17 October 2009

The Day the world shook...

From the Citizen Soldier side:Oct 17, 1989... 20 years ago we had a Big Ass Earthquake (here after referred to as BAE) in the San Francisco, CA area. (Actually the epicenter was around Santa Cruz, CA). I had just joined the California Army National Guard earlier that year, and being "prior service" they let me come in at my old rank...a "Spec 4" (E-4). I had just gone through the Combat Engineer school that summer, so by Oct 17, 1989, I had very little experience as a Combat Engineer. That was going to change fast for that BAE.
Just minutes before the BAE hit, I was fixin' to sit down and watch the Base Ball World Series...the Oakland A's and the SF Giants. This was going to be a great game. I had the TV on, and I had just stepped into the kitchen to see about a cold beer. Seconds later, the TV went off the air.
I started to complain about loosing the TV just before the game, when the ground started to shake so hard, I almost got knocked on my ass. (the shock wave was rolling away from the epicenter, so it hit Oakland just before where I live) What a hell of a shake! I told my family to get under the dinning room table...but my 6 year old son was upstairs and he was yelling for me. I ran up, grabbed him, and carried him down stairs.
6.9 on the BAE scale. That's pretty friggen' big, and I hope I never have to go through one that big again.
When things settled down, I did the checks on the gas lines, and all that stuff...then I tried to call the police department and see if they needed me to come in. But of course the phones were not working. A few hours later the phones were working and the police department said everything there was OK and I didn't need to come in.
So I called my national guard unit. They said that there had been no activation yet, but they'd call if I was needed.
I went to bed about 10 pm. 20 minutes after 10, the national guard called and said to "come on in, we need you."

To be cont.

2 comments:

Coffeypot said...

I remember watching all that on tv. A former shipmate lived in SF and had a pool outside his back patio door. The water went to the far side of the pool and rushed back into his house like a tidal wave. I was glad to be in GA that time.

el chupacabra said...

Non lulz.