October 19, 1989
[On
October 17, 1989, at approximately 5:04 pm, a substantial earthquake
struck the little coastal town of Watsonville.]
Day 2 after the Great Gesundheit.
Dear Everyone:
In a word:
Whoops!
Now we know what it takes to stop, or at least
delay, the World Series.
Still, it doesn’t seem like the best way to abolish televised sports.
There I was, minding my own business, riding the
Van home. We had just passed
the 680-24 Interchange (now
that’s dangerous!) when it felt like the driver was inexplicably
jerking the steering wheel back and forth.
At the moment, I thought, “What’s wrong with this section of the
freeway here?” Only later
did I realize that it was the
road that was jerking back and forth.
When we left the freeway a few moments later, the traffic lights
were out. And when we
reached the drop-off point, “Christy’s” husband, who was waiting for her
in his truck, told us that there had just been a quake.
Oh, was that what it was?
Like so many people, I didn’t realize the magnitude
of the situation until later.
When I got into the car (still driving “Jeannie’s” CRX) and
turned on the radio, I got the Concord station, KKIS.
They said: Yes, there
had just been a quake, but they couldn’t say much more because their
wire services were out. It
didn’t take long to discover that MOST radio stations had been knocked
off the air. KKIS had lost
their FM transmitter, but had managed to hang onto their AM.
Most of the early reports came in by phone.
Fry’s Food Store called to say that most of their shelves had
been emptied onto the floor.
In vain, I asked: “Which
Fry’s, guys? The one on
Willow Pass or the one right next to where I live?”
If it was enough to knock things off the shelves, it was enough
to send those pitiful bookcases in my second bedroom right over and
everything with them.
Normally, the drive up Treat Boulevard takes about
10 minutes. But with the
traffic lights out, everyone had to get through the intersections one
car at a time; so it took me about half an hour.
Mostly, I sat in the car, listening to the radio.
They had heard a rumor that part of the Bay Bridge had collapsed.
So they sent their traffic plane over to take a look.
A few minutes later, she confirmed it.
Suddenly, we knew that this was no little Shaker.
I tried skipping radio stations to see what anyone
else knew. Most were only
static; but I did hear a DJ talking on the phone to a woman who advised:
“It’s heading North!”
Right, turn east and maybe it’ll pass you by.
Back to KKIS.
Suddenly, the car started moving from side to side and, as I was
saying “Whoa!”, the DJ announced, in a
very calm voice:
“and you may be experiencing a minor after shock.”
A very minor shock.
Only an itty, bitty 5.2.
When I got home, I expected the power to be out,
but no. Everything was OK.
Power, gas, water, even the TV cable were all fine.
Bookcases standing against the wall just where I’d left them.
Not so much as a book had toppled over.
(Later I found a couple of spools of thread that had fallen over,
but that was pretty much it.)
When your patron saint is San Andreas, you get
special dispensation in the event of earthquakes.
I turned on the TV, expecting the cable to be out.
Instead, I got all 3 major networks (plus the little guys) each
with a command post set up, giving out the news as quickly as they got
it. This less than an hour
after the quake. You have to
give those people credit, they stayed on the air all night and all
though the next day.
It was then that we learned of the fire in the
Marina District and the freeway in Oakland that had pancaked.
Once again, it was the fire, rather than the actual quake that
did the most damage in the City.
My only worry was trying to get through to the
folks to let them know that I was all right.
I already knew that, in the event of a major disaster, the phone
system shuts down all incoming calls.
But there’s still a chance that you can get a call out.
So I checked the phone every 10-15 minutes until, a little after
8:00, I got a dial tone. I
called Canby immediately… and got a busy signal.
Second try, and I got through.
“Jeannie” and Mother answered at the same time, while I tried to
get a word in edgewise. But
they got the message: I’m
OK. They were worried about
“Marshall” in Fresno so I have him a call and he was OK.
Everybody’s OK.
By Tuesday night, it was clear that there would be
no going to work on Wednesday.
Every cloud has a silver lining:
I got to sleep late.
Wednesday afternoon, KKIS announced that they had
set up a place for people to bring donations for quake victims, food,
clothing, blankets, etc. I
took this as a sign that I should clean out some closet space (I’ve been
meaning to give away some stuff, but hadn’t got around to it yet.)
I filled 3 boxes with T-shirts, blouses, shoes and other things I
wouldn’t be likely to wear again, took them down to the radio station
(you suddenly think twice about passing under a freeway), then swung by
the BART station to get a ticket.
Wednesday morning, I called the Company News Line
and got the recorded message that all employees working in San Francisco
were to stay home Wednesday.
This was recorded at 1:00 am.
A later update said that all San Francisco buildings had been
checked, were structurally sound and would be open for employees except
225 "Beelzebub" which still had no power.
Evidently, I’m the only one in my group that got
the message. I came in on
BART, which is running at full capacity.
But I’m the only one who’s here.
There was no damage:
a few books fell over, some drawers had slid open.
Grit from the ceiling had fallen on top of the desk.
Looking on the bright side, I can get lots of work
done because there are so few interruptions.
Well, that’s the story.
Officially, it was the
Loma
Prieta Earthquake, 7.0 at 5:04 Tuesday afternoon.
2 days later, it’s business as usual.
The San Francisco Chronicle came out, all 32 pages of it and half
of them Classified Ads. But
Herb Caen is there so things can’t be too bad.
All in all, it could have been a lot worse.
Bearing in mind that this was
not “The Big One”…
Love, as always,
Pete
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