Memories of Magna quake still fresh for those whose homes were damaged

MAGNA, Utah — Two years ago today, an earthquake rattled our morning.

We felt it in Salt Lake City, but many people around Magna got hit even harder. One of those areas is a mobile home park, right on the West Valley City line. People there are still living with the reminders of that day.

“There’s another one, marked unsafe,” said Paula Van Hise.

It was the morning when everything changed.

“Yeah, rude awakening, very rude awakening,” Van Hise said.

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Van Hise said belongings started falling from their shelves and walls.

“And my house just rocked back and forth; kids running out of bedrooms, crying,” she said.

So many people here felt it. Dozens of homes were deemed unsafe or restricted.

Noel Johnson’s home was one of those.

“We completely fell off the foundation, like a couple feet forward, and a couple of feet that way,” Johnson said.

Major repairs like that have now been fixed, though she says there are still some minor cracks in her walls.

“The constant reminders are always just there,” she said.

Van Hise said look closely and you see warping around her home’s foundation, where supports still need to be replaced.

“I’ve been in Utah for 20 years, and it wasn’t anything I thought about until we had the earthquake,” she said.

And now, there’s the realization that another one could be just as bad.

“We had to get our porch completely redone,” Johnson said.

But looking back, they are also grateful that no one was hurt. Despite all that damage, they still have their families.

“Just really brought into perspective how blessed we really are in a lot of ways, like the community really reached out a lot to help us, and family helped a lot, and just really brings perspective into all that stuff,” Johnson said.

Some of the homes in Magna now have stronger stabilizers that are supposed to handle the next quake better.

Still, there are some others, like Van Hise, who did not get as much damage, and as a result, haven’t gotten around to getting those fixed because it is expensive.