22 years ago today,the Loma Prieta earthquake

[robdogbucky]

And no mention of it in the local press. Everyone seems to have forgotten about it.



The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake,<4> was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time. Caused by a slip along the San Andreas Fault, the quake lasted 10–15 seconds<1> and measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale<5> (surface-wave magnitude 7.1) or 6.9 on the open-ended Richter Scale.<1> The quake killed 63<2> people throughout northern California, injured 3,757<3> and left some 3,000-12,000<1><6><7><8> people homeless.

The earthquake occurred during the warm-up practice for the third game of the 1989 World Series, featuring both of the Bay Area's Major League Baseball teams, the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Because of game-related sports coverage, this was the first major earthquake in the United States of America to have its initial jolt broadcast live on television...

...Fifty-seven of the deaths were directly caused by the earthquake; six further fatalities were ruled to have been caused indirectly.<2> In addition, there were 3,757<3> injuries as a result of the earthquake—400 severely hurt.<1> The highest number of fatalities, 42,<12> occurred in the City of Oakland because of the failure of the Cypress Street Viaduct on the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880), where a double-deck portion of the freeway collapsed, crushing the cars on the lower deck. One 50-foot (15 m) section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also collapsed, leading to the single fatality on the bridge. Three people were killed in the collapse of the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz, and five people were killed in the collapse of a brick wall on Bluxome Street in San Francisco.<4[br />
When the earthquake hit, the third game of the 1989 World Series baseball championship was just beginning. Because of the unusual circumstance that both of the World Series teams (the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics) were based in the affected area, many people had left work early or were staying late to participate in after work group viewings and parties. As a consequence, the usually crowded freeways contained exceptionally light traffic. If traffic had been normal for a Tuesday rush hour, injuries and deaths could have been higher. The initial media reports failed to take into account the game's effect on traffic and initially estimated the death toll at 300, a number that was corrected to 63 in the days after the earthquake...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake




I was on the 5 o'clock N bus

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I forgot it was today, but i haven't forgotten it...

At that time, my parents were living about 5 miles from the epicenter...

Their house was well-built, and it survived. As did they...

Thanks for the very timely reminder!

[neverforget]

2. I remember exactly where I was: basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky

The soldiers from California got to call home which was a pretty big deal at that time in our training.

[Ian David]

3. I remember helping people in my dorm get in touch with loved ones through CompuServe...

... and volunteers with the HAM Radio Relay network.

[Starry Messenger]

4. I was upstairs in my bedroom doorway listening to my mom's crystal hitting the inside of the hutch.

My brother was downstairs in the kitchen doorway yelling that he was going to try to save it, and I was screaming back to him to leave it alone. Waterford, she used to love it. Not anymore.

[truedelphi]

5. In all the flurry and scurry in the days after the

Earthquake, I never realized that the death total came down. So I was surprised to find that the finalized figure was much lower through reading your posts.

For all these years, I thought that some 300 plus had died that day.

So, glad you posted this.

[XemaSab]

18. The initial headline was

HUNDREDS DEAD IN HUGE QUAKE

Thankfully, the death toll went down instead of up.

[Cant trust em]

6. I was sitting downstairs waiting for game 3 to start.

I remember wondering what my sister upstairs was doing to be shaking the house.

[robdogbucky]

7. That 5 o'clock N bus was on the Bay Bridge

And 2 years later almost to the day a fire consumed the Oakland Hills to about 6 blocks from my place.

In 1980 I was in Phoenix for the 100-year flood.

I was starting to feel like a Zelig character but in terms of disasters with a ringside seat.



I'm still here

[MNBrewer]

11. That fire was a doosie, too.

Car wreck for me that day. I remember watching the fire march down the east bay hills.

[jemsan]

14. no kidding

[MzNov]

20. I was on 4:00 bus from Transbay Terminal to East Bay

just got over the bay bridge, walked in the door and rock 'n roll! My cats were hiding and I couldn't figure out why. They didn't come out of the bedroom for 2 weeks and I had to feed them on the ironing board!

:toast: here's to survival and to the memory of those who didn't make it. :-(

[Gormy Cuss]

29. I checked your profile, and I have a request.

Please move. You live too close to me.
:hi:

[diane in sf]

8. I went to the beach up in Marin because when I woke up I felt like I couldn't breathe

so I moved my business appointments earlier and left for the beach at 1. Once I crossed the Golden Gate bridge I felt like I could breathe again. The weather was hot and dry and the moon was full. People who were lying down felt the earthquake--and it was strong and lasted a long time, people running around playing frisbee didn't. Lots of people had radios because of the series. They started saying "the Bay Bridge fell down" of course no one believed it for a while...

[bluestateguy]

9. There was some mention at the 20 year anniversary

If if didn't happen in the East the national media doesn't give a shit.

[MNBrewer]

10. In the Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley

Had just moved to Berkeley from Georgia and had never felt an earthquake before. Very strange day.

[Yavin4]

12. I Was There. Lived At Jackson & Van Ness in SF

I was home from work that day. I settled in to watch the WS and was just about to order a pizza when it hit.

It was scary. The sound of my blinds smacking against the window still haunts.

[cascadiance]

13. I remember it well, one of my customers had the first baby after this quake...

... as she was featured on a newscast then when we finally got our power back then.

Unfortunately, my sister was working down in L.A. where they felt it too in a high rise in the enter of town there. One of her coworkers was on the phone at the time with her daughter who was on a cell phone when the bridge collapsed there. Unfortunately her coworker's daughter was one that was driving in one of the cars that got crushed by that bridge then, and her coworker heard her last words before the line went out...

Still remember that when the power came on, and I powered up my television, it came up on a cable channel that was showing the relatively new at the time "Lost Boys" movie then, which is rather ironic, since it was filmed in Santa Cruz where the earthquake was centered, and the story of this film was that the vampires were sealed in their mountain lair by the earlier San Francisco earthquake. Kind of spooky when I thought about it.

[TahitiNut]

15. Yup. I "rode" it out on the 4th floor of IBM Labs at Santa Teresa.

About 5-7 miles from the epicenter. It was a WILD ride ... and the ride home to Cupertino was insane. Buckled pavement, outages, and a mess to come home to.

[REP]

16. The epicenter is walking distance from my house.

[XemaSab]

17. I toasted to it at 5:04!

Much like September 11, it seemed like something that I'd think about every day. It was years before I didn't.

[Arugula Latte]

19. I was driving in Berkeley and my car pitched to the left. How appropriate.

I saw the streetlamps swinging to and fro. I drove up into the Berkeley hills and saw fires blazing all over the Bay Area. I recall our power was out for some time, so we had to use a shortwave radio for info.

[Arugula Latte]

30. Also I was *this close* to being on the Bay Bridge at that time, but I'd cancelled my appt. in SF.

I often think about that. :scared:

[tinrobot]

21. I had a headache and went home early that.day.

The earthquake hit a few minutes after I got home. I would have been on the 21st floor in downtown SF with my back to a window, but my apartment was hardly touched.

I had been in California for only a few months at that point. It was a pretty intense introduction to California earthquakes.

[InvisibleTouch]

22. I vaguely remember it on the news.

I'm sure those who were living it, have it in vivid memory.

Wish I could go back to '89 and live the subsequent years over again. Differently, of course.

[LeftyMom]

23. Local news would cover it, but the Niners don't suck.

That unexpectedly gave them a lot to talk about. Also, Handshakegate.

[mulsh]

24. 18th floor (top) 150 Spear St, Sf. built on fill, seizmic pads

made the building rock for over a minute. Four walls of my office lined floor to cealing with books which fell into the center of the room. Me and one of the secretaries ducked under my large oak table/desk. After the shaking stopped we walked down 18 floors to the street. lots of "suits" standing around saying things like "this shouldn't happen" and "someone needs to turn the power back on." It took me 5 hours to make it across the bay to my apartment in Oakland. Our boss took those who couldn't make it home to his big place in Hillsborough, put every one up for a couple of days. People waiting for the transbay ferry kept firing up joints and cigarettes, you could smell gas in the air along the Embarcardero so they got put out by the rest of the crowd pretty quickly. It was strange crossing the bay with the Marina on fire.

I used to ride the CB bus but these days I'm living on the N/NL line.

[kwassa]

25. I missed this, but went through the Northridge quake in LA

my local freeway fell down, lots of damage around, I was thrown out of bed ....

[oldlib]

26. I was living in San Jose at that time.

I had just turned the TV on to watch the game when it struck. I dove under our kitchen table and could see out the glass door to the backyard. We had a pool and I watched most of the water sloshing out, ending up in our neighbor's yard, below us. No one in our home was injured.

[demosincebirth]

27. They had a piece on Ch 5, on it today.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

28. On the way home from Santa Cruz --

driving over a very high coastal bridge. :D I was right in the middle of the span and kept being violent shoved over into the next lane -- I remember looking out my window and thinking, 'Damn, it doesn't LOOK that windy!' When we finally reached the hosue in SF, there was stuff on the floor and the grandfather clock had stopped at 5:06.

The only time I got really scared was when I saw the smoke from the Marina fire -- I knew that is was the '06 fire that destroyed the City, not the quake. :scared:

[trumad]

31. Upstairs in my rented Victorian--3rd floor---Pacific Heights.

3037 Clay street to be exact.

I got home early to watch the World Series--- thank God for the World Series, because the route I took home daily was the Cypress Freeway.

If I would have come home at the normal time, I might have been crushed.

Anyhow---got home, put on a bathrobe, fixed a strong 7 and 7, and settled in on the couch to watch the game.

Next thing I know---the TV, with Al Michaels commentating, froze up.... I had about a second until I realized why.....

Bam.... The old Victorian shifted and my couch with me on it slid across the wooden floor. Shifted again---and back I go....cabinets slamming....shit falling everywhere.

I fell off the couch...the 7 and 7 was history... ran to my room and attempted to put my jeans on as the house moved back and forth---quite comical cause I kept falling. Got my shirt on and ran the hell out of the house.

They tell you not to run outside during an earthquake--- Fuck that.

I got out and ran to the middle of Clay Street... All my neighbors were in the middle of the street with me. I could see down the hill and there were hundreds out on the street.

I looked at one neighbor and we both knew....this was the big one.

I'll never ever forget that event.