My brother visited from Houston last week to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake in San Francisco by revisiting the scene. He was standing on this pier under the Bay Bridge, in this exact spot, when the 7.1 quake shook the area. It was October 17, 1989 at 5:04.
He says the pier looked like a wiggling snake as the pilings rolled, a school of fish rose from the water, the seagulls all flew up at one time, every car alarm in the area went off and the sky went from clear to opaque because of the dust. He was thirty feet from the Embarcadero Freeway when massive parts of the roadway fell into the street below.
This was this Texas native's first earthquake experience. Not realizing the seriousness of the situation, he continued to board a ferry to have dinner in Tiburon. As he and his fellow ferry passengers made their way across the bay, they realized the Bay Bridge traffic had stopped and helicopters were circling above. Both the San Francisco Marina area and the Oakland shore were ablaze.
It was midnight before the ferry returned to San Francisco and only three people were aboard. They were told everyone was fleeing the city, not going into it. Once back on shore it was pitch black except for emergency vehicles coming and going. Most electricity and communications were not working. The extent of the damage would not be known for days to those who lived in San Francisco. This was before cell phones, texting, I-Phones and instant communications.
The reconstruction of the various freeways and bridges is still underway twenty years later. We found it interesting that where my brother stood had not been rebuilt and had a warning sign.
For more of the story and a video go to this link. Loma Prieta
