Long Beach Earthquake '1933`

 I was playing tennis when the 1933 earthquake hit.  I didn’t know what was happening but I knew it was something terrible.  I was playing tennis and ran across the street. Dad was shouting for everyone to get outside, Mom was trying to shut off the gas so the house wouldn’t burn down.  The ground shook as we huddled together in the center of the street, wondering what was going to happen next.  My Mom was terrified until all of us kids were home.

    We were lucky.  The center of the quake was at Long Beach and the damage was terrible.  115 people killed and 40 million dollars of damage, which was a hug amount then.  My Mom said“ Our home was safe and I was glad I hadn’t washed the dishes and put them away.  The dishes that were in the cupboard were all broken as they fell to the floor, but the dishes on the table, didn’t even slide off.”

  Some people would not go back into their houses for weeks, but we slept in our home that night.  Aunt Elva was too terrified, “She said she would sleep on the floor but not go home alone.”  A few days later Dad took us to Long Beach to see the damage.  It was terrible to see the collapsed buildings and the huge cracks in the highway and even in the earth.  Mom said, “I was always grateful that we had been protected.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-longbeach_1933earthquake-pg,0,3546233.photogallery