SCOTTISH airline executive Tony Griffin last night spoke of his fears
for his family as they awoke to the shock waves of the Los Angeles
earthquake.
Mr Griffin, 44, a senior vice president with British Airways based in
California, said that he had felt many tremors while living on the west
coast but nothing as major as yesterday's shock.
He said: ''We were wakened by the house rumbling and shaking about
4.30 in the morning and I got everyone up and we ran into the street in
our nightclothes. As well as the fear of the building collapsing we were
scared of power lines coming down as most of them are overhead here.''
Mr Griffin lives with his American wife Kate, two daughters and a son
at Redondo Beach on the south of the city. Their house was shaken,
dishes thrown from cupboards and smashed, and books hurled from their
shelves.
''Shocks were felt in Las Vegas, 200 miles away, and even as far down
as the Mexican border. This was a big one and I have just heard from my
secretary that her block of flats near San Bernadino has been badly
damaged although everyone seems to have escaped without injury. Her
place is in ruins and they don't know when they will get back in.
Structural engineers have been called out to look at it.'' he added.
Mr Griffin, whose family were well known in the licensed trade in
Glasgow some years ago, has been posted to Los Angeles three times and
is now in charge of service delivery for BA in the western United
States.
He continued: ''We have electricity but a lot of people nearer the
centre of the quake have lost power and are relying on radio for the
news of the damage and casualties. One fear is looting in the chaos
downtown, similar to what went on during the riots of recent years.
''The National Guard has been put on stand-by to help the police and
sheriff's department in keeping peace. We all hope that there is no
trouble.''
Mr Griffin said it had been a blessing that the earthquake had come in
the early hours of the morning because there was so little traffic
around and events like the flattening of a shopping mall on the
outskirts of the city had resulted in few casualties.
He added: ''It is a holiday here for Martin Luther King Day and
fortunately none of the schools or colleges and only a few of the
offices are open.
''I have been in touch with my colleagues at Los Angeles Airport and
although it is working on auxiliary power things are as normal as
possible. It was closed for four hours while checks were made on the
runways.
''BA flights are operating normally, all the crews are fine as they
were booked into a hotel quite near where I live and I will be trying
for the rest of the day to make sure that the locally based airline
people, sonme of whom lived near my secretary, are safe and well.''
Mr Griffin, clearly retaining his Glaswegian sense of humour, said:
''I phoned my mum and dad in Glasgow and they hadn't heard a thing about
it. They asked me what all the fuss was about so I told them there is so
much excitement around here you would think Celtic had beaten Rangers.''
Meanwhile, Scot Janet Taylor described how the freeway started shaking
as she and her husband Kenneth drove towards Los Angeles from their home
in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Mrs Taylor, who left Cumbernauld with her family for the US almost 20
years ago, said: ''At first we thought we had a puncture, then we felt
the road moving and suddenly a ramp about six car lengths in front of us
just collapsed. There were two cars on it. I don't know what happened to
the people.
''In the darkness we could see fires breaking out as gas pipes
fractured.'' Mr Taylor, an engineer in the aerospace industry, had been
on his way to work and planned to drop his wife at the home of their
married daughter so she could baby sit. They were forced to turn their
car on the freeeway and drive to their appartment where their sons,
William, 21, and Kenneth, 25, were waiting.
Mrs Taylor said: ''The swimming pool was half empty because the shock
had forced out much of the water. Our apartment is a mess. Everything
was thrown to the floor. Anything that was breakable broke -- the
television, the microwave, plates and glasses are all in bits. We have
no gas, no electricity and no water but we can sit it out.''
The Taylors' daughter, Mrs Lynn Thomson, 27, and her son Ryan, two,
live closer to Los Angeles. Said Mrs Taylor: ''We have spoken to them by
phone and they are alright but very shaken. Because the roads are out we
can't get near them. It is very worrying.''
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