On Jan. 17, 1994, at 4:31 a.m. a fault ruptured 9 miles beneath the Los Angeles neighborhood of Northridge. In less than 20 seconds, the 6.7-magnitude quake damaged more than 40,000 structures, resulting in $20 billion in damage and more than $40 billion in economic loss.
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Page one of the Los Angeles Daily News on January 18, 1994. The Northridge quake hit at 4:31 the morning of Jan. 17, 1994, a powerful jolt that flattened buildings, destroyed homes, damaged freeways, ignited fires and disrupted water and power. The 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake was later upgraded from 6.6. (Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Emergency workers remove a survivor from the first floor of the Northridge Meadows apartments following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Tina Burch, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Firefighters work to free trapped residents at the Northridge Meadows Apartments on Reseda Blvd in Northridge on the morning of Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A Fire Department chaplain informs a couple that their son has died in the collapse of the Northridge Meadows apartments on Jan. 17, 1994. (John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Fire and rescue vehicles fill the street in front of the Northridge Meadows apartment complex as the grim search for victims goes on inside following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Gus Ruelas, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Firefighters examine the bottom floor at Northridge Meadows apartment complex looking for the body of an earthquake victim following the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Firefighters look over the rubble that was at one time the Northridge Meadows three-story apartment complex following the Northridge earthquake in 1994. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Terrence Bito douses his car with water as flames approach from a broken gas main on Balboa Blvd. in Granada Hills following the Northridge quake in the San Fernando Valley on Jan. 17, 1994.
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Students from CSUN watch as flames from a ruptured gas main burn on Balboa Blvd. near Rinaldi St. in Granada Hills following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Tina Burch, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The scene on Balboa Blvd. just north of Rinaldi St. in Granada Hills after the quake broke gas and water lines destroying several homes on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Gus Ruelas, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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An LAPD officers at the scene of a burning broken gas main on Balboa Blvd. in Granada Hills, north of the 118 freeway following the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Photo by David Sprague, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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LAFD firefighters rush a victim to a waiting helicopter after he was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed parking structure at the Northridge Fashion Center on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by David Sprague, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A couple leaves an outdoor emergency facility at Granada Hills Community Hospital after receiving treatment on the morning of the quake. The Northridge quake hit at 4:31 the morning of Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Tom Mendoza, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The Kaiser Permanente medical offices in Granada Hills were destroyed on Jan. 17, 1994 during the Northridge quake. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Los Angeles city limit sign on the 5 Freeway. The Northridge quake hit at 4:31 the morning of Jan. 17, 1994, a powerful jolt that flattened buildings, destroyed homes, damaged freeways, ignited fires and disrupted water and power. The 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake also killed nearly three dozen people, injured 8,700 more, caused some $20 billion in damage and shattered the nerves of millions of Southern California residents. (Photo By Hans Gutnecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Officer Joshua Wong monitors the area around a collapsed section of the Santa Monica Freeway near Fairfax Ave. on the morning of Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by David Sprague, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
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An auto traveling on the 118 freeway got caught when the freeway collapsed at Gothic Avenue in Granada Hills on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Tina Burch, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Truck driver Ervin Nichols of Bend, Oregon, waits as his truck is lowered from the shattered Golden State Freeway in Saugus two days after the quake. (David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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LAPD officer Roger Ruggiero climbs to the top of the Antelope Valley Freeway transition to the Southbound Golden State Freeway where motor officer Clarence Wayne Dean died. Dean, who, while reporting to work in the darkness after the 4:31 AM quake, fell from the partially collapsed bridge when he was unable to stop in time. The Northridge Earthquake registered 6.6 on the richter scale. Sylmar, CA. 1/17/1994, photo by (John McCoy/Los Angeles Daily News)
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Rescuers search for victims of the quake in Studio City following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A home on Sunswept Drive in Studio City was flattened after the Jan. 17, 1994 quake sent it plunging down the hillside. (Photo by Kim Kulish, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A friend recovers belongings for the owner of a hillside home on Buena Park Drive in Studio City following the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake. The home was destroyed. (Photo by Evan Yee, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Latanya Davis, left, and Stefanie Coston, students at CSUN, bundle up on a lawn in front of their dormitory as dawn breaks following the Northridge quake on Jan 17, 1994. (Photo by Myung J. Chun, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Robin Purcell making his way to his daughter’s apartment on Plummer Street in Northridge after the Northridge earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Evan Yee, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Nannette Stone is held by her son, David, as a neighbor’s mobile home burns at the Tahitian mobile home park on Cobalt Street in Sylmar on Jan. 17, 1994. Photo by Tina Burch, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Firemen put out a trailer home that burned in Sylmar following the Northridge Earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Firefighters douse the ruins of a trailer park in Sylmar which was destroyed by the Northridge Earthquake. (Photo by Jebb Harris, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Rolling stock is strewn about the Southern Pacific tracks after the Northridge quake caused this derailment in Northridge on Jan 17, 1994. (Photo by Myung J. Chun, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Rolling containers are strewn about the Southern Pacific tracks after the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake caused this derailment in Northridge. (Photo by Myung J. Chun, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
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Part of a hillside home overlooking Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades was lost in a landslide during the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Photo by Kim Kulish, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Multiple businesses were destroyed on Ventura Blvd. at Van Nuys Blvd. in Sherman Oaks during the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Phil McCarten, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Wrapped in blankets, a couple view the damage to an apartment building in Sherman Oaks following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Phil McCarten, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A fire that broke out after the Northridge Earthquake destroyed this block of businesses on Ventura Blvd. in The San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, January 17, 1994. (Photo by Jebb Harris, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Later in the day, on Jan. 17, 1994, a Granada Hills Woman rides out the aftershocks from her front yard. (Photo by David Sprague, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Police kept watch over damaged structures such as the Warehouse in Northridge, to prevent looting. But , in general, looting was not a problem following the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The Northridge Fashion Center became one of the symbols of the quake’s destructiveness. Damage to the mall, built in the early ’70s, was estimated at $131 million. The Northridge quake hit at 4:31 the morning of Jan. 17, 1994, a powerful jolt that flattened buildings, destroyed homes, damaged freeways, ignited fires and disrupted water and power. The 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake also killed nearly three dozen people, injured 8,700 more, caused some $20 billion in damage and shattered the nerves of millions of Southern California residents. “It was like the devil was waking up … it was a horrifying feeling,” said one of the quake victims quoted in a Daily News story on Jan. 18.
Photo by John McCoy/Daily News -
King Harbor parking lot in Redondo Beach cracked after Northridge Earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Daily Breeze/SCNG)
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The Northridge quake toppled the steeple at Trinity Church in San Fernando on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The city of Fillmore in Ventura County was hit hard by the 1994 quake. Among the damaged buildings was the Fillmore Hotel. (Photo by Tina Burch, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Cars are crushed from a fallen apartment on Saticoy Street in Reseda on the morning of the Northridge earthquake, Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by David Sprague, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A car fell off of a hydraulic lift in a repair shop in Northridge on Jan. 17, 1994. (John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A car sits crushed under a Reseda apartment building on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Rene Valenzuela carries an armload of clothes out of the condemned Mountain Terrace apartments on Walnut St. in Newhall following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Tom Mendoza, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Senior citizens from three different convalescent homes in the Santa Clarita Valley were housed in the Boys and Girls Club Gym in Newhall following the Northridge quake on Jan. 17, 1994. (Photo by Tom Mendoza, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A woman leads two children through a maze of tents set up by the National Guard for displaced quake victims at Lanark Park in Canoga Park following the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Quake victims line up for food and supplies at Lanark Park in Canoga Park as guardsmen stand by following the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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National Guardsman Abraham Lucero plays soccer with a child at a tent city in Reseda Park on Jan. 23, 1994. (Photo by Tina Burch, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Belen Navarro, 9, front, leads her sisters and cousins in prayer before eating their lunches at a tent city. Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Customers wait for more than two hours to get water and food at the Hughes Market in Valencia following the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles daily News/SCNG)
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People line up for gas at one of the few open stations at Sherman way and Balboa Blvd. days following the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake. (Photo by Gene Blevins, Contributing Photographer0
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Their water service cut off, Granada Hills residents fill containers from a water company truck at Granada Hills High School following the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge quake. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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With the freeways closed, Traffic snakes along Sierra Highway in Canyon Country early on the morning of Jan. 21, 1994 as commuters try to get through Newhall Pass. (Photo by Tom Mendoza, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Cars inch along Sierra Highway near San Fernando Rd. on the day after the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge quake. (Photo by Kim Kulish, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Commuters cram the platform at the Metrolink station in Santa Clarita days following the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A guardsman stands watch in Reseda at Sherman Way and Reseda Blvd. protecting businesses following the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge quake. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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A parking structure on the CSUN campus destroyed by the 1994 Northridge quake. Photo by Bob Halvorsen, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Then CSUN’s dean of math and science, Don Bianchi, stands in front of a shattered research area in the school’s science building. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Antonia Hussey conducts her geography class under a tree on the CSUN campus in the San Fernando Valley. Portable classrooms and trailers were then erected on campus by Feb. 14th as students continued to return for spring classes. (Photo by Kim Kulish, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The Daily News newsroom in Woodland Hills on the morning of Jan. 17, 1994. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo)
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Repairs to the damaged freeway system following the Northridge quake began as soon as possible. Work continues on the 10 freeway over streets near Fairfax Ave. following the Jan. 17, 1994 quake. (Los Angeles Daily News staff file photo/SCNG)
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Former tenants Joan DeWolf and Gary Benoit carry suitcases to salvage possessions from the Northridge Meadows Apartments. July 15, 1994. (Photo by Bob Halvorsen, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)