October in Oakland
When Bad Stuff Happens
We had an earthquake the other day. It was enough that an alert came in on my husband’s phone. It told us to drop, cover and hold. We didn’t feel a thing, so I wasn’t concerned. It was centered on Bethel Island, which is a 53-minute drive from here or 47 miles away. A day doesn’t go by that there isn’t a little tremor somewhere. Most times, we don’t feel them at all. Sometimes, the only warning we get is that the cat alarm goes off, and the dogs in the neighborhood start barking. The people are oblivious.
I’m not saying we don’t care about earthquakes. In the back of our minds, we await The Big One. That’s the one that is going to cause mass panic, fear, and sorrow. It’s coming. They’ve been expecting it to happen for the last 100 years. We purchased an earthquake survival kit some years ago. It’s got dehydrated meals for five days in it: medical supplies, water purification tablets, and those shiny space blankets for protection. We’ve never used it, but it is situated five feet from our front door. We’ve also got a couple of gallons of water outside on the patio. It’s been a while since I refreshed the water. I think I can put ¼ teaspoon of bleach in the water to keep it good for a while. I actually should just water the plants on the patio with it and put fresh water in the containers.
This all presupposes that we don’t immediately succumb to the horrible effects of the earthquake.
After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 happened, the one where the third game of the World Series had just started between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics on October 17 at 5:04 pm, life was suspended around here. Part of the Bay Bridge collapsed. Sixty-three people were killed, and 3,757 people were injured.
If you are up for it, the YouTube video above tells the story. It’s an hour and a half long. I just watched it, and it brought back all those memories. I cried.
I got drunk that night after I got home. Very, very drunk. I was worried. My husband didn’t get home from San Francisco until 3 in the morning. He couldn’t take BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit, because all traffic there had been suspended. The bridges were shut down. He and his co-worker got home by taking the ferry. I think he walked home from where the ferry docked in Alameda. That’s six miles away from us.
He was in a high-rise office building in the San Francisco Financial District having a dump when the earthquake happened. He had to brace himself on the walls of the stall while the water sloshed about underneath him. The elevators all stopped, and they used the stairs to get down.
It took me a long time to get over the effects of that earthquake. One of our tow truck drivers helped to pull people out from where the Nimitz had collapsed. I had just gotten off work and was in the grocery store at the time. There was no local phone service, though you could call long distance.
I was in the laundry soap aisle of the grocery store. All those heavy boxes that stack up so high? They all came crashing down around me. I was very lucky not to have gotten hit by them. Soapsuds bubbled up from my sweaty feet in my shoes. I don’t remember how long it was. The lights went out, and the only illumination coming into the store was from the front windows of the store.
I went into a calm, slow-motion state of being. My cart was full, but I knew I was going to leave it right there. No putting anything back on the shelves after that one. I remember thinking about what was happening with the people at the checkout stands. At what point were they in their transactions when the earthquake hit?
There was a little old lady ten feet in front of me in the soap suds aisle. She was frozen, both hands gripping the handle of her shopping cart. I was making my way to the front of the store. I put my arm around her and said, “Ma’am, you need to leave your groceries and come with me. We need to leave the store.” She kept saying, “What about my groceries? What about my groceries?” That’s all she could say. She was in shock. I tried again but realized she was not going to move. I had to leave. She wasn’t coming with me. I rubbed her back and said it was going to be okay. I left her to her own devices. I figured somebody would help her eventually.
When I made my way gingerly through all the boxes, cans, and broken bottles that had fallen onto the floor, I could see others as they were shaking themselves and making their way to the front doors.
We congratulated each other as we left the store and stood in the parking lot. We had to put our hands on each other. We had to hug — complete strangers, as if we were related. I’ve never seen anything like it. Normally, there is a polite reserve that exists between people who know nothing about each other. That day, in those minutes immediately after the earthquake at 5:04 p.m., we were all related. We all loved each other. I’ve never seen anything like it.
As I exited the store, I hugged the people near me. We asked each other if we were okay. We couldn’t keep our hands off of each other.
I still wonder about that little old lady who, at the time, was probably as old as I am now.
I remember being afraid the roof of the grocery store was going to come down on us. I walked the block back to my office. There was nobody there, but I wanted to see what had happened. I needed to see how our employees were at the different stations. I wanted to be sure that none of the gas stations had blown up. Every single drawer in every single desk in the office had come open. All the flowers in vases had fallen over, and the water from them was all over each desk. All the pictures had come down off the walls. The plaster had cracked on the outside of the building. No windows broke, though. All the employees were okay. The stations were okay.
Getting home, I had the presence of mind not to take the freeway. I drove on the back roads. Luckily, I got through okay. Traffic was at a standstill on all the freeways. I kept thinking if I ran into a roadblock or an accident, I’d need to walk the rest of the way home.
We were all traumatized by it. It was years after that I had to take very fast showers. I had this fear of being caught with shampoo in my hair and soap in my eyes. I still do.
A couple of years later, we had the October 1991 Firestorm in the Oakland and Berkeley hills. It was parts of Berkeley and Oakland that went up. Twenty-five people died, and 150 others were injured. 2,843 homes were destroyed, and 437 more apartments and condos went up. I remember the day was still. Hot and still.
In my lifetime, there have been two really bad things that happened in October in the city I live in. I am an adult. I am not suspicious, but I don’t like October in Oakland.
Today is the 20th of October. I hope I am not inviting bad luck. The month is almost over. Maybe we will all be safe.
The Links: 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake — Wikipedia 1989 World Series — Wikipedia Oakland Firestorm of 1991 — Wikipedia