Remembering the 1989 Earthquake

okay, everyone sharing their memories of the Loma Prieta quake, here's mine: I was on the 20th floor of my office building, downtown San Francisco, listening to the World Series on the radio. When it started, I looked out my window, and saw the windows of the Schwab building "rippling." I suddenly realized that the windows I was looking out from, must be doing the same thing! I shoved my chair as fast away from the window as I could. The power went out soon after, so those of us on that floor of the building gathered to go down the stairs together. As soon as we opened the door to the stairwell, smoke poured out! We slammed the door back shut. But it wasn't smoke, it was dust from the plaster walls inside the stairwell. When we realized that, we covered our noses and went down the twenty floors. 

When we came out onto Fremont Street, the first thing I noticed was the smell: it smelled like alcohol! The bar across the street had lost most of their bottles off the wall, but, because they had no refrigeration, they were giving away free beer! (as in, "free beer"). The second thing I noticed was the sound... it was a loud, crunching sound, coming from everywhere. I realized it was the sound of people walking, on all of the broken glass and fallen brick. Fortunately, most people who work in downtown San Francisco have comfortable, sturdy, shoes to wear when commuting.

A few of us headed up to Market Street, although we could already tell that no buses or undergrounds were running. Someone pointed out the Ferry Building: the flagpole was askew, and the clock was stopped at 5:04. It would stay like that for awhile, as I recall. As we separated to try to find our various ways home before dark, we started hearing a rumor that the Bay Bridge had collapsed. We were right at the western entrance; we turned to look, and as far as we could see, the suspension side looked completely intact (it was, the collapsed section was on the cantilever side). 

I hope my friends from then can just look back on it all now as just a memory, and life is good again. It was a scary time for all, and just catastrophic for some, but I hope all are doing well today. I'm thinking of you now (Carole).

Posted via email from dianaf's posterous