Brenda, James, & The Giant Quake

Loma Prieta Earthquake October 17, 1989 – Where were you?

On this day 35 years years ago I was 8 years old. My little brother James and I were at our babysitter’s house with a few other kids. We were watching the “Battle of the Bay” baseball game. Oakland A’s vs. San Francisco Giants.

They had a big oak table in their dining room. It was super heavy and solid – almost medieval style. All the kids were told to get underneath it. I remember being on my hands and knees and feeling as well as seeing the ground “roll” beneath me. I’d never felt anything like it. Things fell out of the cupboards and crashed on the floor in the kitchen.

I remember once it stopped and the emergency broadcasting tone dissipated, watching the news and seeing the broken Bay Bridge.

On Tuesday, October 17, 1989, 5:04 PM PDT, the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck San Francisco and the Bay Area at a magnitude of 7.1, just as everyone was getting ready to watch Game 3 of the World Series between the Giants & A’s at Candlestick Park.
63 people were killed and an estimated $6 billion in damages was done by the quake. This included the burning and destruction of the Marina District in San Francisco, southeast of the Golden Gate Bridge and southwest of Alcatraz Island, as well as the collapse of both the old Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge and the I-880 Nimitz double-decker Cypress Freeway in Oakland.