The Natural History of Foster City, California

by James K. Sayre

a draft manuscript

12 May 2005

Appendix A: Author's Personal Observations on Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989.

The most recent severe earthquake, as of this writing, occurred in the fall of 1989, when the World Series baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants was being played at Candlestick Park, which is located in the southern tip of San Francisco, in the Hunter's Point area next to the Bay. Candlestick lies about ten miles north of Foster City. The game was in progress when the quake struck on October 17, 1989 a little after 5 PM. I was driving home from work in Berkeley to my apartment, which was located in Burlingame. I was driving south on the road that is on the west side of the Burlingame High School campus. While driving in my car the only sensation that I experienced during the earthquake was the odd sensation of having four "squishy" tires at the same time. It struck me as strange at the time, but I didn't worry about it or stop the car. I certainly must not have been listening to the game on the radio, or I would have known what was going on.

After arriving home at my apartment building in Burlingame and hearing from excited neighbors about the earthquake, I noticed only that the electricity had gone out. There was not apparent damage in my third floor apartment. A portable radio provided some news, very sketchy, about some damage to bridges and highways in San Francisco and the East Bay, but nothing seemed amiss in the Burlingame downtown area. An evening stroll at dusk was in an almost party atmosphere, without street lights and with a large number of local people out walking. The terrible information about the partial collapse of the .i.Bay Bridge; and the total collapse of an East Bay freeway came later that evening. One Burlingame hotel built on bayside land fill suffered severe structural damage.

The collapse of a span of the Bay Bridge did cause a massive problem in the commute to and from the East Bay. All the traffic that had traveled on the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, either went on the .i.San Mateo Bridge; or the .i.Dumbarton Bridge; or the long way around via the .i.Richmond Bridge; and the .i.Golden Gate Bridge;. My commute time was about tripled until the Bay Bridge was repaired. The extra hour of commuting time each way contributed to the minor property-damage auto accident that I was involved in on Halloween that year. It was disconcerting to know that the part of the East Bay freeway that collapsed was one that I had traveled on several times in the past. Earthquakes seem to occur at random times, so we never know where we'll be when the "Big One" strikes.

End.

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