I didn't get back home to Cali until April of '94. When I did, everyone I talked to, had a story to tell about the quake. My future wife told me that she was thrown from her bed in the hills of Burbank. One good buddy was spooked so badly by the quake that he permanently moved to Florida. Others told me of damage to personal goods, and many were getting their houses bolted to their foundations to prevent them from slipping off in any future disturbances. All of them described the feelings of shock and helplessness that you did.
No, I'm not sorry I missed all that.
Had I been home, I would have likely ridden it out in the Silverlake area where I lived at the time. From what I heard later, it wasn't too bad there.
I still remember the after-effects, though. People were still living in makeshift camps. Piles of bricks were still on nearly every street in the Valley. Seemed like everywhere you turned, people were either still talking about it, or cleaning up the damage. Because I'm in the building trades, I wound up doing lots of repair work that first year back.