Yesterday's little 7.0 was,
fortunately, not in occupied areas.
Ten years ago, we had our Not-the-Big-One.
Understand, Californians normally refer to these things as "tremors" or "little shakes."
We don't really admit to earthquakes.
I haven't felt too many since we moved here. In fact, the most earthquakes I've ever
felt were in Laramie. They were pumping "stuff" into the ground at the Rocky Mountain
Arsenal and lubricating the rock layers, and every so often, things would give.
One I felt since we moved to California was early one morning and at first I thought the
cat had jumped up onto the bed, but then no cat. I went out and looked in the living room
and the swag lamp was still swaying. This one occurred at Mammoth Lakes.
I felt the Loma Prieta Quake, too. My Mom was home (this was between surgeries before
she had to go to the nursing home) watching the kids, and had turned on the World Series,
the Bay Bridge Series, the first game, at
Candlestick Park.
(copyright KRON) I, meanwhile, was at school,
taking a test in Education. It was an essay one, and we were on the fourth floor. Suddenly,
it felt like a big truck was rumbling by. The blinds were swaying. "Ah," said I, "I think we
had an earthquake." It took my words to get people started, then panic ensued. One woman's
husband had gone to the City for the day, and she was terrified. It became apparent this was
not the day to do the test, so we were let out. I passed people on the phone, and overheard
things about deaths. On the bus home, the driver was talking about "the bridge being down."
I didn't know what bridge, but figured that I would know when I got home. Oh, yes indeed,
the family had the television on and a picture of the Bay bridge.
(copyright USGS)
The kids told me that people on the street had had their
pools slosh out. (This wasn't a problem for us, no pool!) Meanwhile, of course,
Rich was in Ohio on a conference with the AirForce. Roni was, I thought at the time,
safe in Santa Cruz. (I didn't know at that time that Santa Cruz was the epicenter. By the
time I found that out, I knew Roni was safe for sure.) Monica in Santa Clara. I tried phoning once,
and everything was busy, but I stayed off the
line most of the time so that the lines could stay clear.
What I didn't know was that Roni had decided to follow the Boyfriend to the Bay Area and
get a job as a waitress, since he said it was good work. She was training to work at
a restaurant on Pier 39 just as the glassware started crashing down around her. After
they hid under tables and then cleaned up broken glass. They couldn't go anywhere since
the lights were all out, and they went across the street and comforted each other. Finally,
about midnight, she was able to get her car and start over to Sausalito, past the
Marina. There were fires, and no street lights, so it
was an obstacle course, but she finally was able to get across the bridge and got through and
called Monica.
Meanwhile, Monica was driving home as the quake hit, and was lucky enough to avoid most of
the troubles till she got home. Her roommate was stuck in traffic and took hours to get home,
and this was the Roommate-From-Hell everyone warns you about. Monica, I think, was regarding
her as the pity-roomie, since no one else would do it. Anyway, when she got to the apartment,
it was All About Her. No one else in the whole Bay Area was affected by this quake, but
ohmygod, was the roomie ever put out by it! Monica endured aftershocks fairly equitably,
but was about to kill the roommate by the time the earth stopped shaking.
She called me with the news that both the daughters were OK about 2 in the morning. I
was, naturally, thrilled to hear this, and said as much on a local BBS. This caused a
bit of a local fight, since the SysOp of said BBS thought Monica's call was frivolous, and
took time from a real emergency call. I, on the other hand, said if the SysOp had kids of
his own, he would understand.
The news unfolded: 68 deaths, 3757 injured, ~$7billion damaged. Rich called the next day
to find out how things were going, and I was able to tell him the kids were OK and ask him
to let his folks in Pittsburgh know this. (Keep the phone chain out of California if possible!)
The Cypress Freeway in Oakland was down. (And why didn't I find any pictures?) They cut
through a corpse to get to her baby son to rescue him. They found a man alive two or three days later.
If it were not for the deaths, this could be regarded as a blessing. The Cypress had cut right
through a neighborhood. The freeway is rebuilt now, but in a much more sensible place.
The Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco had to come down. You could practically hear the
cheers from here. This concrete monstrosity had separated San Francisco from the Bay. Nothing
like it will go up again, that's for sure.
Then there is Santa Cruz. I've visited often during the 10 years of rebuilding, and it's
practically redone, but the first year the damage was astounding. The Cooper House, an old
brick mall, was demolished. The first time I visited, the downtown businesses were in
tents. When the insta-books were published, many of them had pictures of houses Roni knew,
people she'd visited.
This quake was recorded from 6.9 to 7.1. I think the current wisdom is that it was a
7.0. The '06 quake was a 7.8. This was NOT "the Big One" and we all know that is
coming, one day. (Well, all but the media, who have been told there's a high likelihood
it will come in the next 30 years, and this is geewhizwow news to them. )
I think about the Big One when I go across the Bay Bridge. I think about it just
about every time I go to the coast. You could die from fear. Where we live is fairly safe,
though I definitely should tie down the stuff in the china closet. If it happens when we're
there, oops, it happened. I'm going to live my life and not worry about it, an act of God
is by definition unpredictable.
Candlestick Park.
(copyright KRON) I, meanwhile, was at school,
taking a test in Education. It was an essay one, and we were on the fourth floor. Suddenly,
it felt like a big truck was rumbling by. The blinds were swaying. "Ah," said I, "I think we
had an earthquake." It took my words to get people started, then panic ensued. One woman's
husband had gone to the City for the day, and she was terrified. It became apparent this was
not the day to do the test, so we were let out. I passed people on the phone, and overheard
things about deaths. On the bus home, the driver was talking about "the bridge being down."
I didn't know what bridge, but figured that I would know when I got home. Oh, yes indeed,
the family had the television on and a 
picture of the Bay bridge.
(copyright USGS)
The kids told me that people on the street had had their
pools slosh out. (This wasn't a problem for us, no pool!) Meanwhile, of course,
Rich was in Ohio on a conference with the AirForce. Roni was, I thought at the time,
safe in Santa Cruz. (I didn't know at that time that Santa Cruz was the epicenter. By the
time I found that out, I knew Roni was safe for sure.) Monica in Santa Clara. I tried phoning once,
and everything was busy, but I stayed off the
line most of the time so that the lines could stay clear.
glassware started crashing down around her. After
they hid under tables and then cleaned up broken glass. They couldn't go anywhere since
the lights were all out, and they went across the street and comforted each other. Finally,
about midnight, she was able to get her car and start over to Sausalito, past the
Marina. 
There were fires, and no street lights, so it
was an obstacle course, but she finally was able to get across the bridge and got through and
called Monica.
Cypress Freeway in Oakland was down. (And why didn't I find any pictures?) They cut
through a corpse to get to her baby son to rescue him. They found a man alive two or three days later.
If it were not for the deaths, this could be regarded as a blessing. The Cypress had cut right
through a neighborhood. The freeway is rebuilt now, but in a much more sensible place.
The Cooper House, an old
brick mall, was demolished. The first time I visited, the downtown businesses were in
tents. When the insta-books were published, many of them had pictures of houses Roni knew,
people she'd visited.
