Chinatown: Ten Years Later

January 17, 1994

The bed started shaking sideways and up & down.

Tumbled my way to the doorway hoping it would stop.

Please, make it stop.

There was total darkness, and then a knock on the front door. Some neighbors were going around telling everyone that it may not be safe to stay inside, that we should get dressed and assemble outside. Everyone was outdoors, just waiting.

More shaking.

At dawn, we braved our way back inside the house. You could see broken glass everywhere. The fridge had fallen forward, only to be caught by the kitchen counter. My bedside lamp was smashed into pieces over my pillow, right where my head had been.

I had been living at home in Granada Hills at the time, and was very happy that I was with my loved ones at a moment like this.
After a few minutes my stepfather announced, "Let's go to Chinatown."

"Wha-?"

"It seems like the whole Valley was affected by this earthquake and there's no water or power within miles from here. We're going to Chinatown, everything should be okay there."

We were all in a daze and in need of a break. So we all filed in the car and drove off.

As we got off the freeway and drove down Hill Street, everything seemed like business as usual. I remember stopping at the gas station on Hill to fill the car and to avoid the lines that would surely form (as predicted by my brothers). At the gas station, my sister and I went to the bathroom and brushed our teeth -- I had the sense to grab my toothbrush after finding out that there was no water.

At this point, it was too early for the shops or restaurants to be open. We wound up at Won Kok, a 24 hour restaurant that we knew.

We got seated but everything was very surreal, no one at the gas station or in the restaurant was talking about the earthquake. Everything was business as usual, just as my stepfather said.

Did it really happen?

I don't even remember what we ate or if we ate anything at all. We sat around sharing our experiences and feelings. We may have even laughed a few times, thankful that we were all alive and well. I think we called my brother in New York, or wherever he was living at the time.

We didn't want to leave Chinatown, but we knew we had to go back and start rebuilding our home.