The Quake That Stopped the Battle
In October of 1989, two clans came from opposing sides of
the water, meeting in a series that would determine supremacy. Supremacy of the
Oakland-San Francisco Bay area, that is. The Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco
Giants faced off in the World Series, and the series had been labeled the
Battle of the Bay. But this event is much less remembered for the sports than
it is for the terror that struck San Francisco. Following the end of the
Series, there was a new nickname for the matchup, The Earthquake Series.
Because before Game Three began, a city vibrant with orange and green turned
into a crumbled city in a matter of seconds.
San Francisco was not ready for an earthquake, and the
results (which will be discussed later) showed. The city had already been the
location of one of the greatest natural disasters in the history of the United
States, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. But since that point in time, no
major or even semi-major earthquake effected the city. The earthquake was, as
David Schwartz, a USGS geologist says, “a wake-up call for this region.” People
believed that the San Andreas Fault was no longer a threat due to its length of
quietness and calmness. There were no extremely strong and strict building
codes. The available machines for earthquake prevention and determining were
not in abundance. Perhaps the most shocking thing is that this lack of
preparation for this disaster was not as greatly emphasized as it could have
been because the epicenter was almost 60 miles away.
The Loma Prieta earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9, which was
less than the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (7.8 on the Richter Scale). It only
lasted about 12 seconds, but that was more than enough time for it to cause
massive destruction across the city of San Francisco and other parts of
California. Although there were only 63 casualties of the quake, it left 3757
others injured. Monetarily, the quake delivered damage costs upwards of $6
billion. Of all the structures most hurt by the earthquake, the most badly
damaged were the older structures, including the Cypress Street Viaduct and the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Closer to the epicenter of the disaster, the
quake resulted in more than 1,000 landslides. The quake could be felt as far
away as western Nevada. Power outages, though much less of a tragic effect,
covered most of the surrounding areas. The quake even stopped the World Series
for ten days.
One of the biggest reasons that this earthquake was much
more devastating than it should have been was because of the architectural
state and planning of San Franciscan buildings. At the time of the quake, there
were no strict and demanding rules targeting earthquake safety. Today, each
building is built and reinforced with earthquake-sustaining techniques and
guidelines. The bridges have all been reinforced to much greater tolerations.
One example of this is the Bay Bridge, which actually had one whole stretch of
road collapse during the earthquake. This bridge is now reinforced so that it
can (supposedly) withstand any of the earthquakes that will challenge it in the
next 1500 years. Although earthquake prediction is still rather difficult, San
Francisco and the surrounding areas have much more help on their side for future
events. There are now over 200 geographical sensors planted, many more than the
small amount of 75 that existed at the time of the earthquake.
Although it does have more preparations than before, San
Francisco is still far from being fully protected and ready for another
earthquake. And unfortunately, the only way for San Francisco to really know
whether it is well prepared or not is to have it face another earthquake.
Here are two detailed sources about this event:
Here is a live broadcast that occurred during the earthquake:
(Best if watched beginning at 2:19)
