California, the San Fernando valley and Los Angeles in its self are beautiful but here is the other side of it too.
When you think of California, what do you think of?
You probably think of amazing weather, sunshine, beaches, entertainment, palm trees, and just that stereotypical California lifestyle. But do natural disasters come to mind?
California is not really known for hurricanes, and tornadoes are pretty rare here. We also do not really deal with tsunamis much either. Instead, California is known for three things when it comes to disasters: earthquakes, high winds, and fires. Realistically, the winds and fires kind of go hand in hand, but all three are a huge part of living here.
Earthquakes are probably the biggest thing people think of when they think of California.
The scary thing is we do not really get warnings. Earthquakes just happen randomly at any point, and honestly it sucks sometimes, especially when they are really strong. California has had quite a few major earthquakes that caused damage and changed entire areas.
One of the biggest examples is the Northridge earthquake.
The Northridge earthquake happened on January 17, 1994, at around 4:31 in the morning. It was a magnitude 6.7 earthquake centered in Reseda, right here in the San Fernando Valley, and it became one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
I do not remember it happening because I was not born yet. I was not even thought of yet haha.
Here are some facts about it:
• The earthquake killed at least 57 people, although some later studies estimated the number may have reached 72 when including stress-related heart attacks.
• More than 9,000 people were injured.
• Many people believe the casualties could have been much worse if it happened during a normal workday because apartment buildings, structures, and freeways collapsed.
• Property damage was estimated somewhere between $20–50 billion.
A lot of apartments, structures, and freeways were destroyed or heavily damaged.
That is just one earthquake though. California has had more, and I have been through a few myself. They were nowhere near Northridge level, but I have definitely felt some stronger ones before. I will save those stories for another blog though because this one is more of a general overview of some of the disasters we have gone through here.
Besides earthquakes, we also deal with high winds.
If you live here, you know exactly what I mean because it feels like every year we get high wind warnings, especially during Santa Ana season.
The problem is those winds can help spread fires.
Humans definitely play a role too because not every wind event causes a fire. Back in 2020 we had some strong winds and no major fires broke out around here. But when a fire does start and those winds kick in, things can get really bad really fast.
One fire a lot of us around the West Valley remember is the Woolsey Fire in 2018.
That fire was huge.
It affected areas around Simi Valley, Bell Canyon, the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu, and communities around the West Valley. It burned from November 8–21, 2018 and caused massive destruction.
The Woolsey Fire burned about 96,949 acres, forced around 295,000 evacuations, and destroyed over 1,600 structures.
It started near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory area above Simi Valley and, fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds, crossed the 101 Freeway and moved all the way toward Malibu and the Pacific Coast.
Three civilians lost their lives, several people were injured, and damages reached an estimated $6 billion.
It also heavily affected the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, burning nearly 88% of National Park Service land there.
Another fire that recently happened and became worldwide news was the Palisades Fire.
Of course Pacific Palisades is by the beach and not in the Valley, however it still affected us tremendously because we are all connected here in Southern California.
Calabasas saw some impact from it, and so many homes, restaurants, and places along PCH were damaged or destroyed.
I might dedicate an entire future blog post to this fire because I eventually want to do a beach-themed post too and talk about how lucky the Valley is to be so close to the beach.
As I am writing this, there is currently another fire burning right now called the Sandy Fire.
It started Monday morning, May 18th in the Simi Valley area and moved toward Bell Canyon. Thankfully it has not spread toward us, but as of right now it is around 30% contained and has already burned over 2,000 acres.
Hopefully firefighters can get it fully contained soon.
Anyways, that is all I am going to touch on for now.
Living in California means dealing with earthquakes, high winds, and brush fires. That is honestly just part of life here, especially lately when it feels like fires have become more common.
Every natural disaster is tragic in its own way though.
We may deal with earthquakes and fires, mudslides, high winds while other states deal with hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, floods, and other things.
Every place has something. Any natural disasters are tragic in their own way however, that’s just what we have to go through this journey called life, we have to go through the waves or else life would be boring.
Despite everything though, the Valley is still home ❤️
valleygurlwrites 
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