Timeline of Events: The 1994 Northridge Earthquake
A look at events of the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge earthquake and the hours, days and month that followed
By Jonathan Lloyd ••
The first shaking from the 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake began at 4:31 a.m. on Monday, January 17, 1994. From its epicenter in the west San Fernando Valley, the earthquake produced 10 to 20 seconds of shaking that rattled a widespread part of Southern California.
The devastation was due largely to its location in one of the United States' most densely built-up metropolises. Fifty-seven people died. More than 9,000 people were injured and 20,000 were displaced in a natural disaster that caused an estimated $20 billion in damage. The destruction included collapsed buildings and freeway overpasses, snapped water and gas lines, rampant fires and landslides.
The timeline above provides a glimpse of how events unfolded in the hours, days and months after the quake.
AP
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1994 file photo, Interstate 10, the Santa Monica Freeway, split and collapsed over La Cienega Boulevard following the Northridge quake in the predawn hours in Los Angeles. Twenty-five years ago this week, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Eric Draper, File)
AP
FILE - This Jan. 17, 1994 file photo shows bricks and debris surrounding a building housing Ara's Pastry on Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, following the Northridge earthquake. Twenty-five years ago this week, on Jan. 17, 1994, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Rene Macura, File)
AP
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1994, file photo, the covered body of Los Angeles Police Officer Clarence Wayne Dean lies near his motorcycle which plunged off the State Highway 14 overpass that collapsed onto Interstate 5, after a magnitude-6.7 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. Twenty-five years ago this week, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac, File)
AP
FILE - This Feb. 14, 1994 file photo shows California State University, Northridge students walking past a parking structure at the Los Angeles campus that collapsed in the Jan. 17 earthquake. Twenty-five years ago this week, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
AP
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1994 file photo, gas from a ruptured supply line burns as water from a broken water main floods Balboa Boulevard in the Granada Hills area of Los Angeles. The fire from the gas main destroyed two homes, right. Twenty-five years ago this week, the violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)
AP
FILE - This Jan. 17, 1994 file photo shows California State Route 118 in Simi Valley, Calif., that collapsed during the Northridge earthquake. Twenty-five years ago this week, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
AP
FILE - This Feb. 16, 1994 file photo shows the Northridge Meadows apartment complex in which 16 people died when the upper floors collapsed onto the so-called soft story ground floor. Twenty-five years ago this week, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. At 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994, a hidden fault lurking under the city’s San Fernando Valley neighborhoods unleashed a magnitude 6.7 earthquake. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
AP
FILE - This Jan. 17, 1994 file photo shows a portion of the Bullock's department store in Los Angeles' Northridge Fashion Center that collapsed in the Northridge earthquake. Twenty-five years ago this week, a violent, pre-dawn earthquake shook Los Angeles from its sleep, and sunrise revealed widespread devastation, with dozens killed and $25 billion in damage. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
AFP/Getty Images
With help from a friend, Tigran Daniyelyan (L) carries his television from his apartment complex that was destroyed by the Northridge earthquake. Officials are placing the death toll at 28. (TIM CLARY/AFP/GettyImages)
UIG via Getty Images
A Santa Monica apartment building was destroyed by the Northridge earthquake in 1994 (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Aeria view of wrecked cars littered the connector ramp from Interstate 5 to Highway 14 following the Northridge earthquake, on Jan. 17, 1994, in Northridge, California. (CARLOS SCHIEBECK/AFP/Getty Images)
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The 5 Freeway and 14 Freeway interchange was split in half after the earthquake struck.
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Just hours after the quake struck, a good Samaritan in the city of San Fernando began evacuating neighbors in a school bus.
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Fireballs erupted from a ruptured gas line, and streets flooded from a water main break at Rinaldi Street and Balboa Boulevard in Granada Hills.
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A law enforcement officer is killed when the 14 Freeway collapsed near the quake.
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Houses caught fire and were captured by NBC4 helicopter footage around 8:16 a.m. on the day of the quake.
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President Clinton speaks on television just less than six hours after the Northridge earthquake struck. "We intend to do everything we possibly can to help the people ofnLos Angeles and Southern California to deal with the earthquake and its aftermath," Clinton said.
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A 64-car freight train carrying hazardous material derailed in the Chatsworth/Northridge area. The footage was captured about 9:30 a.m.
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Dozens of emergency room patients waited for treatment in the Granada Hills Community Hospital parking lot around 10 a.m., about six hours after the quake shook the area.
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NBC4's Conan Nolan holds up a seismograph reading of the magnitude 6.6 earthquake. The quake was officially named "Northridge Earthquake" several hours after it struck.
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Fire crews spent hours trying to rescue a man from a collapsed Northridge parking structure. Crews lowered airbags to lift the rubble. Salvador Pena was eventually was rescued and survived the deadly quake.
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Firefighters battled a blaze at a home on Normandie Avenue north of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard around 1:50 p.m.
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Several cars were crushed when an apartment building collapsed in Sherman Oaks.
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An influx of drivers crowded the Arco station at Sherman Way and Balboa Boulevard around 3:45 p.m. trying to get gas to leave the area.
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Panicked residents cleared water, food and other supplies from the shelves of a Ralph's supermarket in Panorama City.
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Fire crews battled an intense fire in Granada Hills around 6 p.m.
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The 10 Freeway at La Cienega buckled as a result of the earthquake that struck Northridge around 4:30 a.m.
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Police permitted some 1,000 residents to camp at a park on 1st Stree and Park Avenue in San Fernando after the destruction caused by the Northridge Earthquake.
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A destroyed apartment building near the epicenter of the Northridge earthquake in 1994 (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
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An overpass collapsed on the 10 Freeway in the Northridge/Reseda area at the epicenter of the earthquake (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images).
Getty Images
A man bicycled through a flooded road Jan. 17, 1994 caused by the Northridge earthquake in the greater Los Angeles. The Northridge earthquake was the first earthquake to strike directly under an urban area of the United States since the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)
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Pedestrians walked along a flooded road caused by the Northridge earthquake. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)
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Smashed cars were stranded by the collapsed Interstate 5 connector just a few hours after Northridge earthquake in Sylmar, California. Federal officials said freeways suffered at least $100 million in damage. (JONATHAN NOUROK/AFP/Getty Images)
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Firemen carried a janitorial worker who was rescued from a collapsed garage at the Northridge Mall after the earthquake. (DENIS POROY/AFP/Getty Images)
Alex Matthews
A rescue worker sits on curb in front of the heavily-damaged Northridge Meadows Apartments after a 14th body was removed following Northridge earthquake. (CHRIS WILKINS/AFP/Getty Images)
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A resident and a cameraman looked at damage to the Kaiser Permanente Building following the Northridge earthquake. (HAL GARB/AFP/Getty Images)
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A car at a Mazda dealership was crushed in the Northridge earthquake. (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
At night, a gas main on fire throws flames into the air after it broke and exploded destroying nearby homes following the Northridge earthquake. There were a total of 466 fires reported on Jan. 17, three of them simultaneously broke out immediately following the earthquake and were due of the rupture of natural gas valves and/or mains. (HAL GARB/AFP/Getty Images)
LA City Emergency Management Department
A view of the collapsed 5 Freeway connector Jan. 17, 2019 in Sylmar following the Northridge earthquake.
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A demolished building at Olympic Blvd after the Northridge earthquake in 1994 (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
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An apartment building burned as a result of the Northridge earthquake. (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
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Soldier from the National Guard march in the streets of Northridge, California, on January 18, 1994, as they deploy to guard the areas hit by Northridge earthquake. The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
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A woman walks over rubble after taking some of her belongings from her Hollywood Boulevard apartement building that was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake, January 19, 1994, in Hollywood, California. The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
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A car rests in the midst of a collapsed house in the hills north of Los Angeles, January 18, 1994, one day after Northridge earthquake. Seven billion U.S. dollars in property damage. (Photo credit should read VINCE BUCCI/AFP/Getty Images)
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A resident fills a water jug on January 18, 1994, at one of many water lines set up in the area to assist victims of the Northridge earthquake. Local authorities warned residents not to drink tap water after the quake broke many water mains in the area. (CHRIS WILKINS/AFP/Getty Images)
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A soldier from the National Guard marches in the streets of Northridge, California, on January 18, 1994, as they deployed to guard the areas hit by Northridge earthquake. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
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Two men collect personal belongings on January 18, 1994 from their Northridge apartment building which suffered major damage from earthquake. (VINCE BUCCI/AFP/Getty Images)
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A construction worker posts a "keep out" sign on a restaurant as an area resident watches on January 21, 1994. Construction crews and inspectors began work to condemn and repair buildings damaged in the Northridge earthquake. (MIKE NELSON/AFP/GettyImages)
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A bulldozer begins to tear down a section of the Santa Monica Freeway on Jan. 19 that collapsed during the Northridge earthquake. Commuters were urged to leave for work two hours earlier due to the 300 foot section of the road that was closed. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
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A construction worker using a chainsaw on Jan. 24 starts to cut up some of the destroyed walls in the courtyard of Northridge Meadow, the apartment complex that collapsed during the Northridge earthquake. Sixteen people were killed when the building collapsed during the quake. (HAL GARB/AFP/Getty Images)
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Troops of the California National Guard erect a tent on Jan. 22 at Winnetka Recreation Center in Northridge, CA. The National Guard built tent cities at various public parks to house thousands of earthquake victims who were afraid to return home or whose homes were damaged by the Northridge earthquake. (BOB PEARSON/AFP/Getty Images)
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The Lopez and Garcia families camped out in a city park after their homes were heavily damaged by the Northridge earthquake which killed at least 28 people. Thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes following the quake. (JONATHAN NOUROK/AFP/GettyImages)
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A worker in an American Red Cross Disaster Service vehicle hands out supplies to people after the 1994 earthquake. (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
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A man carrying drinking water away from a relief station in Santa Clara after the 1994 earthquake. (Photo by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images)
Demolition crews began removing a destroyed section of the 14 Freeway overpass around 7 a.m. on Jan. 18, 1994, a day after the earthquake struck down in Northridge.
Live video captures vehicles that were trapped on the 14 Freeway overpass between two sections that had collapsed because of the earthquake.
The Northridge Earthquake triggered a mudslide near the Pacific Coast Highway and destroyed a home in the Pacific Palisades.
NBC4's Jim Giggans reported from the heavily damaged 10 Freeway around 9:25 a.m. on Jan. 18, 1994.
A wall on the fourth floor of the El Cortez Apartments in Santa Monica collapsed. The woman living in the apartment with the fallen wall spoke to NBC4 the day after the quake. http://4.nbcla.com/K7IPZI
A man is rescued after spending several hours in a collapsed parking structure. Salvador Pena was operated on by doctors on Jan. 18, 1994 around 6:20 p.m.
President Bill Clinton arrived in Southern California two days after the Northridge Earthquake ravaged the area.
