Earthquakes! (Natural Disasters Series)

EARTHQUAKE! (1973): This film, presented by The President's Office of Emergency Preparedness and the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, documents the horrific San Fernando Earthquake of February of 1971 that shook "most of California...like an angry parent shakes a screaming child." The quake, which was a 6.6 on the Richter scale, resulted in 65 deaths and created widespread chaos in the area. Police warn "Beware of looters!" from patrolling cars. Vice President Spiro Agnew arrives to report that President Nixon is "...terribly concerned. He was in an earthquake himself."

EARTHQUAKE BELOW (1975): Part of NASA's Rediscovery Earth Science Film Series meant for classrooms, Earthquake Below looks at the history of quakes in California, from 1906 in San Francisco to 1972 in Los Angeles, and examines the potential threat for future disasters. "San Francisco...a glory...a pride...a sparkling jewel of a city..." says narrator Peter Thomas, "...but yet, a specter walks these streets...shoulder to shoulder with the people." A heartbreaking scene where a distraught woman finds her mother in the rubble is not for the faint of heart.

PERU: QUAKE AND RECOVERY (1971): A sober recounting produced for the Peace Corps of the 1970 Peru earthquake that took the lives of approximately 66,000 people and is considered the worst natural disaster in the history of the Western Hemisphere. "Some natural events are so powerful, affect so many people, that they become points of reference in the lives of those people, replacing dates and years. After a while, the events transcend their own circumstances, and become yardsticks by which personal histories are measured."