- Dates
- 1994-01-17 – 1994-01-19
- Kind
- Rescue
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- aviationdisasteremergency-managementtransportationcommunication
- Within
- Beaver Island · place/california
Summary
After the Northridge earthquake on January 17, 1994, Paul Welke flew from Beaver Island to California with Marilyn McFarland to retrieve her sister’s dogs. The account describes weather delays and overnight stops, a landing at Van Nuys just before the airport closed to National Guard traffic, damage to the family home, and the return trip with the dogs.
Evidence limits
This is a first-person retrospective published in 2008, not a flight log, disaster-response record, or independent account of the earthquake damage.
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, September 2008, "The View from One Thousand Feet."Publishes Paul Welke’s retrospective of flying from Beaver Island through Bay City and Kansas City to Van Nuys after the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake to retrieve Carolyn and Mark’s dogs from their damaged home. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2008-09_Beaver-Beacon
- The held issue scan confirms the retrospective flight account.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2008-09_Beaver-Beacon
Added 5 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Paul Welke flies to California after the Northridge earthquake to retrieve dogs, 1994”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-paul-welke-northridge-earthquake-rescue-1994/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, September 2008, "The View from One Thousand Feet." (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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