In a previous post, I wrote about my experience the day the earthquake occurred. The days, weeks and months that followed were ones of confusion and waiting. Even controversy. It turned out that there were far fewer deaths in the freeway collapse than previously feared, as most people left work early to watch the World Series! My good friend Mike was one such non-casualty. At the time of the quake, he would have been on that freeway on his way home, but he was already at the game.
The Bay Bridge was out of commission for months as a replacement section had to be constructed. This was a major bridge with six figure vehicle traffic each day. A new freeway in Oakland took years to be built. The World Series was delayed (ten days eventually) as there was structural damage to Candlestick Park. Expansion joints were located below seating section stairways. The concrete steps crumbled, and fans could see the parking lot through the new holes. There was talk of relocating the Series to Los Angeles. Over the dead bodies of 62,000 Giants fans would their first Series in 27 years be played at Dodger Stadium! Some people felt that a sporting event was so insignificant in light of such a disaster that it should be cancelled altogether. Cooler heads prevailed as the structural damage was fixed, and game 3 was played at the 'Stick after all. It turned out to be what the Bay Area needed as therapy.
The quake stirred fans, as they showed up for the postponed game 3 wearing hard hats with their team logo. The A's swept the Giants, and decided that in light of the catastrophe, they would celebrate their victory in the locker room without alcoholic beverages.
Another friend of mine was driving on the Bridge at the time of the quake and collapse. He had just passed the section that would collapse. Then when he reached the joint between the bridge and terra firma, the buckled pavement scraped the underside of his car. Not knowing what happened, he pulled off and checked his car out. He looked back up the bridge, and there was no traffic whatsoever in an eerie sight.
Having two teams close by has always been a blessing for me. Getting to drive to every game is something few fans have ever claimed. The '89 quake and Series are things I will never forget.
Showing posts with label Earthquake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Earthquake. Show all posts
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
EARTHQUAKE
Tuesday, October 17, 1989, 5:04pm, minutes before the start of game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's. It registered 7.1 on the Richter scale. Just prior to this I was in the upper deck at Candlestick Park visiting some friends who also had tickets. I was on my way down the ramp to the lower deck, and was near the bottom of the ramp with a friend, who said, "Is that an earthquake?" I stopped, felt some shaking and looked down. My head was still but I could see the ground move several feet in each direction under me. Yes it was an earthquake, and a huge one. It shook for 45 terrifying seconds.
There were 62,000 fans there, and when the shaking stopped, there was dead silence. Everybody looked up and around. A few seconds later, a monstrous cheer erupted. Welcome to San Francisco! "We had an earthquake on national TV! Awesome! Welcome to California!" could be heard by many of the fans. No visible damage. We proceeded to the concession line to buy some goodies. Just then, the power went out. The cash registers were electric, so no change could be made because the drawers were stuck shut. The concessionaires took the next bill up. We made it back to our seats (seven rows behind home plate were where my season tickets were.) People were dazed and confused. The scoreboard and PA system were not working due to the power outage.
Players and police were out on the field. A chant of "Play Ball!" erupted from the crowd. Who needs a scoreboard? Scoreboard, schmoreboard. A fan just behind us had a Sony Watchman (remember those?) He said that the Bay Bridge had collapsed. This was simply unbelievable news. A few minutes later (how can you sense time when something like this happens?), a police car with a hand held mega phone blurred something out that sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher. We were all told to go home. Go home? This is the World Series!
Once out into the parking lot, we saw a TV news van with an open door. There were many television monitors, and since it was operating on battery power, we could see the damage being broadcast by the blimp. What we saw were truly horrific pictures. A section of the Bay Bridge collapsed. A freeway had pancaked on top of itself and miles of it were laying on the ground. A massive fire broke out in the Marina district. This was a major catastrophe.
The SFPD told fans to stay close to the stadium, as bridges were out. All the other bridges in the Bay Area were closed for inspection. We had to wait. We figured that we would be there a while, so we proceeded to a mini-mart at a neighboring RV park to buy some beer. We bought a case. The door was blocked by a table, as they didn't let people in. They took orders and made sales at the door. When we turned around to leave, there was a line behind us hundreds of people deep. Suddenly we got questions about where we got the beer. Not wanting to wait in line, people started bidding on our beer! We sold to the highest bidder and walked away with eighty bucks.
After quite a while of waiting, it was getting dark. Police were being called away because there was heavy looting downtown. It was at this point we got scared. We decided to make a run for it, and anticipated heavy traffic as we headed 50 miles down to San Jose to wrap around the bottom of the bay and up the other side another 70 miles home. It was the only way home without crossing a bridge. By the time we got to the San Mateo bridge, it was open. We hit a Denny's on the way home, and it was filled with fans who were talking about the event. I eventually got home at 1:30am.
I will never forget that day or the experience of that earthquake. Hundreds of people were feared dead from the freeway collapse. Some tourists from Connecticut managed to shoot some video from the collapsed section of the bridge, with the eerie sight of a car crashing to the deck below. The replacement section had a different paving surface, a constant reminder of that day. I will write more about this event, its aftermath and what happened in the postponement of the Series. [Update: a followup post can be found here]
There were 62,000 fans there, and when the shaking stopped, there was dead silence. Everybody looked up and around. A few seconds later, a monstrous cheer erupted. Welcome to San Francisco! "We had an earthquake on national TV! Awesome! Welcome to California!" could be heard by many of the fans. No visible damage. We proceeded to the concession line to buy some goodies. Just then, the power went out. The cash registers were electric, so no change could be made because the drawers were stuck shut. The concessionaires took the next bill up. We made it back to our seats (seven rows behind home plate were where my season tickets were.) People were dazed and confused. The scoreboard and PA system were not working due to the power outage.
Players and police were out on the field. A chant of "Play Ball!" erupted from the crowd. Who needs a scoreboard? Scoreboard, schmoreboard. A fan just behind us had a Sony Watchman (remember those?) He said that the Bay Bridge had collapsed. This was simply unbelievable news. A few minutes later (how can you sense time when something like this happens?), a police car with a hand held mega phone blurred something out that sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher. We were all told to go home. Go home? This is the World Series!
Once out into the parking lot, we saw a TV news van with an open door. There were many television monitors, and since it was operating on battery power, we could see the damage being broadcast by the blimp. What we saw were truly horrific pictures. A section of the Bay Bridge collapsed. A freeway had pancaked on top of itself and miles of it were laying on the ground. A massive fire broke out in the Marina district. This was a major catastrophe.
The SFPD told fans to stay close to the stadium, as bridges were out. All the other bridges in the Bay Area were closed for inspection. We had to wait. We figured that we would be there a while, so we proceeded to a mini-mart at a neighboring RV park to buy some beer. We bought a case. The door was blocked by a table, as they didn't let people in. They took orders and made sales at the door. When we turned around to leave, there was a line behind us hundreds of people deep. Suddenly we got questions about where we got the beer. Not wanting to wait in line, people started bidding on our beer! We sold to the highest bidder and walked away with eighty bucks.
After quite a while of waiting, it was getting dark. Police were being called away because there was heavy looting downtown. It was at this point we got scared. We decided to make a run for it, and anticipated heavy traffic as we headed 50 miles down to San Jose to wrap around the bottom of the bay and up the other side another 70 miles home. It was the only way home without crossing a bridge. By the time we got to the San Mateo bridge, it was open. We hit a Denny's on the way home, and it was filled with fans who were talking about the event. I eventually got home at 1:30am.
I will never forget that day or the experience of that earthquake. Hundreds of people were feared dead from the freeway collapse. Some tourists from Connecticut managed to shoot some video from the collapsed section of the bridge, with the eerie sight of a car crashing to the deck below. The replacement section had a different paving surface, a constant reminder of that day. I will write more about this event, its aftermath and what happened in the postponement of the Series. [Update: a followup post can be found here]
Thursday, October 15, 2009
1989 World Series and Earthquake
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the all-Bay Area World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's, and the major earthquake that struck the Bay Area just minutes before game 3 at Candlestick Park. I was there. The World Series was more than major news here, and the earthquake caused much death and damage.
I'll be taking several posts to tell the story as I lived it.
The A's beat the Blue Jays in the ALCS, while the Giants took care of the Cubs in the NLCS. Ticket sales were simply unbelievable. Tens of thousands of tickets went on sale through a major ticket agency, and were sold out within a matter of hours. Approximately ten million calls were placed in a frantic attempt to buy tickets, jamming phone circuits. But this was no problem at all for me and some friends.
I already had Series tickets for the games in San Francisco, as I was a season ticket holder. But I pulled a major coup in accidentally discovering a back door into the ticket agency's phone system from trying to buy concert tickets months previously. The ticket agency was given a block of about a hundred phone numbers - in consecutive numerical order - by the phone company. A call to the main number, if busy, was rolled over to the next number, and so on. You received a busy signal only if all hundred lines were busy. I figured out that if I dialed a number up at the higher end of numbers, I could get in fairly easy, as higher numbers waited a fraction of a second for all the previous numbers to roll over. A direct dial on a higher number usually resulted in a connection.
So, out of the millions of phone calls made, a small five employee architecture firm was able to buy 2 percent of all tickets sold within a two hour period. I first bought my A's tickets, giving me tickets for all seven games. Other people in the office bought all their own personal tickets. We prepped for this coup by getting credit cards from friends, family, and everybody on our company softball team. We closed the office and made purchases until we ran out of friends' credit cards. We were swimming in tickets, and all of our friends were ecstatic at getting seats for the Series. Life was beautiful in October, 1989.
I'll be taking several posts to tell the story as I lived it.
The A's beat the Blue Jays in the ALCS, while the Giants took care of the Cubs in the NLCS. Ticket sales were simply unbelievable. Tens of thousands of tickets went on sale through a major ticket agency, and were sold out within a matter of hours. Approximately ten million calls were placed in a frantic attempt to buy tickets, jamming phone circuits. But this was no problem at all for me and some friends.
I already had Series tickets for the games in San Francisco, as I was a season ticket holder. But I pulled a major coup in accidentally discovering a back door into the ticket agency's phone system from trying to buy concert tickets months previously. The ticket agency was given a block of about a hundred phone numbers - in consecutive numerical order - by the phone company. A call to the main number, if busy, was rolled over to the next number, and so on. You received a busy signal only if all hundred lines were busy. I figured out that if I dialed a number up at the higher end of numbers, I could get in fairly easy, as higher numbers waited a fraction of a second for all the previous numbers to roll over. A direct dial on a higher number usually resulted in a connection.
So, out of the millions of phone calls made, a small five employee architecture firm was able to buy 2 percent of all tickets sold within a two hour period. I first bought my A's tickets, giving me tickets for all seven games. Other people in the office bought all their own personal tickets. We prepped for this coup by getting credit cards from friends, family, and everybody on our company softball team. We closed the office and made purchases until we ran out of friends' credit cards. We were swimming in tickets, and all of our friends were ecstatic at getting seats for the Series. Life was beautiful in October, 1989.
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