San Francisco Earthquake
By: Don Wright
Although it was after 5pm, I was still at work. I had a couple of items to
finish on the computer and wanted it complete when I quit for the day. It was
only a ten minute drive home so I had plenty of time before the World Series started
on TV.
I worked in a large cement warehouse that had large roll up metal doors.
These doors would rattle like mad when the wind blew, which it does quite often in
our area.
At first there was a small rattle of the doors, which sounded like someone was
knocking to get my attention. Since it was after 5pm, I ignored it trying to
finish. The door continued to rattle for about a minute or two then it really
sounded off like some one was pounding on it. I finally closed my program and
then opened the small side door to look out to see who it was. There was no one
there. Directly behind the warehouse was my Van, parked only about 15 feet
from the building. To my right, about 100 feet away, I noticed that the college
football team was having practice. They had one of their people on a tower
taking a video of the practice. It was at that time that it hit. The whole
building began to sway. The top part of the side of the building moved two or
three feet in one direction, then back an other two or three feet in the opposite
direction. The building was made entirely of cement and to see things
move like that made your stomach want to turn over. The tower at football
practice began to sway and the operator was hanging on for dear life. I never
did find out if he stayed on or fell off, or if the tower fell or not. It seems
that we had ground vibrations for about 2 minutes before the shock wave hit us.
My van was parked up close to the building (about 15 feet) and it was jumping around.
I mean jumping. It was as if each tire had something under it making
them jump individually. I had never seen a vehicle jump around like that.
The only thing I could think of was to move my Van further away from the building in
case it collapsed.
I did just that. Luckily my van was not locked. I would never have
been able to insert the key. As it was, the van had twisted about 5 degrees
to the left. Once I got it started, I moved it about thirty feet into the parking lot,
and sat there for about 10 minutes until things settled down. It was a weird
feeling to try to drive with the ground moving and swaying back and forth, even for
the thirty feet. It was as if all four wheels were loose causing the van to
wabble. When things settled down, I went back in the warehouse to turn the
computer off and lock up the building. What is odd, is that the warehouse is
quite large and I had items on pallets stacked quite high (over 15 feet in some places),
and considering the movement of the building, not one item fell. The stock
remained as it had been placed. I don't know if it was just luck, or a good
job of stacking the pallets on my part. Of course I would like to think it
was a good job of stacking.
As soon as I went back in the warehouse, my wife called and told me we had an
earthquake. No Kidding....... She told me the Bay Bridges were down,
and in another place a lot of cars were smashed and that there were fires in San
Francisco. (The early TV News was quite exaggerated) I locked up the
building and headed for home, hoping that the overpass was intact, and watched the
horrors on TV the rest of the evening.
Later that evening, my youngest daughter came home. She had been working
at a video store about a half a mile from the collapsed freeway. She was
working behind a long counter when it hit. She didn't take the time to run
around the end of the counter. She jumped over the top and out the door.
The building swayed, scattered a number of videos, but no major damage. She
told of a lady that pulled off the freeway, looking for a phone to call 911.
It seems that she was driving on the freeway in Oakland when it hit, and watched the
freeway collapse behind her as she drove. The faster she drove, the faster it
collapsed like dominos, following her. My son-in-law worked in China Basin
(San Francisco) and he finally made it home late that evening.
I still have some fear when I have to stop under an overpass for a stop light.
Not only that, I have not been to San Francisco or anywhere in the Bay Area
since that day.
We have sit through many earthquakes in the 50 years I have lived here, as well
as a number of them in Alaska before that, but none were even close to the 89 Loma
Prieta earthquake of San Francisco. (However a quake larger than the San Francisco
quake hit Alaska after I left).
And what was your "Brush With History". You are all encouraged to submit your
"Brush With History" for publishing on this Web Site. Don't hesitate, now is
the time to pass on to others a little time capsule of your life.
Please place in the Subject Line:
WEBPAGE-Brush With History
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