 Northridge earthquake 25 years later, scenes of destruction, collapsed highways, and parking garages. I'm Brian May. Thanks for joining us. And this is the actual epicenter. You see, it was 25 years ago, January the 17th, 1994, at 4.30 in the morning, when on this very spot, the earth began to shake. 20 seconds later, the 6.7 Northridge earthquake had changed this area forever. 57 were killed, 8,700 injured, and it cost $44 billion in damage. Today, as we stand on the exact epicenter, there really is no visible damage from that earthquake. But those who were here 25 years ago, remember it like it was yesterday. Video from shaking cameras in stores shows people rushing around. A seismograph pen jerks back and forth. So before the earthquake hit, the first thing I did was jump on top of my daughter. Seconds later, that's when all the shaking started. Rescue workers searching through rubble. I really thought I was going to die that day. The Northridge earthquake 25 years later, still among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. In less than 30 seconds, 40,000 buildings damaged, 20,000 people forced from their homes. We wanted to get out, and we couldn't get out. We were trapped in the apartment. We were really scared. We were really scared. And then somebody came and pushed us forward, and we were able to get out. Scenes of collapsed highway ramps and bridges. I had not seen that level of devastation. Mario Rueta is now the chief of the San Marino Fire Department in LA County. 25 years ago, he was a firefighter in Los Angeles. The collapsed structures really didn't, you couldn't tell they were collapsed sometimes until you got close. Although there was one parking structure in Northridge that was a parking lot, reinforced concrete. And it looked like it had just been literally crushed by some giant being, unrecognizable. That unrecognizable parking structure was on the campus of Cal State Northridge, about a mile from the epicenter. The earthquake damaged every one of the 107 buildings on campus, including a total collapse of the parking structure. Today, a small garden of twisted rebar and buckled concrete from that parking structure is one of the few visual reminders of just how bad it was 25 years ago. Oh my God, the Kaiser building was, it was like a piece of cake. The whole thing was missing. That's what I remember. We lost major highways and roads, we had building collapses, we had people who were trapped, we had fires, we had loss of water and power. All of the things that we talk about being prepared for. The past 25 years have seen dramatic improvements in building codes and advances in engineering when it comes to earthquake preparedness. But the one thing that hasn't changed is the need for every person living in an earthquake prone area to have a plan. The science is extremely different than it was 25 years ago. We understand much more about how earthquakes happen. Unfortunately, one of the things we learned is they really are very random and prediction is not going to be a solution for us. People need to know that as we saw in a Northridge earthquake, you're going to be out of water for some time, you're not going to be able to have some food for some time. You may not be able to get back into your house because of aftershocks. You can't drive your car around, you may not be able to get to work. You need to have a plan. Know to drop, cover and hold, protect yourself, empower your family and your friends and yourself. We have learned a lot about earthquake preparedness over the last 25 years. If you'd like to find out more information, you can go to the earthquake page on our website, caloes.ca.gov. For all of us at Cal OES, I'm Brian May. Thanks for watching.