In the early morning of January 17th, a 6.6 scale earthquake struck the Los Angeles area. Ian Fraigun, a member of DPMA, and members of his family were shaken from their beds.
It took some time to find shoes, clothes and flashlights, and to pick their way through the broken class, just to escape the possibility of being crushed.
Upon clearing the house, Ian positioned two of the family automobiles to serve as temporary shelters and tuned the battery radio to the emergency channel. An Announcement from the Cal Tech Seismology Lab told them of their situation. Other than what was already done, they could do no more to help themselves.
Ian’s family had lived through several previous quakes, including one in 1971 which took 68 lives. The worst place hit during that temblor was a VA hospital. Ian, believing lightning would never strike twice in the same place, purchased a home built on the site of the ruined hospital.
He stocked the family automobiles with three days’ supply of food, blankets, and flashlights. Their home water heater held 50 gallons of water, each toilet tank five to seven gallons, and a stored five gallon plastic bottle should hold them through the worst case scenario.
They were as prepared as one could be for an unknown strike by the shift of a tectonic plate.
This time, after seeing to the safety of his family, Ian joined a few of his neighbors, some of whom he had not so much as a speaking acquaintance. They went house to house in all directions, checking to see if all occupants of all homes were evacuated and giving assistance where needed.
Fifteen hours later, and with the return of electric power, Ian immediately logged onto Prodigy. He discovered hundreds of frantic messages from people across the United States who were unable to contact their loved ones.
Prodigy, rising to the call, provided “Free from Time Charges” for discussions on the earthquake and placed no burden on the already overcrowded long distance lines.
During the next several days, Ian took messages, attempted to contact and ascertain the health of strangers, and reported back to their families on the “Information Super Highway”.
Ian laughs off the appellation of “Hero”. He speaks instead of the dozen bottles of wine he lost, “Good Wine, too”, he says. He talks of the earthquake insurance coverage. “I’ll have to come up with approximately $15,000 from my own pocket”.
He lightly states his chimney is six inches from the wall, and the camera he used to take pictures of the damage was found to contain no film.
But all aside, I asked, “You were there for your neighbors. You epitomized our ethics code on the Prodigy line”.
“No”, he state, now more sedately, “All that was therapy for me. It gave me the feeling I had control over my life”.
And then he turns again to the eternal optimist. “Tell them all there’s not a DPMA chapter that can shake things up like the San Fernando Valley.”