Earthquakes: More Than Just Destructive Forces

I was six years old, which is strange, because I have a hard time remembering anything else other than this event around this age. I was raised in a neighborhood called Forest Hills in San Francisco, California. Not a lot of people outside of the neighborhood, tourists especially, know the strategic importance Forest Hill has [...]

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In the Financial District

It was five o’clock, and I’d just gotten off work in the Financial District of downtown San Francisco. I called my wife, Jan, and I recall becoming angry after I’d talked with her. It seemed that she was putting words in my mouth. I had been talking along cheerfully, when suddenly she said: “I can [...]

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I was driving my 1985 Plymouth Voyager minivan on Blossom Hill Road in south San Jose, approaching Cottle Road, at 5:04 PM.  My first thought was that all of my tires had gone flat at the same time, as the van suddenly became almost impossible to steer.  Then I realized it was an earthquake, as the [...]

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My Memories of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Well, I think it’s best to start with a little background… I was born in 1979 and my family moved to San Jose, CA when I was four. By 1989 I was 10, and I’d had duck-and-cover drills since kindergarden. My father was also very safety-conscious (it’s his profession), so we’d been [...]

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