Anniversary!

Where were you 18 years ago today at about 5:00 PM? Today is the 18th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Wow, how time flies. My story is:

I was just leaving work, I worked at Arthur Anderson on the 35th floor at One Market Plaza. I had just stepped off the elevators into the lobby. The lobby was an atrium with a glass ceiling that connected three buildings. There was a bar in the lobby and it had wine glasses that hung from a rack overhead. I heard a "thunder" coming from underneath me, I heard the rattle of those wine glasses and then I felt the floor move under my feet. I must have had this look of absolute terror on my face, because a stranger wrapped her arms around me and pulled me back near the elevators (no glass above our heads) and just kept saying "it will be alright honey". After what seemed like forever, it stopped, she let me go and I never saw her again.

I walked home past the rubble that fell from the buildings, the electric buses that could not go anywhere, the woman leaning out her window screaming "they bay bridge has fallen down". In the end I was lucky, everyone I knew and loved was safe. As I sat in my front room and watched the bright light from the fires in the Marina I thanked my lucky stars.

Of course, the worst was still to come. I did not realize that the world series was on tv and my entire family was watching and as they saw the picture go dark and news stories start to come in about how we had fallen off the the face of the planet and/or we were burning down that they would try to call. I was waiting to call until things calmed down, as we were being asked the leave lines open for emergencies. Let me just say, I would rather face another Loma Prieta than my worried mother anyday.