25 years ago today, I was on Durant Street in Berkeley, on my way to Kip’s sports bar to watch the World Series, when I felt a sharp JOLT, as if someone had yanked the rug I was standing on — except the rug was the sidewalk. Sharp jolt, and then a rumbling, rolling shake, for what felt like a longish time. When it was over, I thought, “Hm, I wonder how big that was?” — and went on to Kip’s to watch the game. (I’d been through earthquakes before. I was jaded.)
But the game wasn’t on. The cable was out. Someone had a portable radio, but it was hard to hear in the crowded bar. It wasn’t until the TV came back on that I realized, “Oh. This was big. Oh. OH. Part of 880 collapsed. Part of the Bay Bridge collapsed. The Marina is on fire. OH. This was BIG.”
I headed immediately to my friends’ house (hi, Eric!). I was living alone, and I didn’t want to be alone. I stayed there for several days. I remember buying donuts, because it seemed like in a natural disaster, there ought to be donuts.
That jolt shifted my life in more ways than one. My main workplace. BASS/Ticketmaster, was damaged beyond repair, and they took the opportunity to move their offices from Oakland to Walnut Creek… thus inspiring me to get another job, at the San Francisco Bay Times… thus inspiring me to move from Oakland to SF. The Bay Times also eventually became one of my first regular paid writing gigs, doing film reviews… which led to my gig for the Spectator doing film reviews about sexual themes in mainstream movies… which got me noticed in the sex-writing world… which led to me editing my first book, Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. Funny how the totally unexpected, out-of-nowhere jolt can drastically shape your life.
In memory of the 63 who died.
Greta Christina’s books, Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why and Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, are available in print, ebook, and audiobook. Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More is available in ebook and audiobook.
That should be on a tee shirt. I hardly ever feel the ones we have here.
Back in that year, I lived in Mexico City. Which had had its own huge earthquake just 4 years before. I remember seeing the images in the news and realizing that things like that could also happen to an (at least in my mind, and in comparison) hugely rich city such as SF. I remember the feeling of both relief (It’s not only because we’re poor!) and sadness.
Then, when many many years later I ended up living in the Bay Area, remembering that made me feel a connection. This is a place where people know the hurt of seeing one’s city come crashing down, and also a place where people have rebuilt it afterwards to be even better and stronger. It made it easier to call it home.
I remember in 2001 I was in my psychology course in community college and the building swayed. That was a weird sensation. Small earthquake I thought. Much weirder was finding out that the quake had been centered close to 90 miles away.
They could have moved to Concord or even (gasp) Martinez. Thank FSM they didn’t inflict either of those horrors on a poor, unsuspecting public.
It was amazing how everything stopped. I was on 101 approaching my exit, wondering why the radio went off. By the time I was on the surface, there was a Muni driver directing traffic at the intersection (no lights, 5-way traffic). Life was slowing — I still had no idea what was going on. Just things screwed up, life in the city, right? Got home, and my neighbor said, “Didn’t you feel it? The earthquake!” and it was already noticeably quiet, except for sirens. Spouse was at work until late — they decided to prepare to distribute emergency supplies over the weekend. They shut down incoming phone lines to keep the system from crashing, but we were able to call out, tell people we were safe, and make sure family who lived near the epicenter were OK. It was the quietest night in our part of the City, and I took the kids outside to see the stars. Profoundly dark, no traffic, no sound of the living City, just faraway sirens. The Marina was burning, freeways collapsed, KCBS said. Ghetto kids in Oakland climbed up to the wrecked freeway to try to get people out, or at least hold their hands. Our neighborhood was the first to get power back, at about quarter to ten.
Sometimes, over the next few weeks, I’d be talking to my mom on the phone, and she’d say, “Oh! Aftershock! You feel that?” and a few seconds later, I would.
In San Francisco, everyone has a Plan. Who will you call, where will you try to meet. Every neighborhood has an emergency plan. Now, I live where the weather can kill you, but if the Caldera decides to rumble, the people who will be going around the neighborhood with the big red gas wrenches will be Bay Area expatriates. Fill your bathtub with water, if you can. Don’t turn off the gas unless you smell a leak. Make sure your house is bolted to the foundation. Fill empty bleach bottles with water, dated in Sharpie. The Lore of the Quake stays with us.
Greta —
That is really interesting — how the 89 quake changed your life.
BTW — I read your blogs quite often, and really enjoy them. Your blogs are one of the ones I always look at. You are a good writer.
Yes, the 1989 quake did a lot of damage — but it was not The Big One, although, for those who lost their lives, and their families and friends, it may as well have been.
I was in a wood-frame house some distance north of the epicenter, and the quake was one big “Ka-WHUMP!” That was it. But we lost our power for about 6 hours. My car bounced in the driveway.
At that time, I was working in Oakland, and had to be at work by 6 am the very next morning. As I drove through the pre-dawn darkness, I remember looking at all the freeway overpasses and thinking, “There’s no way they can possibly have inspected all these overpasses! Gawd, I HOPE nothing falls off while I am under them!” I was also worried that there might be big chunks of concrete on the road that had fallen off those overpasses that I would not be able to see in time to avoid hitting them — but there were none that I saw. Whew!
And one odd thing I experienced for a month after the quake, but only while at home, was a soft fast vibration, which was almost constant. No — it was not my nerves. After about a month that stopped. Never did learn what caused that.
And the 1989 quake was only a 6.9. The 1906 quake has been estimated to have been a 7.8. (How much damage a particular quake does depends aon a number of factors: how deep it was, the soils it affects, and how long it lasted. The epicenter of the 1989 quake was about 12 miles below the surface, and it lasted only 15 seconds — but apparently “echoed” in the rock layers for about 60 seconds — 60 miles north of the epicenter, which was about 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz.)