IF U ever lived in CALIFORNIA did U ever experience...

[warhawk]

hello fellow chrome domes:  if U ever lived or still live in california... have U ever experienced an earthquake & if U have please share your story or stories.  i'll start:  i used 2 live in southern california (long beach & san diego) when i was between the ages of 2-4... however i don't remember experiencing any earthquakes.  . 

so... how 'bout U?  even though U haven't lived in california... have U ever been in an earthquake?  what's your story?

WARHAWK

[schro]

Several. I was actually on a firm retreat on Angel Island when the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake hit the Bay Area. Our boat was docking in the Berkeley Marina and several of my co-workers said "Schro, stick around for a beer and watch the World Series" (where my A's swept the SF Balco Boys). I took a pass because I was going back to my parents house to watch the game with the family. The highway I took to get to my parents' home took me on the LOWER deck of the double decker freeway that collapsed. Had I stuck around for 15 minutes or so, I likely could have been on that span (The Cypress Freeway) when it collapsed.

When the actual earthquake hit at 5:04pm, I was at a stop sign, 5 blocks from my parents' house. The tree lined street was facing SW (towards the epicenter). As it hit, I watched the trees and overhanging phone lines go up & down like a wave. Totally freaky. The girl I was dating at the time was actually getting ready to get in an elevator in an older office building in Union Square in San Francisco. She said she saw cracks go up the wall of the elevator lobby on whatever floor she was on (6th or 7th). She thought she was a goner.

I've been in several others, but that's the price you pay with living in CA (like Hurricanes, blizzards, and excruiating humidity that comes with living in other parts of the country).

[Marz]

Yesa, like Schro I was in the 89 quake, working in the garage before going to a friends house for the marvelous Battle of the Bay. Went to the garage door and my mom was in the kitchen doorway, the conversation that transpired was as follows...

Mom -  is everything off in there?
Me - Yep
Me - this is a big one.
Mom, yeah, its lasting awhile too.
Me - I wonder if the series is gonna be canceled.

then it ended.

We giggle about it to this day, one of our most classic mother / son experiences. I will say, if you are in a bad situation (as Schro mentioned) it can be very scary.

I was also in Livermore during the 1980 Livermore earthquake (5.5), I was writing "Handship" in the 2nd story classroom of our school and it shook like God was trying to get ketchup out of it.

[warhawk]

schro & marz:  those were some gr8 stories.  thanks 4 sharing.  i wonder what tyler, robmeister, baldandre, rob6, and slysurfer have 2 say.

WARHAWK

[JDog]

Quite amazing stories you guys tell.

[R o b 6]

schro & marz:  those were some gr8 stories.  thanks 4 sharing.  i wonder what tyler, robmeister, baldandre, rob6, and slysurfer have 2 say.

WARHAWK

I grew up in the Bay Area and had a few experiences with quakes. You really don't think about it much until you're in one. For me, it kind of stops me in my tracks, almost like you got up too fast and you're a little off kilter. In grade school, we constantly had earthquake drills. Get away from plate glass windows and crouch into a ball under your desk, hands clasped behind your head. Or stand in a doorway. Or in a wide open space if outdoors.

When the "Big One" (Loma Prieta) hit, I was living three hours from the epicenter (and still do), but still had substantial movement in my city. Nothing even close to what they felt in the Bay Area, though. Also rocked and rolled in the Northridge one. I think a few months ago, I was surfing SBG and one hit...quickly posted a question to see if Tyler and other Cali guys felt it. They did.

It's all just part of the culture. Don't forget about the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team. Our AYSO team was called the Tremors.

[schro]

Hey Rob6, where are you in NorCal?

[R o b 6]

I'm in Central California. Landlocked between the National Parks and the coast!

[Timmay]

I dont live in or have ever lived in Cali...I live in SW Indiana right along the Madrid Fault.  Several years ago I was sitting at the city park in my car on my lunch break.  I had just finished my sandwhich when i reclined my seat back ..enjoyin the warm spring day listening to the radio.  I had my eyes closed and it felt like my truck was rolling.   I raise up thinking someone was playing a trick on me and I was like what the hell....no one around...wind wasnt blowing ..nothing.  I get out of my truck and I can feel the ground shaking.  I didnt know what to think cause I had never been in an earthquake.  I just sorta brushed it off thinking I was off my rocker..  I go back to work...this is when I was a manager at a grocery store and I walk in to a complete mess.  Stuff was on the floor and we actually did have an earthquake.  No major damage to anything structural....just shook people up a tad. 

[wpruitt]

I was in the earthquake that hit Atlanta several years ago.  Never been through anything like it ... loud pop and the house shook a couple of times .... Windows rattled and alarms went off all over the place.

[BALDANDRE]

The wife was in one of the big one's (the Northridge one 93?) before we met...said it was one of the scariest things ever..

Both of us experienced a good sized one in our home in Whittier...being a home from 1925 the thing I'll always remember is the metal weights in the old windows knocking around against the walls..

the ground turned to liquid waves..

thank goodness it wasn't the big Whittier quake of 88!

I would rather experience that than a tornado or hurricane or flood..

it hits quick and fast and you hope you're ok.... and with most modern or well built structures they hold up well against it!

[schro]

The wife was in one of the big one's (the Northridge one 93?) before we met...said it was one of the scariest things ever..

I would rather experience that than a tornado or hurricane or flood..

it hits quick and fast and you hope you're ok.... and with most modern or well built structures they hold up well against it!

January 17, 1994 was the Northridge quake. I know that because I was supposed to fly to LA for business that morning. I went to the SF Airport thinking it'd be business as usual. Well, all flights into SoCal were affected.

Gotta hand it to the SoCal politicians, they knew where the priorities were and repaired the vital highway infrastructre in less than a month whereas the San Francisco politcians took a decade to figure out what they were going to do. 

[Robmeister]

Grew up in Long Beach....recall several earthquakes.

Big ones were Sylmar....in the early '70's....that was scary...I was around 10.

Happened to be visiting the folks for the Jan. 1994 quake that Schro mentioned ....that was another big'n.

[schro]

Oh, I completely forgot this one...I was in Palm Desert (1993?) for an annual golf trip when an earthquake hit in that area. I believe the epicenter was near the Joshua Tree monument. Anyway, it hit around 6am and we had just come off a hard night of drinking (given it was the last night of the trip). Anyway, there were a couple of guys that were running around crazy & panicked (not native Californians). What did I do? I stuck my leg out from under the covers and put my foot on the floor thinking I had a severe case of the bedspins from my raging hangover. 

The best part of the whole episode was on the flight home. It was on Southwest, so open seating. I got their early enough to get an aisle seat. As the plane was filling up, a gorgeous (I mean "stop traffic beautiful") girl was coming down the aisle. I was thinking "please sit here, please sit here". Well she took the middle seat next to me.  We started talking. Turns out, she was in the Joshua Tree National Park camping on a bachelorette weekend when the quake hit. She had never been in one and was shaken big time (gotta admit, the more she spoke, the less attractive she became  ). I was able to tell her what I knew about earthquakes and she calmed down a bit. Anyway, it was a bumpy flight (lots of air turbulance) and she was quite "endowed" up top (remember when the stewardess in the movie "Airplane" got on the PA System and asked "Can anyone fly an airplane?" and they showed the gal's chest when everyone was panicking?..........Ok, you get the idea.....and I'm not even a boob man, much more of an "ass & leg" kinda guy). Thank god I had my sunglasses on because of my hangover. 

Well, because of the turbulance we had to keep our seatbelts on. During the flight, we hit an air pocket that, to this day, I have never felt anything that severe since. It was like the plane dropped a couple of hundred feet and landed on a concrete floor. BAM! She freaked out. She said she needed a drink and ordered us a couple of gin & tonics (hard for me to pass up a free beverage from a gorgeous woman). At that time, she had vowed to never come back to California and couldn't wait to get back home to the east coast (Deleware if I remember right).

Hey, I got a good laugh and a free G&T. But man, that air pocket and my "bed spins"...funny ending to a great golf trip.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

I was born in San Mateo and lived in CA, boarding school in Sacramento, but lived in Reno most of my life until I went to college.  I've seen and been in several earthquakes.  I don't remember the year but a buddy and I were in downtown Reno on what was then a shopping street area and saw a wave approaching from the north down the street--the paving had a wave just like at the beach--with windows breaking etc., until it got to us and threw us on the ground!. Several times I remember being awakened as my father had me in a fireman's carry up the stairs from my room in the basement of our home and waiting in the yard till he thought things had settled down.

My two widowed aunts lived in Hollister, where my father's family was from, when the World Series Earthquake hit.  It was centered near there.  One of the old dears moved in to the others house since it looked more sound, but the engineers got them out when it turned out to be the house that had to be leveled.  They lived together until one after the other they died at 95.

Frankly, having experienced earthquakes and hurricanes--Betsy and Katrina--I'll take a hurricane.  You know it's coming and if you don't feel absolutely safe you can run.  No running in an earthquake except to dive under something that looks secure--but you don't know.