I Missed Yesterday's Earthquake

If there's one thing I miss about California it would be earthquakes. Or if I had my choice of natural disasters from tornadoes to hurricanes, I think earthquakes would top the list. Why? Because even in a really bad earthquake, you can stand and watch other people run and scream in terror. You can't do that in a tornado or a hurricane because, well, you'll be blown away. And it's worse to be in a shelter because, well, remember Katrina? Earthquakes are extremely short events and its devastation can last beyond the mere seconds it occurred, but it is also a spectacle that I as a native San Franciscan endured and, to a certain extent, miss.

Yes, that's very sadistic and heartless of me, but I grew up with a series of tremors that ran for almost a decade in my youth. The City experienced a number of quakes and shocks ranging from 3.0 to 4.5 and some "experts" were predicting that these quakes were leading up to the "big one" sometime in the next thirty years. Incidentally, someone said the same thing on CNN today about yesterday's earthquake in Chino Hills, CA. Yesterday's earthquake could potentially unleash a devastating one in the region. Whatever. I grew up with daily earthquake and fire drills at my grammar school. I learned safety procedures and basic emergency first aid. Later in college, I experienced the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. A 6.9-7.1 earthquake that stopped the World Series, destroyed the Nimitz Freeway, collapsed a section of the Bay Bridge, heavily damaged and destroyed homes and apartments in the Marina district, and killed over 50 people and injured 3,000.

I was in the Student Union on the campus of San Francisco State University when the earthquake occurred. If anyone went to or is familiar with the Student Union it is a structure entirely made of concrete and steel. The design of the building is "unique" which means it sucks. A famous SF columnist, Herb Caen, once described the building looking like two ships sinking in the horizon. And it does. But it was supposedly the safest building on campus since it was built with improved earthquake codes. After the building was evacuated, I met up with my friends outside who saw the "two ships" of the Student Union bounce in the course of the earthquake. That's several thousand tons of concrete and steel bouncing up-and-down on top of several thousand more tons of concrete and steel with *me* inside watching the concrete columns swaying back-and-forth. Two of my best friends (both native San Franciscans) and I sat in our club's office when the quake hit. We paused for a moment to confirm that it was indeed an earthquake, and then casually walked over to the entrance of the door for safety. We knew this quake was SERIOUS. It was not your average tremor. We knew that the damage will be bad, but we didn't know how devastating it was until much later.

So when I saw the news reports and footage of yesterday's earthquake, and with all those people running around in a panicked state, I shook my head and laughed. I couldn't believe how many people cried over a 5.4 earthquake. The drama kings and queens were in full force, but of course, that's Los Angeles for you. Everyone and everything is a spectacle. For me, anything less than a 6.0 earthquake is still a walk in the park. Of course there will be damage but yesterday's quake was nothing compared to the 1989 Loma Prieta (6.9-7.1) or the disastrous 1994 Northridge quake (6.7). The running joke among my friends is that you can tell who the native San Franciscan was, or at the least a Californian, when they acted calmly or went about their business. We knew when an earthquake was serious, but whenever we saw anyone who panicked, we also knew that they were often more dangerous than the quake itself.