I will always remember Martin Luther King day is in Jan, not only because Dr. King was an amazing man who made many changes in America but also because I was living in Pomona Ca at the time. I was a Store Manager with T J Maxx and my store was located in Temple City Ca, down the Santa Monica Freeway. On that day in 1994 I was awaken early in the morning with violent shaking of my bed. I knew it was an earthquake. I turned on the news to find out the epi center was located in San Fernando Valley which was not to far from my store. I called my assistant and told her to meet me at the store so we could check for damage. When we entered the store, half the ceiling was down, wires hanging everywhere. Homegoods all over the floor. My first thought was to try and reach the Granada Hills store since they we located close to the epicenter. No one was answering. I than tried to reach our home office in Mass, but no one was there due to the Holiday so I contacted my DM who told me to call Home Office but I reminded her they were close due to the Holiday. She said she would try calling them. In the meantime, my crew that was there managed to push the wires back into the ceiling and clean up the mess because we were told to open on time, which we did. My DM called me back and told me to start calling the people on the emergeny call list. I started my calling and ended up with the man incharge of construction. He said he was going to send in a crew from Northern California. I let him know that we were not an emergency situation but that No one could reach the Granada Hills store and they should be checked out first. This mans last words to me were youd better be right because this is going to cost a large sum of money. My lost prevention associate received a call from his boss some hours later and was called to Granada Hills. It seems the store was destroyed. Everything was on the floor, registers and all and water everywhere. He said there was a hugs hole in the wall where anyone could crawl in. He said there was a huge crowd camped out in the parking lot and the darker it got, the closer the crowd came. He and his fellow crew were left to protect what was left of the store. Needless to say, the police were tied up elsewhere. The same thing was going on with the Sherman Oaks store. Remember this wwas the larrgest earthquake registered to date in Southern Ca. 6.7. There were over 1000 aftershocks also. That early afternoon I got a call from my DM askng if I could do the La Canada store inventory that night because the store managers apt complex had collasped onto itself, 3 levels and she could not get out. I told her I needed to run home and sleep for a few hours and than would go to that store. All this time I had not seen the overwhelming damage that was done by the quake nor did II take the time to call my Son, who was living in CO. ar the time. Remember after a large quake, you cannot recieve calls into the area. All you get is a constant busy signal. My oldest sister was trying to call me also. II got up and went to the store to inventory at 7pm. Someone had brought in a small TV and that was my first glimspe of the severe damage. All the time I was watching, my feet were moving under me. Like I saiid the aftershocks were constant. We got through the inventory, and I went home to sleep because my inventory was the nex day. I arrived early to my store and got through my invnetory and than finally took the time to call my family members to let them know my daughter and I were okay. The very last thing I did that day wwas call my District Office and beg them to transfer me out of CA, and onto CO. They honored my wish. I never wanted to see such damage from a quake again. p.s. I never got an apology from the man in charge of disastor recovery. I forgive him though. Corporate did give me a reward for my help during the quake. Im alive and healthy. God is great, I know he watches over me. Amen
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 02:42:50 +0000
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