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CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
FOLLOWING JANUARY 17 1 1994 EARTHQUAKE

JANUARY 17, 1994

EARTHQUAKE - 4:31 a.m.

5:00 a.m. - Crews in field assessing damage

• 5:15 a.m. - City staff and amateur radio operators arrived
• 5:15 a.m. - City Yard opened

• 5:35 a.m. - EOG opens in City Hall Council Chambers
• Other agencies, Fire, Sheriff, Gas Co., Red Cross, So. California Edison, arrived at EOG

5:45 a.m. - State of emergency declared
• 6:30 a.m. - Streets Division made contact with Sheriff (Traffic Division) and determined Sierra
Highway was the only open road in and out of The Santa Clarita Valley, Route 14 and 1-5
were closed due to bridge damage.

• Numerous after shocks rock City Hall
• 7:00 a.m. - First aid shelter set up with Fire Dept. at Canyon Country Park
• Interstate 5 Freeway collapsed at junction with Route 14 (Antelope Valley Freeway) and at Gavin
Canyon

• Numerous roads and bridges closed
• Temporary detours established with Sheriff, CHP, and Caltrans
• 7:30 a.m. - Detour routes in place but still modifying as more facts were discovered.

• 11 :00 a.m. - Streets Division crews began ramping all raised bridges and removing debris in the
public right-of-way.
• 8:30 p.m. - Streets Division evaluated bridges and detours to determine which should be closed;
those closed were McBean, south of Newhall Ranch Road; and Wiley Canyon, west of Orchard
Village.

• Volunteers begin working within hours of the earthquake
• Santa Clarita Transit transports Sheriff's Department to Pitchess Honor Rancho
• Four Corners oil spill occurred, causing oil to spill into the Santa Clara River

• Numerous gas leaks reported

• Warning signs, road closures posted
• Electricity out valley-wide
• All five municipal pools severely damaged by earthquake

Fire sprinklers on at City Yard -- manually shut off