TBM: October 17th, 1989: Loma Prieta Earthquake
I still remember the Loma Prieta Earthquake that shook our home, and our lives, at 5:04 pm, 27 years ago today. I was holding Jaclyn, who was 7 months old, and talking to Nicole’s preschool teacher, Danielle. A native Californian, I grew up with earthquakes and they never bothered me until this one. After 5 seconds of rumbling, I realized that this was no ordinary earthquake because the intensity increased and glass started to break and furniture began to fall over. We were standing in the middle of the rec room on the first floor and I realized that it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. I tossed Jaclyn under the table with Danielle while I headed upstairs to get 4-year-old Nicole.
Although the earthquake lasted 45 seconds, it seemed like 2 minutes! I had to hang on to the handrail as I climbed the stairs because I was being tossed around. The potted plants that lined the banister above, flew down the stairs and on top of me as I called for Nicole. She was taking a nap and she slept through the whole earthquake. When Nicole finally heard me, she navigated down the hallway barefooted stepping over and around all of the broken glass from the photo frames. She was traumatized. As we exited the house through the garage, we saw all of our cabinets strewn across the floor.
Standing outside, we watched the hillside behind our neighbor’s house crumble, blocking them in with huge boulders. Rob was at his office on 7th Avenue and he managed to get a call to us to make sure we were okay, and then the phone lines went dead. In his Jeep, he drove over downed trees and through utter chaos to get home. We slept in our van for 3 nights, and then went to Hawaii to escape the thousands of aftershocks. Nicole said she’d rather have volcanoes over earthquakes any day! After geologists tested the soil behind our property, we had to evacuate and move to Pasatiempo where we lived for 3 years while we removed a boulder that stood right above Nicole’s bedroom. The girls slept under our bed where they felt safe and close to us. What a nightmare.
It’s time to check our earthquake kit again! We forgot about our earthquake supplies and when Rob checked it 5 years ago, he found diapers in it! Our girls were away at college. Oops! Now that we have puppies, we’ll need to add dog food. I hope that we never experience another earthquake like Loma Prieta again.