A Red Cross volunteer who lived near the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge earthquake looks back at how he made sure his family was ok and then immediately put his years of safety training to work.
“I’ve been through earthquakes before. This was different. This was bigger,” American Red Cross volunteer Craig Renetzky said.
Renetzky said right away his years of safety training kicked in.
“I immediately took the blankets on our bed and threw it over my wife because I knew stuff would be falling,” Renetzky said.
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Their daughter,who was 1-year-old at the time, was in the next room.
“My wife keeps yelling during the shaking ‘the baby, the baby, the baby.’ And we ran into the room and the baby was fast asleep,” Renetzky said.
And even as he surveyed his now uninhabitable condo, he knew he had to get to work.
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“It was scary. more than anything as daylight started to rise you could see the damage,” Renetzky said.
At Red Cross headquarters in Van Nuys, Renetzky started setting up shelter for people in need.
“A lot of people’s homes were destroyed or they were just scared to go back inside,” Renetzky said.
As Red Cross volunteers descended on the most devastated areas, Renetzky organized the disaster relief coming in from outside our area, minute by minute, hour by hour.
“Time just began to compress. It just went on for days and days,” Renetzky said.
But there was also a sense of relief that he had prepared his home.
“I think what saved us to some extent was the preparedness. I have pictures from our house and I can see that the heavy furniture, stuff got knocked off of it but the furniture didn’t collapse on us,” Renetzky said.
They did keep one particular item from that day, a clock that fell on the floor on which the time reads 4:32.
“The glass didn't break but the batteries came out. We’ve kept that as a rememberance how lucky we are.A lot of people died in that earthquake,” Renetzky said.
And now, 30 years later, Renetzky fears people may not be prepared for another Northridge sized quake.
“The danger hasn't gone away. The faults have not disappeared,” Renetzky said.
We get these little ones, yeah, I'm concerned. But I do feel reassured that I'm ready for one when it happens,” Renetzky said. Renetzky said we all need to be prepared.
Renetzky's mother was a Red Cross volunteer and his baby daughter who slept through it all is also a Red Cross volunteer.
