Gorey men witness the LA earthquake

January 1994

Four men from Gorey and district had lucky escapes from death or injury in last week’s Los Angeles earthquake, which killed at least 34 people, injured amost 2,000 and caused an e stimate d $7 billion worth of damage .

The four were Michael Stokes, from Raheenagurren West; Jim D’Arcy, a native of Annagh, Gorey; his nephew Timothy D’Arcy, Mount St. Benedict, Gorey; and Kevin Crehan, Ramsfort Park, Gorey.

However, their homes and property were damaged in the pre-dawn earthquake which measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale and which was officially described as ‘the city’s worst earthquake disaster’.

For the families of the quartet, who all live and work in Los Angeles, there were many hours of anxious waiting until they could contact home to say they were safe.

The news of the disaster first came on the radio at about 12 noon Irish time, but it was five hours later before word came through that they were all safe and well.

On the phone from his Los Angeles apartment, Michael Stokes (25), in an exclusive interview with this newspaper, told of his nightmare ordeal during the ‘quake. ‘I was never as frightened in my life,’ he said.

Michael Stokes, who is only son of Sean and Rita Stokes, Raheenagurren West, lives in North Hollywood in the San Fernando area of Los Angeles, only a five miles drive from the epicentre of the earthquake. He has been working in the city for the past three years.

Michael said: ‘I was in bed and at 4.30 a.m. I was suddenly awakened when the whole place started to shake. It lasted only 30 seconds but it seemed like a lifetime.

‘The power had gone…it was pitch black…and I could hear everything falling to the floor,’ he said. ‘I managed to get dressed and stumble outside. All my neighbours were also on the street, and we ended up going to the apartment of another neighbour, where we stayed for a couple of hours.

‘I returned to my apartment at dawn, to see the damage,’ he went on. ‘Fortunately the structure of the building was okay, but windows were broken and everything was scattered about inside.

‘I just sat there for a while. I could see in the distance power stations exploding and blue streaks of lightning illuminating the sky. Everything seemed to be burning, and there was a smell of gas and smoke everywhere.

‘It was my first taste of an earthquake, and it was a harrowing experience,’ he said. ‘I was never as frightened in my life.

‘I got no sleep on the night after the quake, because of the after-shocks. On the following night, I was still too nervous to sleep. It was two nights later before I got any sleep at all, and even then, the after-shocks were still going on.

‘There’s after being more than a thousand of them already,’ he reported on Friday afternoon (Irish time).