I was pregnant with my third child and was at my obgyn
appointment with my two oldest children (Janay, 8, and Jeramy, 7).
They were both with me to hear the heartbeat of my third child and
their sister (Jenny). The doctor was in the room with us.
Before they could hear the heartbeat, the earthquake
started.
I said ultrasound, not seismograph
I was pregnant with my third child and was at my obgyn appointment with my two oldest children (Janay, 8, and Jeramy, 7). They were both with me to hear the heartbeat of my third child and their sister (Jenny). The doctor was in the room with us.
Before they could hear the heartbeat, the earthquake started. We all got under a tiny table with the doctor. The lights then went out and the room shook and swayed. There we were in the complete darkness with the floor beneath us rolling and the walls around us rocking. It felt like we were on the Disneyland Space Mountain ride. I remember thinking that the walls were going to cave in and we were going to die.
After quite a few long seconds (which seemed like an eternity) the earthquake stopped. We found our way to the hallway then exited the building with several aftershocks still shaking us. I was glad to see the outside light and relieved that we were all OK. (And also so glad that I did not go into premature labor because of it!)
Lana Ailes, Gilroy
On the Bay Bridge, but escaped
What a weird day Oct. 17, 1989 was. I was living in San Francisco at the time but my office was in Walnut Creek. I left the office that day for home about 4:30 p.m. and was just driving to the city on the Bay Bridge at 5:04 p.m. I was just emerging through the tunnel when I thought it was incredibly windy because my car was being blown around. Simultaneously, I realized the car radio had gone to static, the bridge cables were swinging, and it was a hot, calm day with no wind at all … EARTHQUAKE! I thought to myself, “I can’t believe I’m on the damn bridge during an earthquake!” Other drivers were all slowing down, looking at each other with that worried look, but we all continued off that bridge, and in my case, the Embarcadero Freeway – the last time I ever drove that since it was shut down afterward.
As I drove to my place in Cow Hollow I figured the earthquake wasn’t too bad, because I didn’t see damaged buildings. When I got home, everything was in tip-top shape, except for a few paintings hanging sideways, although of course the power and phones were out. I was planning on having dinner with my boyfriend who lived in the Marina District, so I quickly changed clothes before heading to his place. In that short time span, he had walked over and was screaming at me through the window: “Thank God you’re OK … the Bay Bridge collapsed!” He knew I drove over it daily. I couldn’t believe it! (And of course, we know now that only a portion of it collapsed.)
The rest of the evening we wandered through the Marina District, which was quite bizarre. My boyfriend’s place had some damage, although not too serious, but we wandered among the masses, shocked. There was a big fire, the sidewalks were buckled and many buildings were severely damaged or even flattened. People were wandering around in a daze: some crying, some sitting in groups hanging out with a beer and almost a party atmosphere, but everyone was clearly dazed at this extraordinary situation. Knowing that some of those buildings likely contained people who were injured or killed was also shocking.
The next few days were also bizarre because the Marina District was its own, earthquake damaged world. After one day we went to Corte Madera in Marin to stay with friends, and it was as if nothing happened over there: totally normal. That was very strange; i.e. one area you’re living in a “war zone,” and right across the bridge life is totally normal.
It took a couple of years for me to watch a video of the quake without breaking down into sobs. Even though I wasn’t personally affected, it was a traumatic experience.
Denise Weyl, Morgan Hill
Rumble at Candlestick Stadium!
We left work at lunch time, to attend our first ever World Series Baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s. It was an exciting time to see our beloved SF Giants finally in the World Series. We purchased all kinds of souvenirs for ourselves and some for our co-workers. We walked around the stadium and took in the sights and fun activities going on. This was the Bay Bridge Series.
We sat down in section 5, row 16 above left field, to watch the on-field activities. A high school band had just finished marching off the field when the shaking began. Frightened ballplayers dashed out of their dugouts and stunned fans watched the concrete overhang ripple above their heads as the earthquake struck. The earthquake kicked up dust in the infield and caused stadium light towers to sway several feet.
My wife Bernie and I were looking around at all the activity, when a young lady asked us if we had a minute to answer a few questions. She identified herself as a reporter with Associated Press. The next section over from us was occupied by a row of reporters from various news media. She was a little rattled and wide eyed, said she was from New York and never experienced an earthquake before.
We had no idea how severe the quake was at this time and told her “We saw the overhang starting to ripple. It rippled all around the stadium, but we kind of took it in stride, and people started cheering. Some people took it as a good sign,” I told her. “It’s a sign from God that the Giants will start winning.”
My quote made it into a lot of newspapers including USA Today. I really thought it was a smaller quake than it turned out to be. It took us 6 hours to get back to San Jose. We had to sell our tickets to that game because we were leaving for a trip to Chicago and would miss the makeup date. The Giants never did win a game the rest of the World Series, but Bernie and I still believe in miracles. Go Giants! Maybe next year we will get to go to a World Series Game!
Carl & Bernie Epolite, Gilroy
Memories of jelly falling and aftershocks
I worked on the third floor for IBM on Bailey Avenue. Like everyone else I was wrapping up for the day. When the shaking started, my thinking went: I’ll head under my desk for the exercise of it because this will be nothing. Not a moment later did the shaking intensify. Never did I think “this is it.” It didn’t last all that long, but it got very intense, like a bad roller coaster. Then all was quiet. As a member of the evac team, I donned my gear, grabbed my flashlight and started the sweep. In about 30 minutes we declared the building clear. Then the manager sent me home. Nothing seemed terribly amiss on the way home. When I got there, my not-yet 2-year-old daughter said: “jelly fall down, jelly fall down!” My wife had put up some lovely strawberry preserves and most of it smashed onto the floor, ruined.
Six months later, to the day, I was reading to my daughter, when I heard a “tink-tink-tink” coming from the hutch. Then wham! the house shook. A few minutes later, and the process repeated: tink-tink-tink, wham! and again. I thought “those must be Loma Prieta aftershocks because of the way they started small then got real big just like the temblor in October.” Turns out they were.
Bob Harvey, 25-year resident of Morgan Hill
