1994 Northridge Earthquake Anniversary

At 4:31 a.m. on Monday morning, January 17, 1994, which was MLK Day that year, a previously unknown blind thrust fault ruptured in a Mw6.7 earthquake that was centered under the San Fernando Valley which accordingly took the brunt of the quake's fury.

Damage was heavy and widespread with pockets of heavy damage well away from the immediate epicenter such as King's Beach at Redondo Beach and Hollywood and South Central Los Angeles.

Damage to public infrastructure was widespread and major in some cases as was damage to private infrastructure.

Fifty-seven people were killed and about 12,000 were injured with about 1,500 of those being significant injuries.
Injury figures would have been a lot higher had the quake occurred during the day and not on a national holiday.

The quake struck during a mild Santa Ana Wind Event which helped push some of the fires through entire mobile home parks destroying large swaths of them.

Given how dry that year had been there were many dust storms kicked up by this quake and its vigorous aftershock sequence which led to a spike in cases of Valley Fever in the area of the Santa Clarita Valley and Santa Susana Mountains.