Share the EHS grad experience of the 1989 earthquake

I graduated from Eureka High School in 1966 and this is my experience with the Loma Prieta earthquake that occurred 33 years ago on October 17, 1989.

I used to live in Salinas, California, working on the electronic data systems that support the Army base in coastal California. We lived in a two-story apartment complex on the north side of Salinas.

I was on vacation the day of the earthquake and just turned on the TV to watch the World Series. I had walked about halfway across the living room when the TV went off. I started going back to the TV to see what the problem was. I was about halfway back to the TV when the building started shaking violently.

Knowing exactly what was going on, I immediately ran to my truck which was parked under a hanging package and moved it so that if the truck fell the truck wouldn’t be crushed. Then I hauled all the canisters, camp stove, tent, blankets, and many other things into the back of the truck and sealed the top off. I’ve tried phones, so I called my parents back in Eureka to tell them we were fine.

After a few hours, the phones went off and we had no electricity. I had a battery radio so we could listen to it and see what was going on. I drove the car to work to see if everything was ok. The damage wasn’t too bad. There were some ceiling tiles that buckled and some computers and printers fell to the floor but there was no structural damage to the building.

For the next three nights and days, we had a lot of aftershocks and the electricity went out. If we needed gas, we had to drive about thirty miles because without electricity, the gas pumps weren’t working. We couldn’t work, but they made us come to work anyway.

There were a lot of marathon and arcade games. A colleague, who worked part-time at a grocery store, started bringing ice cream because it was starting to melt. On the fourth day, we saw a military truck towing a huge generator into the parking lot and two soldiers got off. They were there to hook up the electrical system and get us up and running so we could support the army base on the seashore. Then we got electricity before anyone else. The two soldiers stayed there for three days and observed the birth and were very happy to do so because they did not have to get up at dawn and do exercises with the rest of the soldiers.

After things settled down, we traveled to Hollister, the earthquake capital of the United States, to inspect the damage there since it was hit hard. When we arrived we couldn’t see anything because the whole city center was locked in by huge sheets of plywood.

The epicenter was ten miles north of Santa Cruz near Mount Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Two months after the earthquake, we heard that there was a parking lot and a driveway cut in the mountain. The corridor led to the exact location where the earthquake originated. We drove there to see the place but the traffic was very crowded and there was no parking so we decided to wait. Two months later, we tried again and were able to stand and walk over the epicenter without any problem. There was only a sign with the date and how deep the earthquake was.

What really amazed us were the houses built on stilts on the steep hillsides. We were very surprised that these houses located a few miles from the epicenter did not collapse.

Roger Mowberry, formerly of Eureka, now resides in Mather, California.

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