Loma Prieta Quake

Address @ time of quake:
1490 30th Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94122
Like many people that day I had hurried home to watch Game 3 of the “Battle of the Bay”. I had just finished riding a friend (Mike Gomes) on the back of my motorcycle over to the Port of Oakland to board a Sealand container ship [...]

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Reading Pinter by Candlelight

(written in October 1999)
My recollections of ’89 aren’t particularly earth-shattering compared to others, I’m sure, but they are vivid. I’d been in San Francisco for a little over a year, having moved here from Ireland in July of 1988 right after college. At 22, I was a grad student in Creative Writing at SFSU, shy [...]

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I remember the quake!

I was playing youth soccer at the time, at Branciforte Elementary School (in Santa Cruz). I thought a big truck was going by at first, then I realized it was an earthquake! I was able to remain standing during the earthquake, but several other children fell down from the violent shaking. I also remember [...]

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A Long Tuesday and Its Aftermath

On October 17, 1989 I was working at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. My office was on Geary Blvd. at the corner of Commonwealth. I left work that day, as usual, at 5:00 pm. My car was parked next to Rossi Playground, on Anza Street. It took me about 5 minutes to walk up there [...]

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The Long Walk Home

I was on the 37th floor of an office building in San Francisco the evening of the earthquake. Most people had left the office to go watch the game, both the Giants and the A’s were in the World Series. I was still there because I was waiting for everyone to clear out so [...]

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Flying Surfboards and Floating Tequila in the Loma Prieta Quake

I was driving my small sports car down 41st Ave. in Capitola, having just knocked off from my temp job at the O’Neill (of the surf shop and wetsuits) corporate office. All of a sudden I felt a very strange sensation – like both of my axles had buckled – and the car was shimmying [...]

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Earthquake Memory

I am a dalmation, and was one year old (people years) in 1989. My name is Sam-Wise. Or perhaps more accurate to say I am the ghost of Sam-Wise. We lived in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County not too far from Foothill College. I was in the living room [...]

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I was in second grade at the time, standing near the kitchen door and holding a glass of milk. I had planned to start my daily homework. Abruptly, the quake began, thundering through our one story San Jose house and rattling the glasses in the cupboards. I dropped my glass and milk spread across the [...]

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