Owner of two damaged Ridgecrest businesses says his faith remains strong

Jul. 5--Antoun Abdullatif suffered the double indignity Thursday, July 4, when the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck near the Kern County city of Ridgecrest damaged both of his businesses on East Ridgecrest Boulevard.

Abdullatif has operated Eastridge Market, mostly a liquor store, and an adjacent Laundromat, Thrifty Wash Fluff 'N' Fold, for about a dozen years.

He wasn't at work when the quake struck at 10:33 a.m. and terrified his clerk in the store.

"He thought it was the end of the world after all that crazy noise," Abdullatif said. "He saw all the liquor bottles coming down. He thought, 'This is it.'"

Workers were still cleaning up the sticky, smelly, glassy mess well into the evening. Abdullatif's head dropped when an employee opened a narrow liquor closet and showed his boss the pile of glass bottles on the floor, some of them broken.

"You see our money, it's gone. We don't have earthquake insurance. It's like throwing money in the trash. We're lucky nobody got hurt(here)," he said.

The Laundromat fared far better, though part of the trap ceiling fell, and along with the tiles came the insulation.

The market remained open, an important achievement for customers of gasoline and beverages in a city where most stores appeared to beclosed, either because of the holiday or the quake.

Abdullatif reciprocates two or three times per year by holding a free barbecue for his customers. Photos of adults and children gleefully chowing down have been placed along the top of one wall in the cleaning business.

"It's my enjoyment. It's appreciation for business," Abdullatif said.

Abdullatif wore a cross around his neck as he spoke outside the market and considered the day's events. He said his faith in God remains strong.

"Always," he said. "If you don't have faith, you don't have life."

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