So let's hear your Earthquake story!, page 2

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ATS Members have flagged this thread 5 times

reply posted on 7-7-2010 @ 09:18 PM by randyvs

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy

Hey drummer read my post I think it's four posts up from yours .

reply posted on 7-7-2010 @ 09:29 PM by Lil Drummerboy

reply to post by randyvs

Due to the graphic nature of this post it has been removed
?? line

[edit on 7-7-2010 by Lil Drummerboy]

reply posted on 7-7-2010 @ 11:25 PM by Oneolddude

I lived in SoCal so long that quakes are not even news anymore.

Now rain that would be news.

Didn't even feel it.

reply posted on 27-12-2010 @ 01:11 PM by randyvs

reply to post by Oneolddude

Apple valley Ca. I know what you mean about So.Cal. liv'in but we sure felt that one out chere in the desert.

reply posted on 30-12-2010 @ 03:11 PM by argentus

reply to post by randyvs

Your thread popped back up in MYATS, and as I recall, I said I'd share one of my earthquake stories.

17 Oct 1989. I left work at South San Francisco, CA, and I would have normally gone across the Bay Bridge to our house in Alameda. This time, I was going to check out a Datsun 240Z that was for sale. My Bride was doing SCCA racing at the time, and we wanted one car to work on and another to drive. I went across the San Mateo Bridge instead, looked at the car, and drove home. I was in an Alpha-Beta supermarket when the Loma Prieta quake hit. I was going to pick up some food and munchables and go home and watch the World Series on TV, which was playing in S.F.

We were all used to temblors and everyone in the store stopped when the first trembling p-wave hit. Then the second s-wave hit and I remember this loud SH-SH-SH-SH sound and some people were thrown to the floor. The fiberglass ceiling tiles started falling down and somebody screamed "The roof is caving in!!" and everyone thundered out of the building. I stayed inside and moved a few feet so that I was between the swaying ceiling lights. We were told later that the quake lasted 15 seconds. It seemed a hell of a lot longer than that to me. Do you know that once the earthquake was over that several 'suits' ran back into the store and stole liquor? I was shocked. The 'quake was a 7.0 magnitude, and its epicenter was 50+ miles south of S.F. near Santa Cruz.

The parking lot was a mess, with cars pushed together. I had a habit of parking far away from the store or stadium or whatever I was going to. My semi-hopped-up Honda Prelude was all by itself, but the road was blocked by cars, so I drove it over a grass hill, and across a field, railroad tracks and onto the back roads. I wanted to drive to my wife's work on Bay Farm Island, but our earthquake plan was for whomever was home to stay there and wait for the other, unless otherwise advised. I got my transceiver from the trunk of the car and turned it on. At the time, in addition to my regular job, I was also part of a SAR team. My Bride also had a trunked transceiver chipped to the same frequency, but she was not allowed to talk on it, unless it was a vital emergency. I hoped to hear from her. I got home and our house was fine, except for a few fallen pictures, knocked over bottles, etc.

I picked up the phone and called my wife. Amazingly enough, I got her, and she said, "I'm fine. Everybody here is okay. I'm on my way ho...." and the line went dead. So I sat and waited and she made it home finally, an hour and a half later -- what would normally be a 10-minute zip home in her car.

I was called about four hours later to join the canine SAR crew at the Cypress Freeway interchange. Normally, I would've been under the Cypress at the time the freeway double-decker collapsed. We spent the better part of the next four days under and around the Cypress, working in shifts and pulling people out of there. It was a complete horror -- most cars had been crushed down to little more than two feet tall. Horns were blaring, it was dusty and smoky and the thick acrid stench of fuel and God knows what else. Nearly a mile and a half of freeway had collapsed onto the lower deck (lower was toward Oakland). 42 people lost their lives in that damn Cypress interchange; there were many, many injured. I don't know how many were pulled free........ I would guess at least twice than number. I know that at least four of the survivors or their families looked up and went around to personally thank each and every SAR person -- as well as the dogs, who were the real heroes. No, I take that back. The dogs WERE heroes, but the real shining stars (for me) were the locals and some factory workers who put their own lives at risk to climb into the hellish hole of the Cypress to rescue people even before the Fire Department, Public Works and other gov. groups even got there. Everyone pulled together, and locals also set up support services out of their own pockets with food, water, coffee, blankets, etc. Red Cross set up a logistics & support/tracking center, also with food and supplies. Contra Costa (or was it Oakland?) Public works along with the factory folk provided a lot of heavy equipment and personnel as well. Command and control was with OFD. Everyone shined. The last survivor was pulled from the Cypress on 21 Oct 89.

I was on contract to the U.S. government at the time, and didn't go back to work for nearly a month. That event was more visceral and more harrowing for me than going to war. Selah.

reply posted on 31-12-2010 @ 12:27 AM by Isaac (RIP DUSTIN)

reply to post by argentus

Huh. We (Parents and two brothers) were living in the bay area up until a month before that earthquake. I remember watching the world series when it all took place. My dad then did some thinking and realized he would have been on that double decker that collapsed at the time of the quake.
He also sold his 240z a month prior to us moving.. I think, unless he had one of his friends hold onto it.. I should ask him. Would be weird if it was his.

Well I had three short earthquake stories. But argentus took one of them. This was a few months prior to the bay area earthquake already mentioned. Back then I was 9 years old and we had a small maybe 3+ quake hit. I remember being fascinated by earthquakes and sticking my ear to the floor trying to hear it saying "WHOOOA" while my older bro and mom ran through the house screaming..
My other one is the 6.8 we had up here in Washington in 2/28/2001. I was moving out of my apartment that day and just had this feeling I needed to get out of the apartment. I grabbed my keys and started driving to my parents house. Sitting at a stop light my truck started bouncing around and I looked up and saw the street lights swaying all over the place. I looked over to the lady in the car to my left and noticed she had a death grip on her steering wheel with a look of absolute fear. And I sat there riding it out laughing with a huge grin on my face.
Isaac

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