Writer Watsonville's aging Main Street business district was battered by the Loma Prieta earthquake, but the human suffering resulting from the temblor was immeasurable. Many more homes needed extensive repairs. Photo caption here.
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Caption for photo goes here. But to this day they don't really know how many of the city's poor were displaced from those devastated buildings, the vast majority of them shabby, older units built on the shaky soil of the Pajaro River flood plain. Some left town, some left the country, some were not counted among those left homeless. He notes that many of the older houses were occupied by more than one family, so a loss of 8 percent of the city's homes could have meant a loss of living space to a much larger percentage of the town's residents. Henry Mello, a Watsonville native who was state senator at the time, said federal officials who came to town to help with the recovery effort were flabbergasted at the overcrowding in the damaged houses.