Hey, fellow Northern Californians…do you remember what YOU were doing 13 years ago today?
Here’s a hint: It was the last time the Giants were in the World Series.
Does the time 5:04 p.m. ring a bell? (lots of bells rang that day!). How about the number 7.1?
Yep…it’s the 13th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which completely and utterly destroyed downtown Santa Cruz and wreaked havoc throughout the Bay Area. I’ll never forget walking near The Mall in the weeks following the 'quake…it looked as though a huge bomb had been dropped on the city…nothing but dust, flat spaces and rubble.
Downtown is such a busy and vibrant place today, it’s hard to believe that 13 years ago it was just plain gone…from thriving business district to wasteland in less than 20 seconds!
I think I’ll go downtown this evening, hang out on a bench, enjoy the buskers and the other forms of wild and crazy streetlife that are the heart and soul of Santa Cruz, and marvel at the ability of a people to survive and rebuild
Maybe I’ll even try my hand at writing a tune for the occasion…The Loma Prieta Jig, perhaps? (actually, given the nature of the fault, perhaps it should be a slip jig!)
Hey I remember that one…I prefer tornadoes now…My oldest son was 4 and we lived in Redwood City, which is just down the road from Stanford..That was probably the freakiest thing that I have ever been through..I remember I was cooking dinner and babysitting a neighbors son at the time.We had this really ugly light fixture that hung down about a foot from the ceiling and it was swinging so hard it hit the ceiling on either side…I gathered the kids and stood in the doorway(for all the good that would have done)..We were not hit so hard as some..I had a friend that should have been on the Nimitz coming home from work but luckily he had to work late that day. Yessiree I will take on the tornadoes of Kansas anyday, at least you can see them coming…
On 2002-10-17 12:09, susnfx wrote:
Bummer. I thought it was going to be a post about the World Series - my time of year (even if the Yankees are out of it).
I was in an earthquake once in San Diego - even a moderate one is utterly terrifying because you don’t know it’s just moderate until it’s all over.
Two comments:
I suspect that this World Series will set new records for LOW TV audiences. Not only has the last few moinths left a new foul taste in the mouths of many fans, but who east of the Rockies even CARES about an all-California Series?
I’ve been through a few small quakes, both here and on the left coast. I was also involved in the disaster planning for a possible major New Madrid quake - which would make any event seen so far in California or even Alaska look like a disaster drill. Given the low odds on any specific major event, though, I’d happily trade the Midwest’s tornadoes, floods, snow and ice for California’s earthquakes in an instant.
On 2002-10-17 12:06, Chuck_Clark wrote:
Make sure you pick a bench or other seat well away from any older multi-story buildings.
Well, the upside is, there are no older multi-story buildings left in downtown Santa Cruz…they all fell down in 1989!
OK, so that’s not entirely true…the Palomar Hotel is still standing, and there are a couple of others, but most of the buildings downtown are new, and up to very stringent earthquake codes.
Ah…the World Series! Now there’s a topic I could go on and on about! Our whole family has been loyal Giants fans absolutely forever, and we’re ecstatic. There are, however, plenty of jokes going around about the potential dangers of another all-California World Series (if you’ll recall, in 1989, it was the Giants and the As…this year it will be the Giants and the Anaheim Angels)…things like “can the San Andreas stand all that stomping and cheering?” or “What if all those baseball fans driving north, south, and back again, unbalances the plates?”
Hmmm…this is an El Nino year too. When I get done with my Fault Slip Jig, perhaps I’ll have to write the California Mud Slide?
Gotta say though, having lived through several natural disasters (including the eruption of Mount St. Helens, Hurricane Fran, and more tornado warnings in North Carolina than I care to think about…doesn’t that just make you want to live next door to me? ), I really think I prefer the earthquakes. Don’t know why…I guess it’s a case of the devil you know being better than the devil you don’t.
Redwolf
[ This Message was edited by: Redwolf on 2002-10-17 12:50 ]
Given the low odds on any specific major event, though, I’d happily trade the Midwest’s tornadoes, floods, snow and ice for California’s earthquakes in an instant.
Some of us already have.
MandoPaul (Whose folks still live in IL but who seem to come to visit a lot now he’s in CA)
Because its my long-ago passed away Mom’s birthday, I never forget october 17 but that earthquake sure added a sinister dimension. For a long while in California, it seemed like really bad things happened in Oct-Nov, like Loma Prieta, Moscone-Milk murders, Jonestown etc. and Oakland Hills fire (Oct 20, 91). I kind of wince through the period until Thanksgiving. Autumnal mayhem…
Halloween takes on a different dimension to me since those events. I dont much care for it. I accept death but don’t laugh at it.
Gary, you may be wrong but who knows? As a Giants fan, I am just happy that they made it this far in a rough year…
And as for comments about nobody caring, that may be true. But you know, the Giants are an authentic old-time franchise with a classy coach and some tough/lovable guys like Benito that remind me of when I was a kid and listened to those early sixties games with Willies and Alous.. Maybe people will get onboard. I don’'t know much about Angels, being an NL type.
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-10-17 15:00 ]
“The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
Still my favorite baseball line, even though I wasn’t around to witness it, and they weren’t even the SF Giants at that point.
On the more serious side, everyone here has their “where were you during the earthquake?” story, mine is no different than many others, but my poor sister was at school in Boston at the time. She doesn’t remember how she reacted when she saw the news on TV, she only remembers hearing a newscaster use the phrase “worse than Armenia”, and then she woke up in her own dorm room (her roommates had carried her home across campus). That had been my worst fear during my years away at school (I spent mine in New York), that I would be gone when the Big One hit and have nowhere to come home to.
I was sitting in an office waiting room about 8 miles north of the freeway that collapsed in Oakland. I felt a shake, then saw the water cooler sloshing, went outside to the parking lot. Cars were bouncing up and down. An aluminum traffic light pole that suspends a light across the middle of a 4-lane road was whipping back and forth. I thought, “Cool.” People have told me that if you have an open vista and are looking in the right direction, you might see a ripple travel across the land. I always look, but I’ve never seen that. My wife was working at a used clothing store and my daughter, about 18months old, was in the storage room. My wife dashed in and grabbed her out just before tall storage racks tipped over and dumped baskets of clothes. She feels like a higher agency yanked her into action.
The quake in Los Angeles was way worse in terms of catastrophe a few years ago. A woman on the radio said her dishes jumped out of her dishwasher and she was on her bed and couldn’t get up due to the bouncing. I’ve never been in anything like that.
I heard a guy on the radio talking about the potential for disaster in a really big quake. He said he loves this area because unstable areas have beautiful landscapes- hilly, but he wouldn’t want to be anywhere near if a big one hits. Years ago, an engineer told me he heard the skyscraper buildings windows would pop out and bury the streets in 10 feet of glass in downtown San Francisco. I always think about that when I’m there, which is rarely. I saw an interet news site photo from the Kyoto quake not that long ago. An apartment building was tipped at about a 30 degree angle, lying against another tall building. Wow. We make sure there are no heavy objects on dressers near the beds that could fall onto us at night. I think my whistles are fairly safe anyway.
That’s the thing, though. When the shaking is going on, you wonder if it’s going to progress to something bigger. The thought of tornadoes, now…I dunno…
Tony
I hate baseball..Does that make me unamerican??? I lived in the Bay Area for at least 25yrs and I only went to Candlestick park once.And only because my inlaws dragged me there.It was the Giants and Pittsburg pirates and the Pirates kicked butt. I did like the hotdogs. I do miss the ocean though. The seagulls,the cold damp breeze,the sound of the surf.And the seafood, the only “seafood” I get here is catfish,not quite the same somehow. Sheesh, I am getting homesick…
One of the worst things for me after the '89 'quake was the fact that it was hours before I could let people know I was all right. My husband was out of the country, my parents live in the Northwest, and phone service was sporadic for several days after the 'quake. When I finally reached my mom, she broke down totally…she’d been seeing the news coverage of the collapsed freeway and the fires in San Francisco (and, of course, they didn’t bother to mention our area at all…probably a good thing, since the destruction of downtown Santa Cruz LOOKED much more horrific, at least at first, then the Nimitz (I say “looked” rather than “was” because the death toll in Santa Cruz was amazingly low, whereas the death toll on the freeway was tragically high).
I did manage to reach my husband before he saw the news on TV, and was also able to pass on “all safe” reports about families of other members of his team, but only after many frustrating hours of trying to convince my phone to make a call to Algeria!
Now, regarding the World Series…I know several people who have been Giants fans since their New York days. Ours is a very mobile society, and people don’t necessarily give up their team allegiances just because they (or their team) relocate. During our 10 year tenure in North Carolina, we remained staunch Giants fans. I also know several people who are die-hard National Leaguers, and will let summer season bye-gones be bye-gones during the World Series to cheer for the NL team (I assume the same is true for the AL). I think more people will tune in than one might think (if nothing else, in the hopes of seeing another earthquake!).
Weekenders…I agree, Benito Santiago is a class act. We’re so lucky to have him. I was thrilled to see him get the post-season MVP award. I predict that anyone who tunes in will see some very exciting baseball (unless Mother Nature decides to intervene again!)
On 2002-10-17 15:00, TonyHiggins wrote:
…People have told me that if you have an open vista and are looking in the right direction, you might see a ripple travel across the land…
Two of my cousins were golfing at Harding Park, at Lake Merced, on that day. They both SAW the earthquake coming towards them before they felt it, and they agree that sight was one of the most terrifying things they’ve experienced. We’d all felt quakes before, but it wasn’t until they felt this one that they realized what it was they had just seen.
Even though the subject s/b about the Angels winning the world series,
we can discuss quakes, too…
In the '94 Northridge quake, the power went out 30 seconds before the shockwave hit Encino. That’s a good thing to know. Any warning is better than none!
I live 300’ (feet) from the San Andreas fault. Yikes-a-hooty!
I may or may not have posted this here before, in which case I apologize, but its so apropos here.
Last summer (I think) they had a tornado in Denver - a very rare event. As this twister swept through a convention area with a large tent, it was easy to tell the Californians from the Plains folk. They’re the ones who raced for open spaces rather than seeking cover.
It’s funny: I was already thinking about this today, and what do you know, everyone’s talking about it.
I remember the earthquake very well even though I was not quite nine years old. At the time we lived in Watsonville (Redwolf anyway should know where that is), very close to the epicenter. I was sitting on the top bunk of my bed reading a Hardy Boys book. It started and, looking out my window, I could see oaks waving back and forth like palm trees in a Miami hurricane.
The damage to the apartment buildings was so bad that a lot of people couldn’t stay in their homes for more than a week. We went to live with some friends for a little while.
It was very frightening but exciting too. The aftershocks came and went all night and everyone wondered if there was going to be a worse one. I didn’t go to sleep until late in the morning–I was reading the Narnia books by then.
Did I mention that all of my memories are associated with what I was reading at the time?
