Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the 1906 earthquake that leveled San Francisco. I haven’t watched TV today, but apparently there was wall-to-wall coverage. I was awakened this morning at the actual time of the century-long-ago quake by bells ringing at Grace Cathedral just up the street. I left my office building at lunch to rush home on an errand and a lively parade of hot firemen and police were marching down Market Street.
It’s a bit eerie to move back here and confront the reality of earthquakes again. I had forgotten about them living in the relative disaster-free New Mexico. The reality hit me when I noticed a earthquake survival kit at Debra’s home during the welcome party for me on Sunday.
I have felt several quakes in my 11 years of living in both Northern and Southern California. There were always small shakers that would rattle a door and wake you up while you slept. In about 1999, I was working at home in my Marina District apartment and on a conference call when the building jolted at about 2:15 p.m. one afternoon. I looked down at my hardwood floor as a literal wave moved towards me. The quake’s wave moved under my feet and the floor returned to normal in a millisecond, this incident freaked me out. If you remember, the Marina District suffered heavy damage in 1989 in that quake; the district sits on landfill and rubble bulldozed into San Francisco Bay from the ’06 earthquake which liquified in the Loma Prieta.
The second prominent earthquake that I remember occurred during my two years living in Los Angeles. I was taking a shit and reading The L.A. Times when an aftershock from the 1994 Northridge earthquake rocked West Los Angeles. I dropped the Arts section and held onto both walls beside me as the building shook. My roommate at the time, who had lived in Boston his entire life and not experienced a tremor, screamed like a “girlyman” (a tribute to my new governor, Ahh-nold) as the tremor subsided and I wiped my ass.
All this coverage is reminding me to stock up on water and supplies. The Big One could hit anytime.
OMG – what will I do without internet access?
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