From: sep00@outs.ccc.amdahl.com (Stephan E J Papa)
Newsgroups: ca.earthquakes
Subject: Re: San Francisco Earthquake 89
Date: 13 Nov 92 16:22:36 GMT
Reply-To: sep00@OUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Stephan E J Papa)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <1dsdflINNj1h@male.EBay.Sun.COM> 49ers@eb5ts4.EBay.Sun.COM (Renie Maycon) writes:
>I want to know what you were doing when the earthquake hit 
>
>tell me what you were doing and where were you?

My wife and I were driving from the Monterey Bay Aquarium to the San Jose
airport to drop off my sister-in-law (who is deathly afraid of EQs) on the
highway from Rt1 to 101 (Hwy 183?) when it hit. It has the feeling like
when you drive over a metal roadbed bridge. I say many people pull over to
check their tires. I laughed at them saying, "Oh, it is just some rough
pavement, Ha Ha Ha". Well, we proceeded to Hwy 101 and headed north. My
wife was driving and we were listening to a tape.

I noticed that the Concrete Divider down the middle of Hwy 101 is
obliterated, completely vaporized into dust and rubble, in several spots.
I say to my self, "Boy, that must have been a hell of an accident to do
that to steel reinfirced concrete." After we passed the third "accident
spot" I was becoming curious, when just then I noticed a curb up ahead in
the roadbed across the highway. I warned my wife and when we hit it it
gave us quite a jolt. I said to myself, "There are not suppose to be 3
inch curbs in a highway, Oh Shit!" I said to all in the car, "I think we
had an earthquake."

We turned on the news an got 1 channel on the radio which stated these
words, "Stay tuned to this station, we have had a major earthquake." At
this point it finally sinks in what that "rough pavement" must have been.
There was no panic, but my sister-in-law says, "Get me to the Airport!" :->

The traffic was fine on the highway all the way to the San Jose airport
(reverse commute). When we took the exit for the airport, all the traffic
lights were out and the nightmare began. It took us a while to get the
few blocks to the airport but, my S-I-L got to the airport with time to
spare and her plane took off on time!

Now the fun began. We got onto 880/17 south to go home to Santa Cruz. The
traffic was a nightmare. Do you all remember stopping before bridge
overcrossings, waiting till there was an open space on the other side not
under the bridge and then zipping under as quick as possible, and nobody
getting pissed or blowing their horn `cuz there was a gap in front of you?
We inched to Los Gatos and from there was directed by CHP onto Hwy 9. From
there we took 9 to the summit. When we got to the summit, we took summit
road because my wife had to check out her best friend.

Her friend, T, lives just off summit road near Hwy 17. The San Andreas
runs right through her property, about 50 feet from the house. Their house
is built on stilts. At the time, T had 2 kids ages 3 and 1-1/2. My wife
had to find out if they were OK. When we finally got to the house, the
house was still standing. Her car wasn't there, thank Ghod. When we looked
in the windows, there was nothing above waist level in the house,
everything had come down to the floor. I went and talked with a neighbor.
He had turned off the propane valve (that's what neighbors are for!) so
there wasn't anything left for us to do but try and head home. (It turned
out that T and her two kids were in Los Gatos when the EQ hit. They were
in a park in the middle of a field laying on the ground, napping. Thank
Ghod again.)

My wife and I left T's house and continued south on Summit road. We
couldn't get onto Hwy 17 so we continued on south to Soquel/San Jose Rd.
Little did we know that we were about to drive right through the epicenter.
Along the way we came to 1 crack/seperation in the road that was so large
I got out of the car and directed my wife across is so that the tires
would not get stuck. We passed this burning fondation along Summit Rd with
no Fire Department or Police attending it. Way wierd. You could see the
bright orange outline of where the house was standing only a few hours
ago (can you say "Emergency EQ Propane Gas Shutoff Valve").

We finally made it to Soquel/San Jose Rd and felt like we were in the home
stretch. As we were driving we came to a 1-1/2 foot high wall of asphalt
running across the length of the road. Fortunately there was a dirt
shoulder that we could drive around the wall. What I've always wanted to
know is, Where did the 3 feet of earth go that used to have that road
under it??? We were driving over downed power lines and under hanging
power lines and around downed trees and walls of dirt (thank Ghod the EQ
didn't come during rainy season with the ground saturated).

We made it home 4-1/2 hours after we left San Jose airport. Our house had
not burned to the ground (can you say "no safety strap on the Gas hot
water heater"). Our dog was not burned in the imagined fire. She was safe,
though shooken (sp?) up in her back yard with the fences still standing.
Damage to the house was minimal, a crack in the plaster of one of the
walls. The effect on the contents in the house was very interesting. The
EQ has come through the house along one of the axises (sp?). We had book
shelves that are 90 degrees to eachother. One lost all its books, the other
didn't loose a one.

I have a little B/W TV that can plug into the cigarette lighter. We set up
the TV on the car outside (we lost power for 18 hours, 8 miles from the
epicenter), and many of the neighbors came by and watched as we saw the
first shots of the bay bridge and the cypress structure. Channel 35 news
people were on all night, I don't think they slept. I felt very grateful
to all the Radio and TV people who stayed at their jobs keeping us
informed along with all the Police, Fire Dept and others who got us all
through that first night and the many nights to come until things got back
to normal. I would especially like to thank the men and women who worked
on Hwy 17 24hrs-a-day to get it repaired.

Thanks Renie for asking the question.

Steve Papa
--
Stephan E.J. Papa    | (800)538-8460x75347 |  sep00@outs.ccc.amdahl.com  |
Amdahl Corporation   |  or  (408)737-5347  |   or  sep00@cd.amdahl.com   |
   [  The opinions expressed above mine! all mine! mine, mine, mine!  ]  |
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Newsgroups: ca.earthquakes