US: Twenty year anniversary of Loma Prieta

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2009/10/loma-prieta-earthquake-.html

I find it VERY hard to believe that it's been twenty years. In some respects it feels like yesterday.

I was on the SF State University campus - I'd stayed late at my job in the comms office to work at some event that I've long since forgotten. I was at the copy machine and remember saying "wheeee, earthquake!" - at the time they seemed sort of fun. It became immediately obvious though that it wasn't a "normal" one and soon we were all huddled in the doorways. We then had to walk down the pitch black stairwells of the admin building in a huge line.... Got outside and queued for ages in the line for the pay phone only to get a constantly busy signal from my mom's phone (turned out an extension phone had been knocked off it's cradle and no one realised for hours!) The radio news put the epicentre near Santa Cruz but communications were so poor that the news people kept saying "no news from Santa Cruz is not good news" which did nothing for my confidence as that's where my family was....

We went to a friend's house near campus, had a stiff drink, and then my best friend and I started trying to figure out how to get home to our apartments in the city. We found a bus going downtown, hopped in, and managed to get to Market Street. We walked up the hills to my apartment and I very clearly remember the crunching glass under foot.

We made phone calls, finally got through to my mom - it was Indian Summer, really warm, windows open, etc. ("earthquake weather" we swore!) and my mom reported that the pool had sloshed over and flooded the living room, loads of knick knacks had broken, but otherwise all was fine. It wasn't until later that I found out so many of the places I spent my adolescence in around Santa Cruz were damaged beyond repair.

It was a long couple of days after that - aftershocks, etc.

Crazy. Twenty years.

Twenty years?!?! Wow.

I was watching the World Series - safe in non-shaking New England. Then I immediately phoned my former college roomie, who had just moved to SF about a month earlier. I got no answer and started freaking out! When I did get hold of her the next day, she was fine. She's just been out. She lost some pictures, vases, etc., but had no serious damage.

Wow. Twenty years.

The unforgettable thing was the highway that collapsed. I forget the name, though -- it was a big cement flyover that fell onto the lane below. I remember they pulled one person ALIVE out of a car crushed 18" flat.

I worked the art department for an engineering company in Boston. I had to do many, many drawings and cutaways of the fault and the epicenter and the pattern of damage.

The unforgettable thing was the highway that collapsed. I forget the name, though -- it was a big cement flyover that fell onto the lane below. I remember they pulled one person ALIVE out of a car crushed 18" flat.

That was the Cypress. Big sections of the top deck of the Bay Bridge came down too.

Been a funny old day of reminiscing for me on Facebook - everyone from my college days sharing their memories and mourning a big part of our youth in Santa Cruz that's just gone now!

[...] and my mom reported that the pool had sloshed over and flooded the living room[..]

My friend from San Jose said her mom was in their living room when it hit, and she watched the "tidal wave" (her mom's words) come up from their pool and totally soak the room.

The thing I remember most was the panic of all my friends.  I was up in Arcata at school, and so many of my friends were from the Bay Area.  The two or three hours before they were able to get in touch with family/friends was torture for all of them, and I felt so helpless not being able to do anything to ease their worries.

Can't believe it's been twenty years.

I was home alone, watching the World Series because my parents were at the game.  The earthquake hit and I grabbed the dog, stood in a doorway.  I looked up and saw the wall sway.  I nearly wet myself. 

My parents were in center field, upper deck of Candlestick and we didn't hear from them until nearly midnight.  I have never been so scared in my life.  The only thing we knew was no one at the game had been hurt but watching it all on TV, not being able to call them and find out they were ok was awful. 

About 5 years ago, my parents replaced the carpet in their house and found the foundation had a lovely 2 inch wide crack.  We reckon it's from the earthquake, even though we were about 2 hrs from the epicenter.

Wow, I can't believe it either actually
I lived in Oakland when it hit and I remember the T.V was on and everybody was watching and I was in the kitchen and I was taken by surprise and knocked off my feet! I also remember the panic and one of the girls who lived at the foster home I was in, her mom was injured. It was a scary event, one I'll never forget.