Earthquake Experience

Like everyone else who has seen or heard about the devastation in Haiti, my heart goes out to those individuals who have lost their loved ones and homes.  It is one thing to see the results of an earthquake but it is a another to actually experience one.  The earthquake I was personally involved with happened in San Francisco during the World Series of 1989 or 1990.

I was working for an IT company called EDS and dividing my time between a health care client in Sacramento and an insurance client near Fisherman's Wharf.  Having just moved from Detroit, I had only been in California for a few months but loved it.  Planned on staying forever. We worked 18 hours a day with one day almost off a week, but I managed to do the touristy stuff and enjoy the weather.

The day it happened I was in Sacramento but planning on driving to San Francisco later in the afternoon.  My team was in a rather short building, probably only 5 floors.  I was heavily involved in a testing project and decided around lunch that I didn't feel like driving to SF and would instead try to finish this stage.   In the late afternoon probably around 5, I was talking to a manager and felt extremely dizzy like I was going to fall and like the room was moving.  It wasn't just me, the room was moving.  Several of the CA residents told us it must be a mild earthquake.  At that point I had no idea the severity in SF.

When I got to my apartment, all the cabinet doors were swung open and the glasses were shattered on the floor.  The TV and radio were on emergency broadcast and there was absolutely no phone signal.  Internet access and cell phones were not prevalent or even personally available.  For the first time since I had moved away from home, I was stuck.  Unable to do go back to NY, unable to speak to my friends or family.  I had no exit plan.

Keep in mind the distance between SF and Sacramento is over 80 miles and used to take me over 2 hours to drive it.

After 2 am, the phone lines came up the phone did not stop.  My parents, siblings and friends all called not knowing if I was under the Bay Bridge or tucked safe in bed.  If I followed through on my plans I would have probably been on the bridge when the quake started.  I think it was probably as frightening for my parents as it was for me.

A group of us went to see the destruction the next day.  One of our friends worked for Lloyds of London so we could pass some of the restricted areas.  It was unbelievable and unbearable.  One building looked fine, until you saw that the first floor was adjacent to it.

To this day, I am still terrified by earthquakes.  I experienced a few very small ones while in LA and I think a tremor hit in Cheektowaga one morning, but nothing like SF and nothing like what these people in Haiti had to deal with.

If you can, please help them.