Best Seller," going into national syndication soon.

Jim Hughes, who lives in Beverly Hills, says the quake felt like "a giant had grabbed your house and was shaking it." Many bookcases in his home fell over, lamps were on the floor, and glasses came out of cabinets, but no structural damage. Jim's a physician who retired in 1987 after developing a "bone tumor on his face.

Steve Lattimore just moved to Santa Monica, parts of which suffered severe damage, but even though Steve heard glass breaking all around him when the quake hit, nothing in his house was actually broken. Books were all over the floor, "but since I'd just moved in, I hadn't put them in any order anyway." Steve is a classics professor at UCLA. He's an expert on Greek sculpture and is writing a new translation of Thucydides.

Joe Mandel, who lives in Sherman Oaks, about eight miles from epicenter, said when the quake hit, "you're supposed to get under a doorframe, but my wife and I just grabbed each other in bed and waited for the thing to stop." Lamps, dishes, and books got thrown around, but his house is undamaged. Joe is vice chancellor for legal affairs at UCLA and says that quake has provided lots of busywork over chemical spills in labs and buildings rendered unsafe.

Barry Sibson, senior vice president of the Turner Construction Cos., lives in Arcadia, far enough from the epicenter that his home was undamaged. A hospital he built ten miles from epicenter was also undamaged.

Haley Fromholz, who lives in Pasadena, was 30 miles away. Marty Weiss lost a few dishes. Howard Jelinek lives 60 miles away in Laguna Beach and didn't feel much. This summer, though, fires burned houses down within a quarter mile of his. Great town, L.A. As Debby Weiss wryly observed, "next, we're expecting pestilence and a plague of frogs."

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