As a UCD graduate, I am overjoyed to hear they are beefing up even one building. When I was there (1964-8) they finished a building that would house the microbe collection—you know—all those fevers, anthrax, don’t think they had smallpox, but huge cabinets of tiny glass vials. Our bacteriology class got a tour. I asked if the cabinets were bolted to the wall or the floor.
Answer was no.
I reminded them of the earthquake possibility and that since these cabinets were on the second floor, the swaying would cause them to slide at least to the other side of the room. The windows in that very room were floor to ceiling glass. I went over to the nearest window and observed several students walking on the sidewalk below. One good jolt and that cabinet would slam against the window frame and unload the drawer’s contents onto the students.
Needless to say my alarm fell on deaf ears.
If you ever want to annoy someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.
Aha, howdy, a fellow alum!
I was sitting in a math seminar in Kerr Hall when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. It shook gently for over a minute and wasn’t looking like it was going to stop. Even the guest speaker had stopped speaking and we were all just looking at each other, not knowing what to do. C’mon, you’d think some of those big name fancy math professors would know what the heck to do! Anyway, finally, I’d had enough and said out loud for all to hear, “That’s it. I’m outta here!” I got up to walk out and when I reached the door, looked over my shoulder and the WHOLE ROOM was emptying out behind me, lol! A lowly grad student was leading a bunch of big name, fancy pants math professors out the door, hahahaha.
Anyway we went outside and walked another couple hundred feet away to put some distance between us and Kerr Hall, and the ground was STILL shaking. The epicenter was over a hundred miles away, and it shook for minutes in Davis, perhaps four or even five minutes total. I knew it had to be a pretty big one and was worried about everyone I knew down in San Francisco.