35 years later, Loma Prieta Earthquake recalled at Cal Academy event
Bay Area residents remembered where they were 35 years ago when the Loma Prieta Earthquake rattled the Bay Area causing 63 deaths and an estimated $6 billion in property damage.
Thursday night, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco held an event to reflect on a tragic but key moment of Bay Area history.
While images of the World Series at Candlestick Park, the damaged Bay Bridge, and the flattened Cypress Freeway in Oakland are vividly stored away in people's minds, so are the memories of where they were when the 6.9 magnitude quake shook on October 17th, 1989.
"I was doing back-to-school shopping with my mom and my sister," said Bay Area resident Kat Chen. "We were at the local Long's Drugs down on the Peninsula. We were in line getting markers. I'm 6, I'm bored. Then we just get the ground shaking. We thought it was a lorry outside. Then literally everything flew off the shelves."
"I was at an after-school daycare center," said California Academy of Sciences employee Richie Lipton. "Actually, the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco and I was under a table at the community center."
Lipton was just 7 years old when the quake happened.
"October 17th is such a loaded date in Bay Area history because of the earthquake, the Battle of the Bay, A's and Giants in the World Series," he said. "Epic. Probably will never happen again."
Lipton, a production specialist for Cal Academy, came up with the idea to call this week's Thursday Nightlife event "Hella 89" to reflect on the Loma Prieta earthquake. Among all of the exhibits, people got a chance to safely experience 6.9 magnitude tremors in the Academy's Shake House, almost like how it felt 35 years ago.
"I remember the building swaying back and forth and everyone screaming get under a table," Lipton said. "The kids were crying. It's up there forever."
Those in the Bay Area have heard for years that the next big one is around the corner. But after experiencing Loma Prieta, it has changed the way some view and deal with future quakes.
"Since then we've had a number of significant earthquakes but I feel like we're also hardened to them now," Lipton said. "The running joke with San Franciscans is we don't get out of bed for anything less than a 5.0. Doesn't scare us anymore."