The following story was going to be in my book but it didn’t make the final edit.
I figured I will post it here in honor of April being official earthquake preparedness month.
Here is my Loma Prieta earthquake story
(scroll down if you want to skip to the preparedness aspect of this post).
The 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake struck at 5:04 pm on Tuesday, October 17th, 1989. The shaking lasted 20 seconds. Many of you reading this weren’t even born or might be too young to recall it. Like many monumental events, people who lived through it can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when it struck.
I can remember it like it was yesterday.
The morning of the earthquake as per our daily routine, I dropped 26 month old Lauren off at the ‘family daycare’ in the home of a magical person named Jeanine. ‘Gigi’ lived out by the zoo and tended to 4-5 kids at a time. They took walks, read poetry and did yoga. Everyone should be so lucky to find such a loving and wise childcare provider. In the playroom where they spend much of their time was an ornate vintage telephone that was off limits. The kids all knew the rules. No touching the phone. More about this later.
After depositing Lauren at Jeanine’s, I headed to work in Noe Valley. Sandy worked downtown. Parking was often challenging, so at the end of his day he would take the underground Muni back to our house where he would get his car and then go pick her up.
My day at the Noe Valley Pediatrics office was wrapping up and I was on the phone with a remarkably long winded mom. I tend to be fairly patient, but this woman wasn’t even coming up for air. She was going on and on about something or other when suddenly she stopped mid sentence and shouted “earthquake”. The call ended abruptly. I confess that I looked upwards and mouthed a little ‘thank you” for getting her off the phone.
It took a moment or so until I also felt the shaking. The entire building rocked and rolled. The lights went out. A tidal wave of water sloshed out of the aquarium that we had in the waiting room. Don’t fret, the fish survived. (Fish that live in a pediatricians office tend to be hardy stock…they endure kids wapping on the glass and dropping all sorts of things into the tank on a daily basis. Earthquake? No big deal)
It was a long 20 seconds. All of us who were in the office ran to the doorways and held on. When it was over I was consumed with only one thought. I had to get to Sandy and Lauren to make sure they were okay.
Back at Gigi’s, Jeanine had stepped out of the room for a moment and at 5:04 exactly, Lauren took the opportunity to be a little naughty and picked up the forbidden telephone receiver.
Sandy had just arrived at Jeanine’s when the shaking started. He was right outside the gate and had a clear view of Lauren.
Her expression was priceless. ‘Oh, this is why you shouldn’t touch the phone’! She hurriedly returned the phone to its cradle and looked around to see if anyone noticed what she had done. For years, thanks to her dad, she was pretty convinced that she caused the earthquake.
This was long before we all had cell phones. I had no way of knowing if Sandy was stuck on muni or if he had picked up Lauren before the earthquake struck. There is no question about it; being away from your child adds a whole new element to any natural disaster.
I left immediately for home. Hats off San Francisco. Along the way I was struck by how well cars were behaving in a mannerly fashion. Every corner became a 4 way stop since all the traffic lights were out. At some of the bigger intersections, good samaritans were out directing traffic.
I made it home safely, but in the car, listening to the radio and hearing reports coming in of collapsing highways and bridges was terrifying. I was doing my best to remain calm. It wasn’t easy. I was finally able to breathe when I saw that Sandy and Lauren were at home waiting for me and that was when I burst into tears.
Once we were all home and together, the situation was much easier to handle. We spent the evening outside with neighbors taking turns listening to radios and trying to get a handle on damage and casualties. We had no power, but fortunately our house is on bedrock and didn’t sustain any damage.
Here is where it gets weird and why I was going to add this to my book.
I happened to have airline tickets for a flight at 7am on October 18th to go to visit my parents in Pittsburgh. This turned out to be the day after the quake. On this particular visit, I would be doing a solo parent trip with Lauren. Sandy was not coming with us.
Without a clue of what would happen later that day, on the morning of October 17th, I got a call from the now defunct USAir. There was an equipment change. Would we be willing to switch our October 18th reservation from the 7 am flight to one that departed at 11 am? In return we would get 2 round trip tickets for a future flight. We could still keep the bulkhead seats at the front of the plane. To this day, I have never since heard of an airline reaching out the day before travel and offering something like this. In any event, this was a no-brainer, I was happy to make the swap.
It was a good move on my part. It turns out that the original 7 am one ended up being canceled along with hundreds of other flights. The 11 am one that we were on turned out to be the first plane to take off from SFO post earthquake.
Those were the good old days when anyone could go through security. Was there actually security? I don’t even remember.
In any event, my parents were at the gate waiting for us with baited breath. The area was also packed with reporters waiting to interview the ‘survivors’.
True to form, my mom had been chatting with one of the reporters.
Since Lauren and I were in the front of the plane we were the first to get off. The light bulbs were flashing and we ended up on the front page of the now defunct Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
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The front page article was full of wild misquotes, but so it goes. The photo is of my mom giving me a big hug. My dad is grinning in the background. (For those readers who have read previous posts about my family, there should be no surprise that they kept a copy of the paper)
Preparation is power
It is perfectly normal for the thought of natural disasters to create a hum of anxiety.
Different locations seem to have their specific menu of terrors. Here in the Bay Area our big ones are wildfires and earthquakes. The key to dealing with potential disasters in a sensible way is to do some preparation ahead of time.
If you have children, then you simply must have a plan. Sandy and I had certainly talked about needing to do that, but it never got off the to do list.
This is the nudge for every family that hasn’t done so yet, to take care of this now.
How will your family reunite if you are separated? Check with schools and daycares to see what their plan is.
Remember that cell phones might not work, so you can’t count on them as part of your plan. Landlines are sometimes a better bet, but so many people no longer have those. (As an aside, Sandy, who worked for one of the world’s largest telecom companies, says that while the cell phones might not work for calls, there is a chance that texting might still work.)
I am not going to completely reinvent the wheel. At the bottom of the post are some comprehensive checklists from some excellent sites, but here are some of the basics that come to mind. Some of these are absent from the standard lists and are things you may not have considered.
Make sure your home is safe and well stocked
Anchor furniture to walls! If you have a climbing toddler, then you should make this a priority and not wait for an earthquake!
Have an accessible flashlight and plenty of batteries. Where are they? If the lights went off right now and it was dark out, could you find that flashlight? Remember that your cell phones do have a flashlight feature that can help you get situated, but you are likely going to want to not squander the charge on your phone if you have a better option
Have extra charging banks that are charged and ready
Have plenty of food. Make sure you have a can opener that doesn’t require power. Do you have a camp stove or option for boiling water and making pasta? That can significantly expand your food options
Have enough water. Experts suggest 1 gallon/per person/per day for a minimum of 3 days. But it is also a good idea to have unscented bleach on hand. https://www.epa.gov/ground-
water-and-drinking-water/ emergency-disinfection- drinking-water make sure glassware and delicate objects can’t fall
If you do have things fall and break, have some heavy duty gloves on hand to help you clean up any sharp items that may have broken during the shaking.
Have enough diapers, pet food and any medications
Consider getting a fireproof safe for important documents
Uncle Joel’s rule... Have cash on hand. Make some of it small bills. There is a good chance that the ATMs won’t be working. We took this lesson from our Uncle Joel who survived Hurricane Andrew in Miami. He had very little cash and without family getting him some funds, he would have had a tough time until the power was restored. Not only might ATMs be unavailable, but apple pay will likely not be an option either.
If you don’t have working plumbing, you can make temporary commodes with an inflatable inner tube and a garbage bag.
Sign up for an alert It may only give you a few seconds, but those can potentially make a difference
Okay, what if it is a situation where you need to evacuate?
Try not to let your gas tank go below ⅓ of a tank
It is a good idea to have a “grab and go” backpack full of emergency stuff in your trunk. This might come in handy much more often than you think and not just in a natural disaster. You never know when an extra layer, change of clothes or snack will come in handy. Include some games or activities.
In any case, make sure that you routinely restock and rotate supplies.
The twice a year clock shifts are a great time to do this. When you are done changing the battery in your smoke detector, take a look at your emergency stash. Get rid of anything that is about to expire and make sure that you update sizes for spare clothes and diapers.
This list was just a start. I highly recommend checking out the links below and use them to help you create a comprehensive plan.
https://www.ready.gov/
https://www.cdc.gov/natural-
https://www.sfchronicle.com/
Do you have a favorite resource? Let me know and I can add it!
So, Am I ready?
Doing this post is a nudge to myself!!
I have my flashlight and I know where it is, wahoo.
I have some water, but probably not enough. I will likely be eating a lot of cold beans, which is not ideal.
Lets get prepared!!!
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