Los Angeles Times Special Quake Report: One Year Later : Still Shaken / Voices : From the Epicenter to D.C.: Reflections on the Devastation : KAREN UZIEL

When a sonic boom from the space shuttle shattered the air last month, 14-year-old Karen Uziel screamed and dove under her desk at school, terrified that the loud sound signified the beginning of another earthquake. Karen and her sister, Michelle, 10, have yet to move back into their quake-ravaged Northridge home; they and their parents, Michael and Zvia Uziel, are still living in an Encino condominium the family rented after spending months in the home of a friend and at a hotel.

*

Everything here is so white. It doesn’t have any color, and the simplicity makes it uncomfortable. It doesn’t compare with the house in Northridge. The walls had handprints on them and pictures, but you knew they were your handprints and pictures. My parents had pictures of us in their room, pictures of their marriage, of our grandparents. You knew it was our house.

When the earthquake struck, she said : I was thinking about getting into the doorway and staying alive. Everything was dark, except there was the light that comes from the dawn. You could see the chandelier, see it shaking. (Potted plants) tipped over. You could smell the soil. You could smell all the products we had in our bathroom--perfume, medicine, chemicals, all mixed together.

I was really afraid I was going to die. I thought, ‘This is the way I’m going to die. I’m going to die in the dark without my family. I’m going to be buried by my stuff. At such an early age.’

The family’s losses in the quake were staggering: the temblor unleashed piles of white powder that Michael Uziel, an environmental health specialist, recognized as asbestos. Everything with any kind of porous surface--clothing, upholstered furniture, books, toys--was thrown away.

I lost everything I collected over the years. I had a doll collection from around the world which I lost, a porcelain doll collection, all of my books, most of the stuff in my closets. Projects, posters, lamps, desk, bookcases, drawers, all the basic stuff I had in the room. I had to throw all those things away. It was really hard, but I didn’t want to die of asbestos cancer.

My friends are handling it pretty well. We all get scared every time there’s an aftershock. I think everybody gets scared of the fact that there’s going to be more earthquakes and they can’t control it. I stand in the doorway and I’m just scared.