Comments on: Remembering the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989) [updated] http://adventures-in-mormonism.com/2009/10/18/remembering-the-loma-prieta-earthquake-1989/ Correcting the incorrigible Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:24:56 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: coltakashi http://adventures-in-mormonism.com/2009/10/18/remembering-the-loma-prieta-earthquake-1989/comment-page-1/#comment-422 coltakashi Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:04:47 +0000 http://adventures-in-mormonism.com/?p=652#comment-422 We had just moved to Concord in the Bay Area in July. When the earthquake hit, I was several stories underground on the platform of the Montgomery Street Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway station. Suddenly the entire station started oscillating back and forth along the line of the tunnel, about one full cycle per second. The sound abosrbing panels that hung vertically from the ceiling were swaying in unison. When the shaking stopped, the lights went out (the power had been shut down to prevent lighting fires from leaking gas mains). Unfortunately, the emergency lights did not come on. My littlke pocket flashlight was the only light that some 50 people had as we walked up the dead escalators to the surface. There was not much visible damage to buildings right there. A colleague and I walked a few blocks to the central bus terminal to try to catch buses to Oakland where we could pick up the BART again (the section under the Bay was shut down in case of leaks in the tunnel). We learned that the Bay Bridge had broken. Eventually my friend caught a bus going south, and around 11 PM a bus driver offered to take people to Oakland, driving north across the city, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, and then north to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, then south to Oakland. I was able to catch the BART in Oakland back to Concord, arriving at midnight, some 7 hours late. A lot of coworkers were stuck in town and holed up with friends. One was in a bus on the Bay Bridge when the segment of road fell out. Another was on the BART under the Bay when the quake hit. BART decided that it would get people out faster and more safely by starting the trains up to the first station on each side. My office building had a few cracks, so I stayed home until the following Monday while it was inspected. Eventually, they discovered cracks in the double-decker freeway that ran along the San Francisco waterfront near my office. If the quake had gone much longer, it would have pancaked like the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland. They decided it was unsafe and needed to be torn down, so we watched that process over several months. This improved the view of the Bay immensely. The quake triggered aftershocks on a newly discovered fault under Mount Diablo near our house. In 1991, we had moved to Marin County, and watched across the Bay as the Oakland Fire went on for days burning along the hills, heading south toward the temple. We moved to Utah in 1993. We had gone through tornadoes in Omaha and earthquakes in Tokyo. We have also seen huge wildfires in Washington and Idaho that burned hundreds of square miles. At least you get a few minutes warning of most tornadoes and wildfires. Basically it is a certainty that another big quake will hit the Bay Area, possibly on the Hayward Fault in the middle of the population. We had just moved to Concord in the Bay Area in July. When the earthquake hit, I was several stories underground on the platform of the Montgomery Street Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway station. Suddenly the entire station started oscillating back and forth along the line of the tunnel, about one full cycle per second. The sound abosrbing panels that hung vertically from the ceiling were swaying in unison. When the shaking stopped, the lights went out (the power had been shut down to prevent lighting fires from leaking gas mains). Unfortunately, the emergency lights did not come on. My littlke pocket flashlight was the only light that some 50 people had as we walked up the dead escalators to the surface.

There was not much visible damage to buildings right there. A colleague and I walked a few blocks to the central bus terminal to try to catch buses to Oakland where we could pick up the BART again (the section under the Bay was shut down in case of leaks in the tunnel). We learned that the Bay Bridge had broken. Eventually my friend caught a bus going south, and around 11 PM a bus driver offered to take people to Oakland, driving north across the city, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, and then north to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, then south to Oakland. I was able to catch the BART in Oakland back to Concord, arriving at midnight, some 7 hours late.

A lot of coworkers were stuck in town and holed up with friends. One was in a bus on the Bay Bridge when the segment of road fell out. Another was on the BART under the Bay when the quake hit. BART decided that it would get people out faster and more safely by starting the trains up to the first station on each side. My office building had a few cracks, so I stayed home until the following Monday while it was inspected.

Eventually, they discovered cracks in the double-decker freeway that ran along the San Francisco waterfront near my office. If the quake had gone much longer, it would have pancaked like the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland. They decided it was unsafe and needed to be torn down, so we watched that process over several months. This improved the view of the Bay immensely.

The quake triggered aftershocks on a newly discovered fault under Mount Diablo near our house.

In 1991, we had moved to Marin County, and watched across the Bay as the Oakland Fire went on for days burning along the hills, heading south toward the temple. We moved to Utah in 1993. We had gone through tornadoes in Omaha and earthquakes in Tokyo. We have also seen huge wildfires in Washington and Idaho that burned hundreds of square miles. At least you get a few minutes warning of most tornadoes and wildfires. Basically it is a certainty that another big quake will hit the Bay Area, possibly on the Hayward Fault in the middle of the population.

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