[OT] 10/17/89: Where were you then and how will you commemorate it?

Goodsport

Goodsport

Explorer
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Was the Loma Prieta earthquake really that long ago? Many on these boards were in kindergarten or in first grade at the time, while I was in my first semester at San Jose State (having graduated high school earlier that year)... oh man, I'm old! :(

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp And ironically, it hit the Bay Area in the middle of the last time the San Francisco Giants were in the World Series - playing against the Oakland Athletics, no less. :eek:

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp In any case, where were you the moment the quake hit (I was sitting bored in a math class at SJSU in which the teacher was explaining how logarithms could be used for the richter scale... I'm not kidding!), and how will you commemorate the anniversary?


-G
 

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I was watching the game on TV actually, ABC I think

All of a sudden everything in the picture shook, I thought the camera man like droped the camera or something, then static, then, "We are experiencing technical difficulties please stand by" The slightly later they came back with a news report showing all the devistation.
 

DarwinofMind said:
I was watching the game on TV actually, ABC I think

All of a sudden everything in the picture shook, I thought the camera man like droped the camera or something, then static, then, "We are experiencing technical difficulties please stand by" The slightly later they came back with a news report showing all the devistation.
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It was ABC. I remember Al Michaels suddenly became an expert on earthquakes.
 

It was my junior year in college, and I was sitting in my dorm room watching the game on TV. We sat up half the night watching the news coverage.
 


Wow! I haven't thought about this in years. I was living in Vacaville, CA, about an hour north of SF.

I remember I was in my room and I had just stood up to get something and the earth shook a bit for about 10 seconds. That was how powerful the quake was. I felt it ~ 60 miles away.
 

BButler said:
It was my junior year in college, and I was sitting in my dorm room watching the game on TV. We sat up half the night watching the news coverage.
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Same here, but it was my sophomore year, and I was sitting in my Buffalo, NY dorm room. One of only two times I watched my little B&W TV that year; the other was when Nelson Mendela was released from prison in February 1990.
 

Eridanis said:


Same here, but it was my sophomore year, and I was sitting in my Buffalo, NY dorm room. One of only two times I watched my little B&W TV that year; the other was when Nelson Mendela was released from prison in February 1990.
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Oh, I see you have a TV manufactured by the "newsworthy events aliens" too. The first time I turned on my TV in college was the first night... only to find out that Princess Diana had just been in a horrendous car wreck.

Needless to say, the TV stayed off for the remainder of the year.

Back OT though, I was taking care of a neighbor's two dogs when the quake hit. They had cable so I stayed over there and 'played with the dogs' a lot. Scary stuff indeed.

-F
 

I was living in Oakland CA, and I came home early from work to watch the game. I didn't see Al Michaels' analysis because the station switched to the local affiliate when their power came back up. They were in a studio in SF, and the anchors were terrified. They lost their monitors in the studio so they couldn't see the pictures they were showing us (Bay Bridge, Cypress structure, Marina district). I've never seen news anchors so rattled.

One of my co-workers lived in SF, and took the Bay Bridge home. He left work early as well, and it's a good thing: the earthquake hit at 5:04 PM, and his toll ticket was stamped 5:02 PM. He was on the island in the middle of the bridge during the quake. I don't know if folks remember, but a couple of sections of the Bay Bridge fell into the bay.

I visited a couple of friends that lived 100 yards from the Cypress structure, which was the double decker freeway that collapsed. They helped out with the rescue efforts, and had to pull dead bodies from cars. I remember just how traumatized they were, and how they didn't even seem to know. They coped by trading the most awful jokes I ever heard.

I haven't thought about that in years. Wow.

PS
 


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