Gallows humor is at least as beneficial in a serious accident aftermath as a roomful of candle-burning, pity-party grief counselors.
Hundreds of people, some of whom had been evacuated from local businesses, crowded the street in front of the Crocker Galleria.
Among them was Tom McGibben, who works at Thomas Weisel Partners at 120 Kearny, which evacuated its employees.
"We saw the lights flicker at 9:50 a.m. We felt a pretty good shake. At first, we thought it was an earthquake.
"We saw smoke. The alarms in our building came on. ... At around the 20th floor you could smell something. At that point, we began to think it could be something worse than a quake. ... There were flashes to 9/11."
Tim Keenan, an employee at Charles Schwab, said he was evacuated from the 17th floor of the same building.
"I saw a flash of light. I looked out of the window. I saw people running and screaming," he said. "Our floor warden then asked people to begin to evacuate. To me, it sounded like a big boom of thunder."