A couple of months before the Big EQ I was fishing on the Delta and threw my line out and snagged a passing ski boat and skier. I yelled to my wife to give me my fishing knife quick! I cut the line just before it ran out of string and probably would have snapped the rod and reel out of my hand and off to sea. The fast moving fishing reel’s bale and screw flew everywhere and got lost.
At around 5 pm on Oct 17th I decided to work late at Jackson Street (ACP / Dial-One Corporation) and also called the fishing reel company in Los Angeles to order a new bale unit I was telling the Rep about my catching a 5000 lb. “Chris Craft” when all of a sudden I felt the big one start and told the Rep “Oh sh*#, earthquake!, F#&$, gotta go!” (I hung up, He must have been the first in L.A. to know about our big quake up North!).
I first ran to the door of our work’s kitchen/coffee maker room, then followed others running wildly towards the 2nd floor conference room. I got under the conference room’s door frame with another colleague (Grace G.) as our two story un-reinforced brick building danced around pretty forcibly. It seemed to shake violently forever…
I got my personal stuff after the big shaker and walked towards the Embarcadero BART Station, which was by then closed off, then towards Mission St.. I saw many buildings on the way with their front sections broken off. You could see right inside of the offices; chairs and file cabinets, but no people. I found a payphone in an empty parking lot with a long line of people waiting their turn. Most of them left because they didn’t know how it works during an emergency. I finally got my turn and went off-hook for about four or five minutes before the “Switch” gave me a dialtone…Then I entered 0-1-and the number, and waited for another three minutes or so for a second tone to enter my calling card and pin number. The Inter-State call to an out-of-State relative went through ok!
Afterwards, I walked back towards work on Jackson St. and the clerk at the old wine and liquor store (Davis St and Jackson St) said he grabbed a girl trying to run out towards the door just as the store’s big pane windows exploded glass inside…He saved her face if not her life.. I sat outside of work, across the street at MacAurther Park with many other people listening to AM Radio News and talking (many shaken up over the EQ hit). I could see our building had shifted offset next to the restaurant’s building. Later, our computer room’s back brick wall eventually had to be reinforced with large steel girders and tiedown guides to keep it safe and sane to work in… (We got bought out by MCI and eventually moved from that building a couple of years after the Big Quake. There’s new restaurants and businesses in the building today…Oh Dear!).
I ended up stuck in The City that night with no money, just a useless ATM debit card. I ended up spending the night at a couple’s house which was my work colleague’s (Jason T.) “best man” at his wedding in years past. They lived on the other side of China Town. We all stayed up and watched the Marina’s fire blazing glow most of the night…The rest of the city was blacken dark, with no electricity, anywhere!
The next morning Jason and I walked back towards the work place along Jackson Street and could see bricks from the three and four story un-reinforced brick buildings (mostly antique shops and such) had fallen out onto the sidewalks, but mostly out to the curb areas. A brand new Camaro (or maybe it was a new Trans-Am?) convertible had brinks all inside it – Smashed-in car windows were seen everywhere.
I finally got a ride out of The City to my home in Pacheco the next day. My wife was so happy to see me, with her own stories to tell… What a week of aftershocks and devastation!
I also have experienced the 1984 San Jose/Morgan Hill 6.2 Earthquake while working for Nortel-Danray as an on-site technician at National Semiconductor’s basement PBX room.. I have never seen so many ladies from a lab area run up and out of a building so fast in my life. Pretty scary down in the basement…
And, during the 1971 San Fernando/Sylmar 6.6 earthquake my brother and I were sleeping in bunk beds at our childhood home in San Dimas when the room rocked violently, and we were 60 miles away…Had my share of Shakes and Quakes, thank you very much!
…When and Where’s the next big one gonna be?
By Robert H
