Happy E-Day to all you Bay Areans

10-17-2002 | eggs

[EggsAckley]

Yes, today is the 13th anniversary of the SF bay area's "big one." I've been noticing lately how many Freepers there are right here, so I thought I should acknowledge this anniversary.

I don't know about you guys, but I was hit hard. I live about a mile from the epicenter, and believe me, it felt nuclear here.

At 5:04 this afternoon I will pause to reflect upon that day.

[Texaggie79]

E-day? When everyone rolled on exstacy?

[skeeter]

I felt it in Sunnyvale. Never moved so fast in my life, and haven't moved that fast since.

[EggsAckley]

Earthquake day.........

[sasquatch]

I live about a mile from the epicenter

Beat me by two. The redwoods dumped about 2 inches of needles;
fun except for the chimney and wood pile.

[Severa]

I was WAYYY far away just southeast of Louisville, KY and I remember it because I was watching the World Series and wondering what the hell just happened to the signal when it went out. Hell of a shock to someone not used to earthquakes to see the pictures that later came out of the stricken area.

[BrooklynGOP]

Earthquake day.........

That's a lot of e.

[Cultural Jihad]

The sky earlier on that day looked yellow, as if bruised. I also remember the mass-migration of the whole financial district out to the West. No one wanted to get caught downtown at night.

[TMD]

Just over the hill in Campbell, I was taking a nap (preggers at the time) when it hit. I remember standing in the doorway watching all the kitchen cupboards fly open and things flying out- very disorienting and surreal. After a couple of big aftershocks, I took a chair and sat in the middle of the back lawn 'til my husband got home. My parents live in Los Gatos and were in Italy at the time. They heard on the news there was an earthquake in Los Gatos and were extremely worried. Their house was the only one on the street that didn't lose a chimney. Lots of broken glass and their massive pool table moved about 6 inches.

The aftershocks were the worst. It probably took a year before I quit jumping at every little noise.

[dogbowl]

'Bay Arean'... this Inlander loves and uses that term!

The trees shimmied and the pool sloshed. If the 'Battle of the Bay' provoked it, maybe this year's LA/SF world series will yield a bigger one?

[ZGuy]

I was at the 'Stick on the first base line in the upper deck when the quake hit. The stadium acted like an oscillating bowl with two ends going up while the two sides went down and vise versa. Since I was half way between the two I only felt a rocking back and forth. From that location it only felt like a 4.1 or so. The people ten sections over in either direction almost became airborne and had to hope they wouldn't be struck by the falling chunks of the cement overhang that were coming down.
When the quake hit we were mostly focused on a guy who had climbed a 200 foot lightpole to unwrap a flag which had become tangled in the lights. Fortunately he was able to hold on and he wasn't flung into orbit.

[null and void]

I watched the main corridor at work twist and writhe. It was a bit exciting.

[Poohbah]

When the quake hit we were mostly focused on a guy who had climbed a 200 foot lightpole to unwrap a flag which had become tangled in the lights. Fortunately he was able to hold on and he wasn't flung into orbit.

Now THAT must've been one helluva ride! YEE-HAW!

[null and void]

'Bay Arean'... this Inlander loves and uses that term!

As long as you don't spell it with a "y"...

[B Knotts]

I lived in San Luis Obispo at the time. Yes, we felt it all the way down there. It caused a hairline crack in the floor of the building where I worked!

I thought it was a local earthquake, naturally, and shrugged it off. It wasn't until I after I had rushed home to watch the World Series that I found out what had actually happened.

[B Knotts]

I did get up close and personal to the Humboldt County quakes in 1992. The first one especially was quite a ride!

[EggsAckley]

Beat me by two

Howdy, neighbor. Gee, I wonder if I know you. Hmmm

[GoreIsLove]

13 years since the quake, and they just started fixing the bay bridge a few months ago.

[EggsAckley]

5:04 PM, Tuesday, October 17, 1989

There I was, heading over to my chair to pick up the phone and call Peggy. As I looked at the clock, the house exploded. Well, that's what it felt like. I was immediately face down on the floor and some giant had his foot on my back holding me down. The noise is indescribable: a freight train under the house, crashing and banging, glass breaking, and the house oscillating beneath me.


Being raised in post-war California and having been subjected to the "duck and cover" nuclear drills in grade school, I knew this was IT. We had pissed SOMEBODY off, and they pushed the button. I mean, I really KNEW it. I was SO sure, that I thought I had better apologize to SOMEONE on my way off the planet. So, amid the monsterous noise, I could hear myself screaming, "I'm sorry we did it, I'm sorry we did it." Of course meanwhile, I was expecting the inevitable bright flash and windows imploding as my last vision of this lifetime.


And then









nothing.


Nothing except for the slow, sorrowful chimes of my mantle clock collection, winding down and finally stopping. That, and a music box playing the final line of the song "The Entertainer." Getting slower and slower, and stopping just before the last note.


I turned my head to the left and saw nothing but black. For an instant I thought maybe I was blind. I lifted my head and looked around, realizing I was not blind. But what I saw was ................
What I saw was my house............broken. I looked at the clock and it STILL said 5:04 PM.

How can it still be 5:04?? How could my house be "broken" in less than a minute. It had seemed like the noise and crashing had gone on for an hour at least. As I got up off the floor I realized why my first vision had been black. My antique glass front china cabinet had flown a full eight feet from its spot in the corner, and the black I had seen was the top of the cabinet, which now lay about 3 inches from where my head had been.

I climbed over piles of broken stuff and overturned furniture and went outside, still wondering if it actually HAD been nuclear and perhaps I was really dead and this was sort of an "after-life" dream or some such weirdness. When I had been outside for about 4 minutes, suddenly the trees started shaking and I felt the lawn under my feet quivering and rolling. Oh my God, it was an earthquake! It was an EARTHQUAKE!


As soon as the first aftershock ended, I screamed out loud, to no one in particular, "if this isn't the bloody epicenter, then the whole bay area is GONE."


So, before I realized it was an earthquake, I had spent at least five or six minutes CONVINCED that it had been nuclear!

To this day, I still have bad moments when there is a small shake, a loud noise, or a truck backfiring.

[null and void]

Big contrast, The entire Santa Monica freeway was rebuilt in 6 months after the Northridge 'quake.

In LA, the people and politicians LIKE cars...