'There was screaming, there was chaos': Mom records shocking earthquake video during children's performance

Mahira Dayal
Updated

A mom videotaped chaos and panic that ensued during a 6.4-magnitude California earthquake at a Fourth of July children’s play.

Yari Mower, a mother whose three children were performing “Our Country Tis of Thee” at Burroughs High School Performing Arts Center in Ridgecrest, Calif., captured the Thursday quake on camera.

“There was screaming, there was chaos. People were trying to get out — everything was shaking violently,” Mower, whose two other children were watching from the audience, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through.”

Thirty minutes into the performance featuring 65 children, the earthquake struck. While Mower believes that nobody was seriously injured, she says that a wall collapsed after the center was evacuated. No one has since been allowed back inside.

Mower says the experience was “terrifying” and locals remain on edge. “Everyone’s on high alert, everyone’s on edge and everyone’s feeling anxiety.”

The mom praised her neighbors for supporting each other. “Even though a terrible thing happened today, I saw how our community helped each other out and our American spirit truly shown,” she wrote on Facebook.

Mower has lived in the area for 13 years, and has never felt an earthquake this strong. “It rattled everything,” she says.

In fact, the Fourth of July earthquake was the strongest that Southern California has seen in 20 years.

Representatives from Burroughs High School and the Ridgecrest Police Department could not immediately be reached by Yahoo Lifestyle for comment.

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