On February 9, 2024, Taft experienced an earthquake at 1:47 pm.
The earthquake’s epicenter was located 7 miles northwest of Malibu and had a magnitude of 4.6 (USGS.gov). Students were evacuated shortly after the earthquake.
Students were in class when the shaking occurred. Many expressed the fact that this had been their first earthquake during school hours. After the shaking, students were instructed by Mr.Steiner to stay in the classroom. However, a couple of minutes later, Mr.Steiner announced evacuation.
Students were instructed to stay calm and report to the field. Some students were seen playing soccer and other games to occupy their time. Teachers were seen holding giant posters with their names and room numbers on it to keep their students together.
By the time it was safe to go back, students returned to their classes for the start of Period 6.
To some students, this might have been a way of escaping from their dreary lessons, but others were enraged as the earthquake interrupted their tests.
A freshman who preferred to remain anonymous said, “I’m so mad because we were having a test and I finished it right as the shaking occurred! Now my classmates and I have to re-do the test, which sucks!”
Students from Mr. Gruber’s Strings class were bored and wanted to recreate a scene from The Titanic. They wanted to recreate the scene when the ship was sinking and a few people started playing their violins when the rest of the people were trying to get to the evacuation boats.
26 years ago, on January 17, 1994, Northridge experienced an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7. This earthquake had a devastating effect on the residents, resulting in at least 57 deaths and property loss worth approximately $40 billion.
