The Teetering Town

As I look at the devastation in New Orleans, I am reminded of my Hometown and how we are often teetering on the edge of disaster. San Francisco(and the surrounding Bay Area) is chock full of transplants and when they experience their first earthquake, it's really sort of amusing for those of us who grew up with tremors.

What's not so amusing is the fear of the everlooming Big One. I was around for the Loma Prieta in 1989 (a moderate tremor by seismic standards) and it's the closest I've ever been to a disaster. I was on the underground train(BART) when it occured and ironically never even felt the quake. The other passengers and I were sitting idle on the train for over 40 minutes before we were told we weren't going any further that night and to find other means home. No mention was made of an earthquake as I'm sure they didn't want panic to set in. But as I rose to street level from the station, I slowly realized an earthquake had hit. What I didn't know was the extent of the damage. I thought, oh sure another quake; BART was erring on the side of caution. But as I walked onto Mission Street, I heard the sounds of glass breaking and sirens blaring. The line for the payphone was 2 blocks long (this was 1989 folks) . A man came running by with a small transistor radio on his shoulders, "The Bay Bridge collapsed! The Marina's on fire!" Now the panic set in. I immediately thought of my father, who works on the highest floor in San Francisco.


I ran back underground into the station and found the lines much smaller. Miraculously got through to my father at his office. At the sound of his first words, "Where are you!!?", my fearful sobbing began. "I'm ok Daddy. What's going on?! Somebody said the bridge collapsed!" "Yeah, it's pretty bad. We can see the fire in the Marina. And we heard the Cypress freeway collapsed too." Being at the top of the 52nd Floor, he had a vantage point few others had.

He was also strangely safe, as the building was built on rollers to withstand such events. **Note: The Bank of America tower (the first pic above) was also found to be a potential target for the 9/11 terrorists.**
I proceeded to walk across the City that afternoon to wait for my father to come down the 52 flights of stairs. I waited in calm fear the whole time but we made it through. Sixty-two people died that day, and close to 4,000 injured. It's a story I can tell for the rest of my life. Hell, I think they made a tv-movie out from it. But that still wasn't the Big One.

People often ask, why would you live somewhere that risks falling off into the Ocean?? Simple.
Because on any given day, I see scenes like this.

Because some streets in San Francisco look like this.

Because this is home. It's a Long Weekend Friday San Francisco..... Cheers... *clink of champagne glass*