KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – On September 20th of 1993, a 6.0 earthquake rolled through Klamath Falls.
Firefighter John Spradley was off duty at home when the quake hit. He recalled, “As soon as the quake hit, we had an all call and all personnel responded to their stations, and we were then on duty for several days.”
Older brick buildings were hit particularly hard by the earthquake.
A car parked next to the old Stevens Hotel was nearly buried under rubble.
NBC’s Pat Kruse reported from the downtown area the next morning, saying, “About 5 buildings have the damage of this one in downtown Klamath Falls, with bricks cascading to the ground below.”
Boulders rolled down from hillsides north of Klamath Falls onto Highway 97.
“The Klamath Falls earthquake did take the lives of two people,” Kruse reported. “One man was crushed by a boulder as he was driving down the highway, and an elderly woman had a heart attack during an aftershock.”
The Klamath County Courthouse was damaged beyond repair.
“We had collapsed buildings,” recalled Spradley, who now serves as Fire Chief for Klamath County Fire District #1. “We were securing all the buildings and getting them evaluated by engineers to find out what their condition was.”
Many private homes were knocked off foundations and had broken chimneys.
All rail traffic came to a halt.
Sections of Main Street were shut down due to fears of falling bricks and masonry from aftershocks.
Reporter Monte Muirhead did a story on highway damage: “State highway crews inspected the highway 97 bridge over the Klamath River, looking for structural damage. Last night’s quake reportedly moved the bridge six inches.”
Aftershocks continued for several months.
NBC reporter Kruse noted, “The people who went through this earthquake know that they went through one of the hardest shakings that Oregon has ever taken.”
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.