We take a lot of things for granted, like the ground under our feet. When everything is shaking and the very building that a moment before offered shelter and protection is swaying, our sense of security vanishes.

On July 4, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Ridgecrest, California, followed by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake the following day. Ridgecrest, is the location of the Naval Branch Health Clinic which supports Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, a branch health clinic of Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, approximately 136 miles distant, across the Mojave Desert.

The following is a recounting from Naval Branch Clinic personnel who described their experiences on the 4th of July weekend.

Chief Hospital Corpsman Katrina Caines, Branch Health Clinic Senior Enlisted Leader. Hometown: Dayton, Ohio.

“On the 4th of July, the Chiefs had a firework stand and I was out working that and everything started shaking. Everything was falling off the shelves. It wasn’t stopping. I had to get back to base and it was like a scene from the movies. I was going in and out of traffic because everyone had stopped where they were and were standing outside their vehicles. All of the traffic lights had turned red so you pretty much rolled up to them, and if there was nobody coming, you just go. The cell phones were down so there was no communication whatsoever. Everybody in family housing was standing around outside in groups,  making sure everyone was okay, there were adults on scooters riding around to get to places faster just to make sure that everyone was okay. Everybody came together.

“The following night, when the 7.2 quake hit, I was at home. My two kids (ages eight and 10) were still quite scared. I was in the backyard setting up a tent and had just gotten my son to actually come in the house and sit down when the second quake hit. My daughter came out the backdoor; my son was out the front door. We were initially all separated. I grabbed my daughter and we tried to run around from the back of the house to the front to find her brother. You couldn’t even stand. Everything was shaking. The car alarms were all going off. Everybody was outside again. We were checking on each other. I put the kids in the car. Lt. Stephenson came by my house to make sure I was okay. Her husband came by on the scooter. I told her I was going to check on other personnel. Then I drove over to HM1 [Hospital Corpsman 1st Class] Peraz’s and we split up housing to check on personnel because we wanted 100 percent accountability. HM2 [Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class] Loving pulled up at about that time and I sent him over to the barracks to verify that all of the staff in the barracks were okay.

Ridgecrest Regional Hospital was damaged by the first quake and its emergency room was closed to ambulance traffic.

“When I arrived at the Branch Health Clinic, my staff was already setting up. I came in and was just directing. I talked to the EOC (emergency operations center) and our alternate location was supposed to be at the East Wing of the Chapel, but that building was damaged. We picked the east side of the clinic to set up a first-aid station. There was no power. So we circled our vehicles around to light up the area so that we could set up and people could see where they needed to go. We had already, from the previous day when we had the 6.4 quake, loaded up our duty van with all kinds of supplies for first aid, BLS (basic life-saving skills) and everything. And we left it stationed at the chapel so someone ran over and got that and brought it back. We got as much equipment out as we could, the oxygen tanks and everything. There were six calls for ambulances. We only received one individual who had been in a camper and was thrown around and fell. Doc treated her and she left with assistance on crutches.

“I had quite a bit of damage to my house. I lost my televisions, my computer, most of my dishes. The appliances I had on my counters all fell. Even the glassware that I had in my dishwasher broke. All of the dressers fell over and got damaged. My fridge opened up and fell forward so I lost all of my food. I had a bearded dragon lizard and he had lights on top of his cage that were knocked loose. When I went to check on the house after power was restored, those [lights] were actually on some clothes and had burned through so if I hadn’t have caught it, the house may have burned down. Bearded dragon is doing good, though.  

Caines said that with the aid of trauma counselors they were able to get her son to sleep in the house. “Any time there’s any sound, even the dog sneezing, he runs for the door. If there’s an aftershock, our dog runs for the front door too. They’re not sleeping. Dark is the worst. During the day they do pretty good but at around 8:20 at night, right around the time of the quake, they start to have a lot of anxiety. My son’s having panic attacks and we just try to talk him down. We’re going to take care of each other.”

Hospital Corpsman Second Class Quetzalli Hurtazilli, Branch Clinic Laboratory Leading Petty Officer. Hometown: Los Angeles, California.

“So, the very first quake that happened was the 4.6. I was actually lying in bed. I’ve grown up in California most of my life, so it was like, okay, earthquake, fine. I didn’t have to worry because my family is in the LA area. They were on their way here. Then the 6.4 quake happened and I got up and I was like, oh, I actually have to hold on for this one. Right after that I got in my car, went to check on my neighbors, drove by my friends’ house to make sure they were okay. Then we drove [to the branch health clinic]. The COD (Chief of the Day) was Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Smith. We got a hold of everyone who was in the area. A lot of people were travelling. We set up an aid station at the chapel and were ready for patients.  We were thinking, it’s the 4th of July, nothing’s open, a lot of these kids don’t have any food.  [HM2 Hurtazilli refers to junior Sailors as her kids]. So they were all here ready to help and they were hungry. I left base to try to get them some food and water. I drove by Big Lots and even though they were closed, the manager gave us some cases of water. I brought back soup from Denny’s. We were able to have food and water. We realized we didn’t really have any patients [other than the one leg injury]. Thankfully, nobody got hurt. So I was like, okay, what about all of the families on base? I’m sure they’re going to need something to eat. The chaplain luckily had a lot of chicken in the freezer. We set up a charcoal grill. I brought seasonings and my pressure cooker to make beans. We grilled chicken and put a message out on Facebook saying we can feed whoever has kids.

“The following night the big one hit. I was home alone again and went straight to the doorway. This time it was knocking me off my feet. I dove under my table, waiting for it to calm down. Then I got in my car and I went to check neighbors and my friend. Then I drove straight over here [to the branch health clinic]. All these Sailors, the juniors, they were already here and they were ready to go. It gives me chills I’m so proud of them. I would deploy with any of them and I feel they’ve earned their caduceus’ -- because that’s what it takes to be a corpsman, your first thought is, how do I help?”

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Briar Smith, Leading Petty Officer for Preventive Medicine. Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri.

“I was luckily enough to be on duty as the COD (Chief of the Day). I was actually here for the 4.6 quake, it was me and Lt. Stevenson. I was doing the checks, making sure immunizations and the computers were all good. We thought at first it was an ordnance explosion. After the checks were done, I left base and was in the La Mirage sub-division (off-base) and that’s when the second quake hit. I thought I had a flat tire because my car was violently shaking. I got out and then I was shaking. I thought, ‘Oh, this is an earthquake.’ So I rushed back to the clinic to make sure power hadn’t gone out. We had the capability to put up first aid if anybody needed it. And then after everything calmed down I went home. When the 7.2 quake hit, I returned to the Clinic and we stood up the first-aid team again. First responders came over and were assisting. We had the mass casualty equipment out just in case. Northwest Regional had shut down. Emergency Management was going to land a helicopter in case we needed it to evacuate patients; but we ended up seeing only one patient. We were lucky.”

Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Carissa Truno, Preventive Medicine Technician. Hometown: Hesperia, California.

[For the first quake] “I was at home just lying on the couch and suddenly it started shaking [she lives off base]. I ran to my doorway where it was most stable. II was ready to run outside if it got worse. I texted the COD to see if we needed to check on the Clinic. He said he’s going over there. I told him I would meet him. We did a run through and to make sure everything was still working. I was particularly concerned about the medications and all of that expensive equipment.

“When the second quake hit, I was on the phone, on the couch again. Again I ran to my door because it was sudden and intense. I knew for sure that we would have to return to the clinic. I was worried about the electricity going out which would mean that we would have to get that generator started for the meds again. I asked my LPO to pick me up on the way to the clinic because I didn’t want to drive. The Clinic is our home and you have to protect your home. That’s the first thing that came to mind.”

Hospitalman Apprentice Chrystal Bailey, Clinic AVT (Aeromedical Technician). Hometown:  New York City.

“During the first quake I was at the gym on base. My neck was right under the squat rack. I was about to do a set. It hit and the people around me were yelling, the lights were flickering off and on, the weights were bouncing. It was terrifying. It was the hardest thing getting out of the building. People were yelling and lights were flickering, the floor was moving under me. It was crazy, but we all got out safely. After that, I went back into the building to make sure everyone was out. I grabbed my shoes and went to the barracks because I thought my roommate was alone and my phone wasn’t working. I checked on her and she was fine.

“For the second quake I was with my friends. We were at their quad in the common space [enlisted barracks]. We were watching a movie. It happened again and it was even harder this time to actually get out of the room. They were holding onto the doorframes and I was clinging to the couch. The lights were going on and off again.”

Hospitalman Cecilia Borns. Hometown: Tucson, Arizona.

“I was in the barracks on that 4th of July and I was just about to get ready for the holiday festivities when it hit. I’m from Arizona, so I’ve never felt an earthquake before. It was quite a shock. At first I was thinking maybe it was an ordnance explosion, or something from the 4th of July. Then the 6.4 hit and I knew it was something abnormal and I had to rush out of the building. I had to make sure I was going to be okay and the building around me wasn’t going to crumble.

“For the second quake, same thing -- I was in the barracks taking a shower, just kind of relaxed for the night. And that’s when the rattling really started and it was stronger. It didn’t last as long as the 6.4 but as soon as it was rattling again, I felt the same fight or flight response. I saw people running out of the barracks and this one was stronger so I made sure the people I knew in the barracks were safe. I was like hey! Are we safe? Are we out? We need to go back to the clinic.

“We have a lot of mock training and simulations with shaking buildings, sounds and screams and simulations of what may happen in a crisis and or trauma event. When you are really adaptive of the training, when something like this happens, you just go into first-responder mode. After we had all checked each other out, we were ready to serve the public. It was a really good time to know that my chain of command, the people I could rely on just went into action. The sacrifices they made regarding their own families – that was my biggest empathetic moment.”

Lt. Rachel Stevenson, Senior Medical Officer and Department Head of Family Medicine. Hometown: Libby, Montana.

“I was home initially with my family and then came to the clinic after everyone was secured at home.

“It was pretty scary. I have four children so our priority was to get to all of the kids, get them out of the house and to safety. I have a seven-year-old, a four-year-old and twin nine-months-olds.

“I had just been at the clinic working prior to it finishing up some work before the holiday weekend. I got back home. My older girls were in the garage playing and my babies were sleeping in the back bedroom when the 6.4 quake hit. We quickly got the babies, got the big girls, and went outside.

“For the 7.2 quake, I was putting my children to bed. We were all in the back bedroom together. My kids were pretty scared and didn’t want to be alone. My husband was in the back part of the house cleaning up from dinner. We felt a small aftershock and I was reassuring them, getting the big girls in bed and calming them down. The 7.2 quake hit. We had strategically placed everyone near a slider door. I grabbed one of the babies and shoved my bigger two out the door. The dresser fell down and blocked my way so I couldn’t get to the other baby. I kept shoving the big girls outside. My husband ran from the front part of the house and he grabbed the other baby and maneuvered his way out. We went from the backyard to the front yard, met up with all of the neighbors, all huddling together in the middle of the street for safety because we were continuing to get aftershocks. We weren’t sure if it was over. So we were there with several other families and their children. Everyone was pretty scared. There were a few scrapes and cuts. People did fall over. Some people were outside and had fallen down on the road and sidewalks. There were kids playing outside. So, I was assessing everyone’s condition. We did a head count of all of the neighbors to make sure that everyone who had small kids had gotten their small kids out of bed and out and that the big kids who were playing were all accounted for. It was mainly a head count, making sure everyone was safe. That took a little bit of time. Once we figured out there was some pretty big destruction, I loaded up my family in the van and we drove to the clinic to start helping out.

My team was already at the Clinic. My Sailors and Chief [Petty Officer] were already here. A lot of the Sailors came with their families; the single Sailors came right over. They already had supplies out. They were already set up. We had gotten word an ambulance was bringing in a patient. We were told that Ridgecrest [Regional Hospital] was down. So we were the first responders. My team was on it. They were set up and good to go. All I had to do was come in and meet the patient in the back of the ambulance and start treating.”

Lt. Cmdr. Henry Bird, Officer in Charge of Branch Health Clinic China Lake. Hometown: Springfield, Missouri.

Bird was traveling during the holiday and didn’t experience the earthquakes first hand.

“There was actually very little damage to the clinic itself. A lot of ceiling tiles fell down. The building itself survived very well. The damage occurred with loose things inside the building, shelves falling over, records falling off onto the floor, bookshelves falling over and medications falling from their shelves.

[As of July 10] “We have the clinic cleaned up. It’s been inspected and is safe for patients to enter. Right now, the only thing we’re lacking is network capability. But we’re prepared to offer care and document everything on paper until the network comes back up.

“We’re hoping the network comes back online today but you never know with this type of stuff.

[As of this writing, the electronic network has not yet come back online].

“It’s been outstanding teamwork. Everybody came together like a family. Right after the quake, the team was here at the clinic within minutes. The team stood up the first aid station. Everybody has come together as family. I’m very impressed and proud. When I saw the damage from the earthquakes and the mess it made, I thought it would take a week to get cleaned up and back in order. Everybody came in Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. We hit it hard and by noon it was a totally different place.”

Branch Health Clinic China Lake sees approximately 100 patients daily (prescriptions, Occupational Health, family medicine). With a staff of 61, they support operations on the Naval Air Weapons Station. As of this writing, clinic electronic connectivity continues to be offline. On the morning of July 12, a 4.6 aftershock occurred. Aftershocks are expected to continue into the foreseeable future.

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