Earthquake Experiences

The Giants were robbed...

Lucky enough not to have experienced a big one. One of the reasons I moved to SF in 91 was that I thought it would be safe for a while. Then I learned about the Hayward fault. The biggest one I felt was on the Big Island around a 4.5, but I was also convinced that the volcano had erupted even though I was on the Kona side far from the active volcano. It was just an earthquake. 

The worst story I heard was from a coworker who was in the elevator at the Sutter Stockton garage going up when the 89 quake hit. The elevator stopped and banged violently against  the walls for a about a minute. When it ended every car in the parking garage that had an alarm was going off. It was a cacophony of sound and dust. They managed to pry the doors open of the elevator and it had stopped between floors. Then they had to decide how to jump out. If you didn't jump far enough you would go down the shaft and if you lingered too long on the edge and the elevator started up again you could be cut in half.  

Traded tapes with someone in Santa Cruz who I have since lost touch with. He said the biggest hassle for him was that every time he re-shelved his by date tape collection there would be an after shock and he would have to start over. 

The San Andreas Fault runs right through the middle of my little town (I live on the North American Plate, and the Pacific Plate is just across the valley), but we don't get very big quakes here. Lots of 1s and 2s, and an occasional 3 or 4 mostly. But in 1857, Fort Tejon, which is just down the road from me, had what is estimated to be a 7.9 quake.

I was on the football bleachers of Gunn high school in Palo Alto when Loma Prieta hit. The bleachers buckled back and forth, a facade of a building being constructed crashed quite loudly and the quake created waves in the swimming pool that flooded the street and made the kids in the pool scream bloody murder.

I was supposed to meet a friend at a Mexican restaurant on El Camino to watch the series. We both made it there and they were serving margaritas by generator. They also had the TV so we could watch the chaos. Weird freaking time.

I lived off West Cliff when the LP quake hit. It was not like other quakes, really rough. Our neighbor's goldfish died but other than that out street was unscathed. We were supposed to meet friends downtown at the coffee shop but canceled about a half hour before the quake. Glad I was a flakey mcflakerstein that day because there's a very good chance we would've still been there when the building came down. 

Met a bunch of neighbors, our street turned into a 4 day block party with the road blocked and everyone scrambling to cook their food up. Safeway was giving away Sunny Delight.

You being in Santa Cruz it sounds like you were lucky. The damage to that town was terrible but was barely an afterthought in the coverage of the '89 quake.

My buddy and I were sitting in the bed of my truck in a dirt parking lot near Candlestick that day, drinking a final beer with a few shots of Jack Daniel's before heading in to the game when the truck started swaying. I thought it was somebody bouncing the truck on their way by, but my friend said "it's an earthquake" and when I looked up I saw the surreal sight of all the cars in the huge landfill parking lot undulating like boats in a marina during a storm.

From that spot it didn't seem that bad, and when it was over everyone cheered. We figured no big whoop and were getting ready to go when I noticed that there was no signal on the radio or on my little battery TV. We also saw the blimp and the two or three helicopters that were circling the stadium head over toward downtown SF, so we decided to wait a few minutes before getting into a huge crowd.

After about ten minutes of talking about how bad it might have been I looked at my TV and saw it was broadcasting again, with the image on the screen the collapsed Bay Bridge taken from one of the helicopters.

We then heard the game was canceled, that there was extensive damage and power was out all over the region, that there were collapsed buildings & roads and fires were starting.

My friend and I debated whether to leave and try to get back to the South Bay, but all we were seeing and hearing were images of the bridge, the Cypress structure and the fire raging in the Marina District and that no traffic lights were working and the roads were jamming up, so I figured were we better off where we were until the game traffic thinned out and we got better info on how bad things were all over.

Because I had my portable TV going, my truck became a social center as people made their way back to their cars and were seeing the extent of the damage for the first time. By the time everyone finally cleared out I noticed that someone had left a very nice, brand new ski jacket at my truck, with an expensive pair of sunglasses and a World Series program in the pockets, so it wasn't a total loss for me.

By the time we left things had settled down and the streets & freeways were mostly empty, and despite some harrowing moments dealing with a few significant cracks along I-280 we made it home without any real trouble.

It was a hell of a thing. And it will be again.

On it goes.

I lived in Loleta (south of Eureka) at a time when there were a couple of small-medium sized quakes. They were rolling quakes, not jolts. Very surreal. The first Mr. Judit was working graveyard at Simpson plywood on the Samoa peninsula (I don't know what it's officially called) but because it was on a concrete slab he didn't feel anything, I was home sleeping and was awakened. Another quake he had climbed the mast on his boat at the same time as a quake and didn't feel it but the boat tipped and put him in the water.

I was in L.A. (home in Laurel Canyon) during at least one other that lasted much longer than any other I've been in - there was no real damage where I was.

I know we're supposed to have one here in Oregon, "the Big One", but I'm not prepared for it. I think the least I should do is have stored water.
This showed up on Facebook today, I've watched about 3/4 of it. Some of it is new-to-me info. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89uVoIN5ZH4&t=4s

I remember several quakes in LA growing up.  Biggest was the Sylmar quake in 1971 (6.6), a smaller example would be the Malibu quake in 1979 (5.2).

The biggest in Oregon was the Scott Mills quake in 1993 (5.6).  But i've felt several here too!  

East Coast gets em too...

I remember the Oct '85 quake outside NYC maybe a 4.0. but nothing like the '89 quake I experienced here in SF

A DARK NIGHT IN THE CITY
Memories of the World Series Quake

Being born and raised in the Bay Area, and for the last several years a resident of the great City of San Francisco, I have lived my whole life with an awareness and experience of earthquakes. Many times I have felt the world shift and move and heard the physical and psychic rumble of natural forces unleashed.

I was not, therefore, unduly alarmed on Tuesday, October 17, 1989 at 5:04 p.m., walking across the third floor of an old brick South of Market warehouse, when the walls began to move and the rumbling began. This warehouse was my place of employment, and I was on my way to slide my badge across the computer time clock before leaving for the day...

https://roarshock.net/darknight.html

I moved to southern California in 1997, so I missed the Northridge quake. When I was a student at Cal State Northridge about 20 years ago, I found they have an earthquake garden on campus.

I think that since we have the Coast Range between the coast and the Willamette Valley we're safe from tsunamis, but then I think about if large surges of water come up the Columbia and dump into the Willamette river, it's possible that the river will bring high water even as far as Eugene. Probably not possible, but I think that way.

Wow! You saw it? Did you plan to be there at that time?

So is that at a low tide? It looks like the sand is showing, could that be? It looked like it was moving so slowly, but I know that there wasn't a race.

I was in Malibu during the 94 LA quake and just a few years ago had an amazing experience working in an operating room when a quake centered in Virginia I believe happened and are room shifted strongly side to side for about a minute. Not sure if it's due to the precise nature of our environment but was pretty powerful feeling and was surprised to find out it was from so far away 

also experienced one in the early 80s in upstate NY when a taxidermied fish hanging on my wall started shaking and fell and I told my family I think there was an earthquake. They all laughed(before the instant news world we live in now) only to have it confirmed on the news. Small but noticeable 

>>>>>possible that the river will bring high water even as far as Eugene

Pretty sure it wouldn't make it over Willamette Falls at Oregon City. Portland could be hit, however.

2 goonie birds in and Phil breaks out subsonic bombs that registered 6.5 magnitude on my psychedelic richter scale!

Which brings to mind April 18th 1982 in Hartford and Phil's Earthquake Space.

https://archive.org/details/gd82-04-18.sbd.miller.18116.sbeok.shnf

You being in Santa Cruz it sounds like you were lucky. The damage to that town was terrible but was barely an afterthought in the coverage of the '89 quake.

I was lucky that I didn't go downtown SC to the coffee shop. It collapsed and there were victims trapped for days under brick rubble until they died. Their friends/families could hear them crying for help but weren't allowed to rescue them because it was too dangerous. Lots of people lost their homes. My friend's partner broke both his legs when a bookshelf fall and pinned him down at the bookstore. Some blocks were spared, others were not. 

There was a California earthquake, in the year of '83
It shook the living daylights out of the Owens County Seat
Not a building still left standing when the dust had cleared away
Just a rumble in the distance all the way to San Andrea

Oh Sherman Buck was driving his old mule into town
When a big one came and shook so hard, that it knocked him to the ground
Lord there opened up a hole so big, he thought his time was up
And it swallowed up that poor old mule and it just missed Sherman Buck

California earthquake you just don't know what you've done
We may fall off in the ocean, but you'll never make us run
You're a partner to the devil, but we ain't afraid of him
We'll build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again

Then came the quake of '99 that leveled Mission Creek
The earth was like an ocean churning, with waves of twenty feet
Lord it sounded like a thousand trains were screaming underground
Clean across to San Joachim, they heard that mournful sound

Then came one day the holocaust on San Franciso Bay
Ninety miles of walls came down like old Jericho that day
Might near everything the earthquake missed, a holy fire consumed
And left 'em smoke and the ashes of the dreams that can't be ruined

Build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again

GD. Philadelphia, 10-20-1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5iHaXCz0bA&t=15s

I've lived in Humboldt County (1993-1999), SE Los Angeles (1999-2005), and Seattle (2005-2025). and yet to experience a catastrophic quake.  I've felt a handful of smaller ones.  Right now, there's an earthquake swarm at Mount Rainier.  The day that thing erupts could bring some havoc.

First: April 25th 1992 Jerry Band played the San Jose Event Center. We took CZ-74 that night and camped in the redwoods after the show on a friends property in Lompico.

No tents just a pad and a sleeping bag. About 4am when the drugs had worn off enough so we stopped yapping and laughing we laid down to rest.

Two minutes into us laying down and being quiet a small tremor went by.

We were all east coasters and had never felt the ground move before.

That set off another hour of laughing and yapping.

Favorite: were two 4.4 earthquakes back to back 7 minutes apart at 6am behind the hospital in Santa Cruz

You could hear it coming like a freight train in the distance then you could hear it going too 

Biggest: was a 5.7 in Anchorage but I had just started my pick up with a clutch and thought I'd flubbed engaging the clutch.

But I did notice garbage containers swaying and thought there wasn't much wind

I forget about the falls at Oregon City. Thanks for the reality, Surfdead.

I was in Penang Malaysia when a 8.6 "aftershock" hit Sumatra. I was staying on the 13th floor of an old hotel and had taken a sleeping pill. It shook so long that I woke up, got out of bed and dressed and was going down the steps while it was still rocking the building. A second Ambien was taken afterwards.

Another California Earthquake, this one by John Hartford.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKSYr5nhiYg

I heard they exploded the underground blast
What they say it's gonna happen, gonna happen at last
That's the way it appears

They tell me the fault line runs right through here
If that may be, that may be
What's gonna happen gonna happen to me
That's the way it appears
They tell me the fault line runs right through here

Atlantis will rise, Sunset Boulevard will fall
Where the beach used to be, won't be nothing at all
That's the way it appears

They tell me the fault line runs right through here
If that may be, that may be
What's gonna happen gonna happen to me
That's the way it appears
They tell me the fault line runs right through here

Mother Nature's got gas, her diet's gone stale
See her acid indigestion on the Richter Scale

They tell me the fault line runs right through here
If that may be, that may be
What's gonna happen gonna happen to me
That's the way it appears
They tell me the fault line runs right through here

"Speaking of LA quakes, I wonder if anyone here was around for Northridge 1994"

I was at one of our 2 desert paries that yr. Live music went 24 hrs and we  were dancing to Dead Center. The lead guitar, Kenny Kasmin, took credit for the quake. 

Also, another quake, not sure which one, I was on a ladder in a high rise bldg in downtown LA( I was an electrician, and no I don't want to install your ceiling fan. ) and was thrown off the ladder when the bldg swayed. 

1989, Loma Prieta. I was on the 27th floor if 50 California Street in the Financial District. Up that high the building really swayed. I was knocked off my feet and it seemed like an eternity before it stopped. Then, an eerie silence - the emergency lights cane on in the fire exits and we began the long descent down 27floors to the street. Dust hung in the air as a couple of brick buildings- the Krishna Copy Center and a McDonald's facade had collapsed. I git on s bus but soon realized that with stop lights out pedestrians were walking up California street faster than the bus (Californians are notoriously bad with 4 way stops.) So, I got off the bus and walked from Nob Hill to 26th and Anza. After awhile the walk became fun as I learned all the bars were giving away their draft beer. Power was clearly going to be out for days and there was no point in wasting beer. A few hours later I stumbled home with candles, bread, cheese and booze where I sat  with no power. I spent Wednesday at Baker Beach which was packed and turned into a huge party as nobody had work. Buildings were damaged, a lot of stuff broken but the Richmond district faired better than other areas that were devastated.

I remember the 1957 quake in the bay area. Pretty heavy. We had just arrived in Belvedere (Tiburon)- I was a 6 year old squirt- kindergarten above a fire station. All I remember was falling out of my chair.

4 years later at Ft Richardson outside of Anchorage Alaska me and a bunch of friends were hanging out one summer afternoon next to the forest behind our houses. A loud rumbling sound in the ground that I thought was a herd of moose. Then it shook - VERY violent for about 20 seconds- total freak out. The 64 quake destroyed much of Anchorage 2 years later.