I want to know everything about the Earthquake that happened on my first birthday because of the San Andrea's fault.October 17, 1989.

-- Andrea Morrone (perfect_hmongster@yahoo.com), April 13, 2004

Answers

Andrea,

It would be best that you look this up yourself in old newspaper articles or perhaps check with someone who may have recorded the local news stations during this time. A lot of us really don't want to remember this because there was quite a panic around here. Right after the earthquake most of the city was blacked out with no power. That made the news we heard on transister radios incredibly erie. Huge fires burning in the Marina, part of the bay bridge collapsed with one driver driving right into collapsed section at full speed. Some parts of the freeway interchange in Oakland and San Franciso collapsed where one deck of an above freeway collapsed right on top of another deck below crushing all the drivers. One driver was determined to be alive and rescue workers worked feverishly a whole week to get him out with great cheers when they finally did only to have the poor guy die shortly afterward. There were huge aftershocks and everyone seriously thought that this might be the end of us all. I myself was on the Golden Gate bridge when it happened and I thought the bridge was collapsing and it was the end for me and what bad timing I had and what a way to die. The bridge swayed back and forth and the big cables vibrated for 10 minutes but the bridge held. At that moment I had no idea it was an earthquake, I just thought the bridge was collapsing. We were all extremely lucky, not that many people died and property damage was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. But the horror of it all and the insecurity of it all will always be remembered.

-- Harry Murphy (harrymurphy*@bigmailbox.net), April 14, 2004.