Earthquake Victim of 1989 Loma Prieta Quake Remembers

To Lucy, a survivor of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the most surreal part was in the aftermath.

She lived, and still does, in the Marina - pictured above, though she didn't want to be pictured - in the most damaged part of San Francisco. It was the haste with which people vacated their homes in the days following the 6.9 quake that spooked her.

'People were throwing things out of the windows....I saw people actually throwing their clothes into a truck. It was freaky, kind of scary!' she said.

I spoke to her as the city's Big Rumble commemoration of the quake's 20th anniversary was coming to an end - see previous blogs. It took just 16 seconds for the quake to travel from near the Loma Prieta Mountain in the Santa Cruz mountains to the Presidio, which is adjacent to the Marina.

It struck at a few minutes past 5 pm on October 17, at 5:04:37 pm precisely, and when the shaking around the city had ended, Lucy, who worked as a sales rep for a company, suddenly found herself having to walk the few miles home.

When she arrived at her apartment, in the middle of a three-storied building on Beach
Road, her house was still standing. The door to her apartment was buckled and inside there was chaos.

'I lost all my dishes and lamps, anything ceramic,' she said.

On the ground floor, the wastewater line had cracked, splitting the floor in half. As it was repaired, workers packed hay around the new pipe to allow it to move in the next quake.

The Marina was a disaster area, and the next day she went around and 'took photos all day,' though she is not sure where that treasure trove of historical pics are. She thinks they are in storage somewhere.

Amazingly, despite the damage all around, her house was green tagged by building inspectors as 'ok to enter and occupy.' FEMA came to inspect the damage in her apartment and, Lucy remembered with a smile, the inspectors had to break down the door because they couldn't squeeze through. The effort was worth it, though, because they gave her $1,500 in total for her losses, except for her TV which was not covered.

However, her fellow tenants were far from reassured, either by the green tagging or the end of the quake. They bolted to families nearby and left Lucy as sole occupier. Lucy, who had moved from LA in 1986, didn't have anywhere else to go. Surveying the empty property, her mind filled with thoughts of 'who can I talk to?' and 'where can I go?'

She was rescued by an older couple who were neighbours. They befriended her and turned into lifelong friends. Today Lucy still visits the husband, now a widower, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday.

Another girl, too, turned to the same neighbours for help. She wanted permission to climb over their back fence so that she could sneak into the back of her house, which had been red tagged as unsafe to enter, to retrieve her jewellery and artwork. That, too, was the start of another friendship and she continues to keep in touch with Lucy and the husband, even though she no longer lives in California.

'It's funny how one thing brings people together and you stay together,' she said.

Her property lost electricity, as did thousands of others, and was one of the last to have power restored. She recalls power coming back just before Thanksgiving. In the interim, the city supplied mobile shower units in a nearby street.

'I put on my bathrobe and slippers and just walked out there! Everybody did it!' she said.

The disaster wasn't without other humorous moments either. One afternoon she slipped out from work early to go home, only to be televised by a CNN crew filming in the area.

'Everybody was laughing at me,' she said. 'The company were really good. They said, "don't you have to go and see your customers in Seattle!"' She did!

The Red Cross pitched in with accommodation for displaced residents. Funded by them, Lucy stayed two nights in a local hostel. She remembered the hostel charging $35 instead of the regular $80, and was struck by the fact that some fellow guests were millionaires who took advantage of Red Cross funding.

Meals and beds were provided, too, by The Marina Middle School. 'It was a crazy time!' she said.

Growing up in LA and accustomed to ground tremblings, Lucy didn't have the same measure of panic as many of those around her. She didn't flee the Marina, and today continues to live there. But the quake did bring about some changes in lifestyle.

In the immediate aftermath, she bought only plastic mugs and plates, and in the longterm, earthquake preparedness has became a part of her life. She never leaves her apartment on foot without wearing sensible shoes in case she has to walk back again, and in her car is a bag packed with warm clothes and good footwear.

But the great paradox is that the LA earthquake-experienced girl now trembles in her sensible shoes far more than she did in 1989.

'I don't think people get it,' she said. 'I'm more scared now than I was in 1989 because we haven't had anything to speak of. I think the pressure's building up. Then you hear there's this big one in Samoa, and in Indonesia,' she trailed off.

An ominous warning is posted on The Big Rumble website:

'......the Loma Prieta — which the U.S. Geological Survey has indicated was merely 6% as intense as the 1906 earthquake — will pale in comparison to the far more serious quake that will inevitably strike in the future.

'The Hayward Fault has not had a major earthquake since 1868, before the East Bay was densely populated, and both the Hayward and the San Andreas are due for major quakes.'

Though in part Lucy dismisses the experts' views. 'Back then - 1989 - they said we could have a major earthquake in 30 years, it's now been 20,' she said. And then this week she heard on MSNBC another expert reiterating the current consensus that there will be a major quake in the next 30 years from now.

'I think these people don't know what they're talking about,' she said, fearing that the next big one is on its way much sooner than expected.

'It's been too quiet!' she said.

• Tracking down all retrofit projects carried out in the city since 1989 would be a 'Herculean effort', say The Big Rumble, so that a complete catalogue has proven elusive. But there is still much info available on a community mapping project conceived by structural engineer David Bonowitz and sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in Oakland
• http://earthquakeretrofit.org
• http://www.thebigrumble.org
  

The Big Rumble - 1989 Earthquake 20th Anniversary - Preparedness & Monument

Building Inspector Ed Greene recalls the surreal sight of concrete road barriers, each weighing thousands of pounds, 'bouncing like basketballs' in the 1989 Loma Prieta Quake.

And 'asphalt was like the waves on the ocean,' he said.

A baseball fan, Ed was in the parking lot at the San Francisco Giants' former Candlestick Park, arriving for the World Series game with the Oakland Raiders, when the quake struck. Over the next two days, there was no power. His brother was in the Marina, which was the most devastated area, and the family were unable to get in touch with him.

'What it brings to mind, is that it was quiet. There was no television. It was like a return to yesteryear, all the present-day amenities were gone. Like time was standing still,' he reminisced.

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the last great quake to devastate the city since the Great Quake of 1906. And since Tuesday of this week, the Big Rumble has been the city's response to both remember the past and prepare for the future.

A major training drill organized by the San Francisco Fire Department's voluntary Neighbourhood Emergency Response Team has been held at the Marina Green and three other sites in the city - see previous blogs.

When - as people say, not 'if' - a major quake hits San Francisco again, it will be all hands on deck, mechanical as well as human.

The bomb squad with their search robots equipped with cameras will be there, as will building inspectors responsible for preventing further injury and death from dangerous buildings. There, too, will be dogs to help comfort traumatized victims and rescuers.

Today at the Marina, Ed was manning the mobile command center for the San Francisco Department for Building Inspection. The van a direct result of lessons learned in the Loma Prieta quake.

It comes equipped with emergency radios and telephones, fax machine and internet access. It also provides sleeping accommodation, a lounge and meeting area, and kitchen facility. Staff will be able to live there on shifts and host emergency meetings.

The radios are judged to be particularly crucial. 'They've learnt a lot from the 1989 earthquake. There were no communications in terms of phones,' he said.

The task of Ed and his colleagues will be to categorize the state of buildings and prevent people from entering those that are in a dangerous state. Tucked in drawers in the command center are already items of emergency clothing, the red jackets and hard hats, supplies of caution tape, to mark off buildings quickly before barricades can be set up, and placards that designate the status of a building: red for Unsafe, yellow for Restricted Use, and green for Inspected and 'ok to enter and occupy.'

The Marina was the worst affected area in 1989, but it has gone through a lot of retrofitting. Damage in the next quake might be more spread across the city, said Ed. Probably about 95 per cent of buildings in the Unreinforced Masonry Buildings - UMB - programme have been retrofitted.

Police Officer John Barcojo is a member of the bomb squad. 'We will help in any way we can, with traffic control, evacuations and assist in rescues,' he said.

'These robots here, they've got cameras on them and could be used for searching. 'We will send them into a building where the structural integrity is compromised,' he said.

The bomb squad could also be used in policing evacuated areas. During the Loma Prieta quake there were a lot of looters, said Officer Barcojo. If there was to be another evacuation of the Marina, the homes would be untended. 'Believe it or not, there are some people who would like to take an advantage of a situation like that.'

He was a boy of about 13 years when the Loma Prieta quake struck. Then, he was living on the solid rock of Mount Davidson. 'I remember watching it on TV. We lost power for two days,' he said.

He recalled seeing the fires around the city on TV. Of his home, he added, 'I think some plates fell.' But being a young lad, he said, 'I guess it didn't impact me. Now, I think what would happen if your home burnt down!'

How prepared does he think the city is?

'I personally feel that the city is very well prepared. We train pretty regularly, and we have a lot of specialized units for things like this.'

But for those involved in the rescue work, they will see unpleasant sights, said Lynn Jacklevich, a member of the NERT Advisory Board. Which is why dogs will have an important role. They will be able to provide companionship, to help traumatized rescuers off-load their stress. They will also provide a welcome distraction and comfort to children.

Lynn was at the Marina with Smitty, her 11-year-old half-Sharpei, half combined Labrador and Retriever. She moved to San Francisco from Wisconsin - 'they don't have earthquakes there!' - and has been active in NERT for the last 14 years.

One of the aspect's of NERT is helping to prepare for the care of pets in an earthquake. They have learnt from the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans that people would prefer to risk their lives rather than abandon their pets, she said.

Animals will tend to be nervous after an earthquake. Apart from care of victims' pets, NERT volunteers themselves who are busy with rescue work will need to find other volunteers to help look after their pets, as the animals will not be able to accompany them to the emergency stations.

San Francisco's Animal Care and Control have been very proactive in trying to plan ahead for this, too, said Lynn.

Also at the Marina was a stall offering Earthquake Potato Chips and emergency whistles, and an historical fire engine and displays of the 1906 Great Quake. Manning a stall for the SFFD's Fire Museum and the SFPD's Police Museum was Inspector Liane Corrales.

The police and fire departments, together with the Sheriff's and Emergency Medical Services - EMS - Departments are working on a project to raise funds for a new museum and memorial to their work and those who have lost their lives. The project is titled the Guardians of the City - GOTC - Museum and Memorial.

The week's events of The Big Rumble closed with a commemorative ceremony at the Marina Green to mark the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake. At the ceremony, a fundraising campaign was launched for the Marina Earthquake Monument.

This will be a memorial of the quake and a tribute to the SFFD. It will be a contemporary sculpture incorporating part of the tower monitor of the 55-year-old fireboat,

Phoenix, and will be set on the seawall.

Loma Prieta 20th Anniversary - Earthquake Preparedness

Blood-stained earthquake survivors of the next Great Quake to rumble in San Francisco have been laid on the green at the Marina today. Others have been pulled by practicing hands from beneath mounds of rubble.

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, the last great quake to devastate the city since the Great Quake of 1906. And since Tuesday of this week, the Big Rumble

has been the city's response to both remember the past and prepare for the future.

The Big One, that scientists say is coming in the next 30 years.

Today at the Marina, the worst damaged area in 1989 as it was built on landfill, and at three other sites in the city, the voluntary organization Neighbourhood Emergency Response Team - NERT - held their annual drill. NERT is a voluntary wing of the San Francisco Fire Department.

'We act as the eyes and ears of the fire department,' said Edie Schaffer, Coordinator Chair of the NERT Advisory Board.

In an earthquake, NERT volunteers are responsible for finding victims, assessing injuries and damage and reporting to and manning stations, run in the same way that the fire department run their Incident Command System - ICS. From the stations, they will directly contact the Battalion Chief at his or her Emergency Department Coordination Center.



For the drill, members of emergency and key city services combined forces to train volunteers and educate the public.








Programme Coordinator Erica Arteseros, a Lieutenant in the San Francisco Fire Department, said, 'We are practicing response skills for putting out small fires, completing searches, triaging injured patients and most importantly, how to do this as an organized team.

















A short while later, her colleague, firefighter John Caba, balanced on a plank laid over the squashed 'body' of a mannequin. 'I represent thousands and thousands of pounds,' he said to the volunteers clustered around him in hard hats and emergency response jackets.

Chunk of wood by chunk of wood, John instructed them to 'build a box' to raise one end of the plank and eventually lift the weight off the trapped person. In a real earthquake, they could use rubble, jacks, items from a grocery store.

'This is not a race, with any kind of rescue. Move deliberately,' he said, instructing the rescuers to communicate verbally with each other as they worked. Eventually, the person was pulled clear with their head, neck and shoulders supported.

Afterwards, John said, 'In an earthquake situation people are going to help people, strangers are going to help strangers.

'We can't prepare for everything, in a disaster I think we are going to be overwhelmed and that's why I think it's important to have a programme like this.'

Fires will be a major hazard in the next quake. 'You need over 250 fire engines to put out all the fires,' he said.

How many have they got? 'About 40', he replied.

'It's all up to chance,' he continued. Buildings are made now so that they are earthquake resistant - and the city has had a huge retrofitting programme - but can you, he said, control the shattering of glass, for example?

'You can only do so much, are you going to encase your house in bubblewrap?!'

Behind him, as he prepared for his next group, there were anguished cries from Nora. 'Help! I'm over here!' she called out to the search and rescue team. Nora, beautifully injured on her arm - pictured above - is one of the make-up team who prepared the victims spread out over the grass.

'Being a neighbourhood coordinator is one of the hardest jobs in NERT,' said Edie Schaffer.

'Because we're a voluntary organization, one of the most imortant things to do is to be prepared for a disaster. We have a tendency as human beings to put our head in the sand. The wonderful thing about NERT is that it encourages us to take care of ourselves as we know our First Responders are going to be overwhelmed.'

Another of the main goals of NERT and The Big Rumble is to get people to prepare their homes.

'NERT teaches us to look at our homes with earthquake eyes so that we can fix things that might hurt us in an earthquake - for example, pictures or chemicals - . The more we can learn to fix these things, the safer we will be and the quicker we will recover,' said Edie.

How effective has the Big Rumble has been?

Lt Erica Arteseros said, 'It has gotten a lot of attention but even with all of that I still meet people every day who don't know they can get free training through the fire service.'

see http://lizinsanfrancisco.blogspot.com/2009/09/big-rumble-1989-earthquake-20th.html

For all the info you need on training to help in the next Great Quake and how to prepare yourself and your home:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/sfnert_index.asp
http://www.thebigrumble.org
......cont in next blog......

The Big Rumble - 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake 20th Anniversary

The city of San Francisco is preparing to rumble to mark the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, the largest since the Great Quake of 1906.

Called 'The Big Rumble', the anniversary will be in the form of 'Where Were You In '89?' neighbourhood block parties, and city-organized activities. The aim is to raise

awareness in preparation for the next widely-anticipated Great Quake to hit the city.

Events will start on Monday, October 12, and run every day to the anniversary date of the quake, Saturday, October 17. At the closing ceremony, there will be a fundraising launch to build a monument to honour the city's firefighters.

Kickoff is in the City Hall with a panel of disaster responders discussing advances made in emergency planning and quake protection since 1989, with a presentation on the last quake. On Thursday there will be a California-wide Drop, Cover and Hold Drill, and on Saturday the street parties and four Preparedness Fairs across the city will be held.

The 1989 quake was the largest on the San Andreas fault since what is known as the Great Quake of San Francisco of 1906, for which the city still holds annual commemorations with a few remaining survivors.

The Loma Prieta quake struck across Central California with a magnitude of 6.9. It killed 63 people, injured 3,757, made over 12,000 people homeless and caused about $6 - $10 billion in property damage. San Francisco suffered about $3 billion of damage.

From the city, one of the most memorable news shots was of a collapsed section of the Bay Bridge - see pic above taken from USGS website - where one female driver died and her passenger was severely injured when the driver failed to see the gap and stop in time and her car fell into the broken section.

The quake was also famous in news shots around the world as it occurred during the warm-up of a World Series baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Raiders and was caught live on camera at the Giants' former Candlestick Park stadium.

Its epicenter was in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the forest of Nisene Marks State Park, near Santa Cruz and just south of the Loma Prieta Mountain after which it was named. Near the epicenter it was recorded as beginning at 5:04:21 p.m., and arrived at the Presidio next to the Golden Gate Bridge at 5:04:37 with the heaviest shaking recorded at 5:04:47 p.m.

Along the coast, a four-foot tsunami wave rose up in Monterey Bay, there was a landslide under the sea, and the sea level in Santa Cruise harbour fell by three feet. A magnitude 5.2 aftershock struck 37 minutes after the initial shock and altogether 51 aftershocks of magnitude 3.0 and larger occurred during the first day.

Looters were warned that they would face jail and no bail, and a 24-year-old man was shot by a distressed motorist when he was caught stealing traffic flares from volunteers.

In order to encourage people to remember and prepare, The Big Rumble 'has worked closely with San Francisco SAFE Inc, The American Red Cross, the Neighborhood Empowerment Network, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and the Department of Parking and Traffic to help you produce a one-of-a-kind fun filled day for your community.'

Limited grants to help towards some of the street costs of a block party are being offered, with applications needing to be in by next Wednesday, Sept 23.

In the aftermath of the 1989 quake, US Geological Survey scientists said they stood by their report warning of a major earthquake in Southern California by 2018. Last year, earthquake experts forecast a Great Quake over the next 30 years, ie by 1938.

More info:

For events info and toolkits: http://thebigrumble.org

USGS - US Geological Survey - Earthquake Hazards Program
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1989_10_18.php

San Francisco Earthquake History 1915-1989
http://www.sfmuseum.net/alm/quakes3.html#1989

pics of the quake are taken from the USGS website. They show: the Bay Bridge; devastation in the Marina District; cars crushed near 5th and Townsend where five people died