Their entire house was shaking so violently that their bed broke, causing them to fall in the middle. Recently, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Ridgecrest, California, impacting the homes and lives of 3,400 people in the Oregon community.
Macintosh remembers that after the jolts stopped, he ran downstairs, and his face was hit by natural gas leaking from a broken line. The neighbors were screaming, and the state’s earthquake alert phones were ringing.
“I never thought we would experience something like this,” she recalls tearfully telling her husband that day.
Macintosh said that on December 20, 2022, the earthquake claimed the lives of two people and displaced hundreds from their homes – the foundation of her house shattered, and it shifted 22 inches towards the east, rendering it uninhabitable.
Her house was red-tagged, meaning it was deemed highly dangerous for inspectors to enter. Six months later, Macintosh is still paying rent for a home, and it is estimated to cost her around $150,000 for the repairs.
It’s priceless,” Macintosh said, who was just looking for a buyer for her house when the quake struck. “Now I have a colossal loan burden that will drive me crazy.”
Macintosh is among hundreds of people still struggling since the Ridgecrest earthquake in Rio Dell. They and other residents of California are also among the thousands who lack earthquake insurance for assistance with repairs and the tens of thousands still living in older homes that have not been retrofitted to meet current seismic building codes.
The destruction in Ridgecrest has exposed the risk that many Californians are facing – living in a state where earthquakes that cause more damage compared to others occur frequently, either due to lack of caution or the ability to take preventative measures and subsequent financial ruin.
Kyle Knopp, the city manager of Rio Dell, said, “Not having it is a gamble.”
