Kern County Earthquake 1952: The Memory of Ken Vetter

Bakersfield, CA (KGET) – Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most dramatic, deadly and community-changing events in Kern County history: the summer earthquakes of 1952.

For 33 days, beginning on July 21, 1952, locals walked on nails and needles as one aftershock shook the county.

Read more from KGET’s Robert Price in 17 news specials.

Ken Vetter, a 22-year-old insurance salesman—who years later worked for Bakersfield City Council and the Bakersfield Police Committee—was asleep in his small apartment off Bernard Street when he was shocked to his feet.

EQ-52: Ken Brenneman, who was about 9 years old, remembers shaking — and terrified movie theater

His front door opened just in time to turn back by a huge asymmetric wave of water and debris. The steel spider legs of the 100-foot-high water tank across the street, 300 feet away, swerved, the tank crashed to the ground and exploded, sending a quarter of a million gallons of water, peppered with hundreds of steel spikes, gushing toward it. I threw Vetter back like a rag doll and destroyed the entire east-facing wall of his apartment.

“All the debris, the furniture, the bed, all were piled up at the end of the room,” Vetter said.

Vetter, jumping to his feet, suddenly noticed a scream coming from the apartment above his house.

He ran upstairs and rescued his neighbours, a single mother and her young son. The tidal wave had veered from his first-floor apartment with enough force to shatter the upstairs window, sending shards of glass flying off.

The huge wave headed into a river and streamed west down Bernard Street, toward downtown, flowing right through the middle of the sales yard for Galey’s Marine Supply, a local boating agency. People usually pull their boats into the river; On this strange morning, the river came to the boats.

EQ-52: 33 Days That Changed Bakersfield

Vetter staggered before his ruined apartment, dazed, not sure what to do next. A boy came up to him and pointed to the Saint Christopher’s medal that Vetter had around his neck. The boy said: This is what saved you.

Some cannot be saved. In Tehachapi, which bore the brunt of the first earthquake, 12 people were killed – most in a horrific building collapse.

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