HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in
The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park is a state park of California, United States, protecting a secondary forest in the watershed of Aptos Creek and Soquel Creek within the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is located outside Aptos, California and conta ...
in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of the
San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal) ...
System and was named for the nearby Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. With an magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''), the shock was responsible for 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries. The Loma Prieta segment of the San Andreas Fault System had been relatively inactive since the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
(to the degree that it was designated a seismic gap) until two moderate foreshocks occurred in June 1988 and again in August 1989. Damage was heavy in Santa Cruz County and less so to the south in
Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...
, but effects extended well to the north into the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
, both on the San Francisco Peninsula and across the bay in
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...
. No surface faulting occurred, though many other ground failures and
landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...
s were present, especially in the Summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of th ...
was also a significant issue, especially in the heavily damaged Marina District of San Francisco, but its effects were also seen in the East Bay, and near the shore of Monterey Bay, where a non-destructive
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
was also observed. Because it happened during a national live broadcast of the 1989 World Series, the annual championship series of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
, taking place between Bay Area teams
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...
and the
Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...
, it is sometimes referred to as the "World Series earthquake", with the championship games of the year being referred to as the "Earthquake Series". Rush-hour traffic on the Bay Area freeways was lighter than normal because the game, being played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, was about to begin, and this may have prevented a larger loss of life, as several of the Bay Area's major transportation structures suffered catastrophic failures. The collapse of a section of the double-deck Nimitz Freeway in Oakland was the site of the largest number of casualties for the event, but the collapse of man-made structures and other related accidents contributed to casualties occurring in San Francisco, Los Altos, and Santa Cruz.


Background

The history of earthquake investigations in California has been largely focused on the
San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal) ...
system because of its strong influence in the state as the boundary between the
Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and I ...
and the
North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Paci ...
; it is the most studied fault on Earth.
Andrew Lawson Andrew Cowper Lawson (July 25, 1861 – June 16, 1952) was a Scots-Canadian geologist who became professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the editor and co-author of the 1908 report on the 1906 San Francisco earthqu ...
, a geologist from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, had named the fault after the San Andreas Lake (prior to the occurrence of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
) and later led an investigation into that event. The San Andreas Fault ruptured for a length of during the 1906 shock, both to the north of San Francisco and to the south in the Santa Cruz Mountains region. Several long term forecasts for a large shock along the San Andreas Fault in that area had been made public prior to 1989 (the event and its
aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousa ...
s occurred within a recognized seismic gap) but the earthquake that transpired was not what had been anticipated. The 1989 Loma Prieta event originated on an undiscovered
oblique-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
reverse fault that is located adjacent to the San Andreas Fault.


Forecasts

Since many forecasts had been presented for the region near Loma Prieta, seismologists were not taken by surprise by the October 1989 event. Between 1910 and 1989 there were 20 widely varying forecasts that were announced, with some that were highly specific, covering multiple aspects of an event, while others were less complete and vague. With a M6.5 event on the San Juan Bautista segment, or an M7 event on the San Francisco Peninsula segment,
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS) seismologist Allan Lindh's 1983 forecasted rupture length of (starting near Pajaro Gap, and continuing to the northwest) for the San Juan Bautista segment nearly matched the actual rupture length of the 1989 event. An updated forecast was presented in 1988, at which time Lindh took the opportunity to assign a new name to the San Juan Bautista segment – the Loma Prieta segment. In early 1988, the Working Group for California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP) made several statements regarding their forecasts for the northern San Andreas Fault segment, the San Francisco Peninsula segment, and a portion of that segment which was referred to as the southern Santa Cruz Mountains segment. The thirty year probability for one or more M7 earthquakes in the study area was given as 50%, but because of a lack of information and low confidence, a 30% probability was assigned to the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains segment. Two moderate shocks, referred to as the Lake Elsman earthquakes by the USGS, occurred in the Santa Cruz Mountains region in June 1988 and again in August 1989. Following each event, the State office of Emergency Services issued (for the first time in Bay Area history) short term advisories for a possible large earthquake, which meant there was "a slightly increased likelihood of an M6.5 event on the Santa Cruz Mountains segment of the San Andreas fault". The advisories following the two Lake Elsman events were issued in part because of the statements made by WGCEP and because they were two of the three largest shocks to occur along the 1906 earthquake's rupture zone since 1914.


Foreshocks

The 5.3 June 1988 and the 5.4 August 1989 events also occurred on previously unknown oblique reverse faults and were within of the M6.9 Loma Prieta mainshock epicenter, near the intersection of the San Andreas and Sargent faults. Total displacement for these shocks was relatively small (approximately of
strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
and substantially less reverse-slip) and although they occurred on separate faults and well before the mainshock, a group of seismologists considered these to be foreshocks because of when and where they occurred relative to the main event. Each event's aftershock sequence and effect on stress drop was closely examined, and their study indicated that the shocks affected the mainshock's rupture process. Following the August 8, 1989 shock, in anticipation of an upcoming large earthquake, staff at the
University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the ed ...
deployed four
accelerometer An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acce ...
s in the area, which were positioned at the UCSC campus, two residences in Santa Cruz, and a home in Los Gatos. Unlike other nearby (high
gain Gain or GAIN may refer to: Science and technology * Gain (electronics), an electronics and signal processing term * Antenna gain * Gain (laser), the amplification involved in laser emission * Gain (projection screens) * Information gain in de ...
) seismographs that were overwhelmed (driven off scale) by the large magnitude mainshock, the four accelerometers captured a useful record of the main event and more than half an hour of the early aftershock activity. The June 27, 1988, shock occurred with a maximum intensity of VI (''Strong''). Its effects included broken windows in Los Gatos, and other light damage in
Holy City A holy city is a city important to the history or faith of a specific religion. Such cities may also contain at least one headquarters complex (often containing a religious edifice, seminary, shrine, residence of the leading cleric of the religi ...
, where increased flow was observed at a
water well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. T ...
. Farther away from the Santa Cruz Mountains, pieces of concrete fell from a parking structure at the Sunnyvale Town Center, a two-level shopping mall in Santa Clara County. More moderate damage resulted from the August 8, 1989, shock (intensity VII, ''Very strong'') when chimneys were toppled in
Cupertino Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,82 ...
, Los Gatos, and Redwood Estates. Other damage included cracked walls and foundations and broken underground pipes. At the office of the Los Gatos City Manager, a window that was cracked had also been broken in the earlier shock. Also in Los Gatos, one man died when he fell or jumped through a window and impacted the ground five stories below.


Earthquake

The Loma Prieta earthquake was named for Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which lies just to the east of the mainshock epicenter. The duration of the heaviest shaking in the Santa Cruz Mountains was about 15 seconds, but strong ground motion recordings revealed that the duration of shaking was not uniform throughout the affected area (because of different types and thicknesses of
soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...
). At sites with rocky terrain, the duration was shorter and the shaking was much less intense, and at locations with unconsolidated soil (like the Marina District in San Francisco or the Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland) the intensity of the shaking was more severe and lasted longer. The strong motion records also allowed for the causative fault to be determined – the rupture was related to the San Andreas Fault System. While a Mercalli Intensity of VIII (''Severe'') covered a large swath of territory relatively close to the epicenter (including the cities of Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, and
Watsonville Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self- ...
) farther to the north, portions of San Francisco were assessed at intensity IX (''Violent''). At more than distant, the San Francisco Bay Area recorded peak horizontal accelerations that were as high as 0.26 '' g'', and close to the epicenter they peaked at more than 0.6 '' g''. In a general way, the location of aftershocks of the event delineated the extent of the faulting, which (according to seismologist Bruce Bolt) extended about in length. Because the rupture took place bilaterally, the duration of strong shaking was about half of what it would have been had it ruptured in one direction only. The duration of a typical M6.9 shock with a comparable rupture length would have been about twice as long.


Characteristics

Gregory Beroza, a seismologist with
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
, made several distinctions regarding the 1906 and 1989 events. Near Loma Prieta, the 1906 rupture was more shallow, had more strike-slip, and occurred on a fault that was near vertical. The 1989 event's oblique-slip rupture was at 10 km and below on a fault plane that dipped 70° to the southwest. Because much of the slip in 1989 occurred at depth and the rupture propagated up dip, Beroza proposed that the overlying San Andreas Fault actually inhibited further rupture and also maintains that the occurrence of an event at the location that was forecast by the WGCEP in 1988 was coincidental. The contrasting characteristics of the 1906 and 1989 events were examined by seismologists Hiroo Kanamori and Kenji Satake. The significant amount of vertical displacement in 1989 was a key aspect to consider because a long-term sequence of 1989-type events (with an 80–100-year recurrence interval) normally result in regions with high topographic relief, which is not seen in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Three scenarios were presented that might explain this disparity. The first is that the geometry of the San Andreas Fault goes through a transition every several thousand years. Secondly, slip type could vary from event to event. And lastly, the 1989 event did not occur on the San Andreas Fault.


Ground effects

While the effects of a four-year
drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D.  Jiang, A.  Khan, W.  Pokam Mba, D.  Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
limited the potential of
landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...
s, the steep terrain near the epicenter was prone to movement, and up to 4,000 landslides may have occurred during the event. The majority of landslides occurred to the southwest of the epicenter, especially along road cuts in the Santa Cruz Mountains and in the Summit Road area, but also along the bluffs of the Pacific Coast, and as far north as the Marin Peninsula. Highway 17 was blocked for several weeks by a large slide and one person was killed by a rockfall along the coast. Other areas with certain soil conditions were susceptible to site amplification due to the effects of
liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of th ...
, especially near the shore of
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...
(where its effects were severe in the Marina District) and to the west of the epicenter near rivers and other bodies of water. Minor lateral spreading was also seen along the shores of San Francisco Bay and to the south near Monterey Bay. Other ground effects included downslope movement, slumps, and ground cracks.


Injuries and fatalities

Fifty-seven of the deaths were directly caused by the earthquake; six further fatalities were ruled to have been caused indirectly. In addition, there were 3,757 injuries as a result of the earthquake, 400 of which were serious.USGS
''San Andreas Fault'', chapter 1, p. 5. "Comparison of the Bay Area Earthquakes: 1906 and 1989."
Retrieved August 31, 2009.
Palm, 1992, p. 63. The highest number of deaths, 42, occurred in Oakland because of the collapse of the
Cypress Street Viaduct The Cypress Street Viaduct, often referred to as the Cypress Structure or the Cypress Freeway, was a 1.6-mile-long (2.5 km), raised two-deck, multi-lane (four lanes per tier) freeway constructed of reinforced concrete that was originally pa ...
on the Nimitz Freeway ( Interstate 880), where the upper level of a double-deck portion of the freeway collapsed, crushing the cars on the lower level, and causing crashes on the upper level. One section of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ...
also collapsed, leading to a single fatality, Anamafi Moala, a 23-year-old woman. Three people were killed in the collapse of buildings along the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz, and five people were killed in the collapse of a brick wall on Bluxome Street in San Francisco. When the earthquake hit, the third game of the 1989 World Series baseball championship was about to begin. Because of the unusual circumstance that both of the World Series teams (the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...
and
Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...
) were based in the affected area, many people had left work early or were staying late to participate in after work group viewings and parties. As a consequence the normally crowded freeways contained unusually light traffic. If traffic had been normal for a Tuesday
rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: o ...
, injuries and deaths would certainly have been higher. The initial media reports failed to take into account the game's effect on traffic and initially estimated the death toll at 300, a number that was corrected to 63 in the days after the earthquake.


Magnetic disturbances

After the earthquake occurred, a group led by Antony C. Fraser-Smith of
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
reported that the event was preceded by disturbances in background
magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
noise as measured by a sensor placed in Corralitos, about from the epicenter. From October 5, they reported that a substantial increase in noise was measured in the frequency range 0.01–10 Hz. The measurement instrument was a single-axis search-coil
magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...
that was being used for low frequency research. Precursor increases of noise apparently started a few days before the earthquake, with noise in the range 0.01–0.5 Hz rising to exceptionally high levels about three hours before the earthquake. The Fraser-Smith et al. report remains one of the most frequently cited claims of a specific earthquake precursor; more recent studies have cast doubt on the connection, attributing the Corralitos signals to either unrelated magnetic disturbance or, even more simply, to sensor-system malfunction.


Damage

The earthquake caused severe damage in some very specific locations in the Bay Area, most notably on unstable soil in San Francisco and
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...
.
Oakland City Hall Oakland City Hall is the seat of government for the city of Oakland, California. The current building was completed in 1914, and replaced a prior building that stood on what is now Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Standing at the height of , it was the first ...
was evacuated after the earthquake until a US$80 million (equivalent to US$ million today) seismic retrofit and hazard abatement work was completed in 1995. Many other communities sustained severe damage throughout the region located in
Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santia ...
, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Major property damage in San Francisco's Marina District from the epicenter resulted from liquefaction of soil used to create waterfront land. Other effects included sand volcanoes,
landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environmen ...
s and ground ruptures. Some 12,000 homes and 2,600 businesses were damaged. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...
(FEMA) turned people who were
homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...
prior to the earthquake away from
homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously r ...
s and provided shelter for those with homes prior to the earthquake. In Santa Cruz, close to the epicenter, 40 buildings collapsed, killing six people. At the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the Plunge Building was significantly damaged. Liquefaction also caused damage in the Watsonville area. For example, sand volcanoes formed in a field near Pajaro as well as in a strawberry field. The Ford's department store in Watsonville experienced significant damage, including a crack down the front of the building. Many homes were dislodged if they were not bolted to their foundations. There were structural failures of twin bridges across Struve Slough near Watsonville. In Moss Landing, the liquefaction destroyed the causeway that carried the Moss Beach access road across a tidewater basin, damaged the approach and abutment of the bridge linking Moss Landing spit to the mainland and cracked the paved road on Paul's Island. In the Old Town historical district of the city of Salinas, unreinforced masonry buildings were partially destroyed. Following the quake, an estimated 1.4 million people experienced power losses that were mainly due to damaged
electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and ...
s. Many San Francisco radio and television stations were temporarily knocked off the air. KGO-TV, the local ABC station in San Francisco, was off the air for about 15 minutes, while
KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios on Front Street in the c ...
(at the time the region's NBC affiliate) was off the air for about half an hour, and KGO-AM (
ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-pas ...
) was off the air for about 40 minutes. About an hour and 40 minutes after the quake, Fox affiliate KTVU resumed broadcasting, with their news anchors, Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral reporting from the station's parking lot.
KCBS-AM KCBS (740 kHz) is an all-news AM radio station located in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. (formerly Entercom), which took over after its merger with CBS Radio. KCBS is the Bay Area's only 24/7, live and local radio stati ...
( CBS News Radio) switched immediately to backup power and managed to stay on air despite a subsequent generator failure. KCBS later won a
Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for their news coverage, as did KGO-TV.San Francisco Earthquake History 1990–1994.
Retrieved September 11, 2009.
KNBR-AM (the designated station for the Bay Area's Emergency Broadcast System at the time) failed to communicate a catastrophe with the activation and instructions of the Emergency Broadcast System to the public after the quake because the engineering department at KNBR experienced major technical malfunctions and difficulties. The malfunctions during the aftermath of the earthquake caused confusion as to whether an earthquake would cause the Emergency Broadcast System to activate. KNBR began using an emergency generator, hooking up the signal from a command center right after their nearby studio was severely shaken during the quake, when most of the KNBR staff were at Candlestick for the World Series. The Mayor of San Francisco,
Art Agnos Arthur Christ Agnos (born Arthouros Agnos; [] September 1, 1938) is an American politician. He served as the 39th Mayor of San Francisco, mayor of San Francisco, California from 1988 to 1992 and as the Regional Head of the United States Department ...
, later came on the air and provided an update on the earthquake. According to an aftermath article by Tsuneo Katayama from March 1992, a staff member at KNBR answered some questions at a nearby station about the failed activation of the EBS. One answer was replied saying that KNBR was "not primary" but KNBR "is an EBS station". Sarcastic comments were then responded as well, saying that the EBS hasn't been activated until 2 days after the earthquake. Later on, one KNBR listener responded that the very first thing that came on after the earthquake is the Mayor saying that "all off-duty police officers and firemen for the Cities and Counties of San Francisco and Oakland were reported to work". Another correspondent later said that the problem with both OES and the Emergency Broadcast System is that "there are so many cities" such as Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose. One of the criticisms is that the only official announcement was simply "too slow" to air. Another correspondent replied that "the Loma Prieta experience seems to have left more than slight concern over the EBS". An answer was lastly then responded to KNBR, "One important thing we learned from the EBS and the quake was that we are still very unprepared to get out information quickly, clearly, and uninterruptedly. We're fortunate that we were able to hook up and establish the EBS, but there were so many links in the chain that were not communicating". According to the
Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...
and the
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
's article on the "U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper #1552-A" (1999), KNBR was one of the first radio stations to return to the air after the earthquake but failed to activate the EBS because the staff was isolated in Candlestick Park. On the November 3, 1989, issue of the
Gavin Report The ''Gavin Report'' was a San Francisco-based radio industry trade publication. The publication was founded by radio performer Bill Gavin in 1958. Its Top 40 listings were used for many years by programmers to decide content of programs. The p ...
, KNBR after the earthquake under their circumstance had decided to activate the Emergency Broadcast System itself, and other stations legally chose to rebroadcast KNBR without having them written an authority to do so, or making the use of telecasts of the station. The
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
later investigated the issue of KNBR's EBS malfunction, calling the fail "revoked". After the major EBS failure at KNBR's activation and the engineering department after the quake, KCBS-AM became the new primary station for the Bay Area Emergency Broadcast System in 1990 after being secondary for years alongside KGO-AM, which was still secondary as of 2021. (All four network-affiliated TV stations (KRON, KGO, KTVU and CBS affiliate KPIX) would recover enough to broadcast continuous
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
coverage of the aftermath of the quake for the next several hours, some of it picked up and broadcast nationally over their respective networks, as well as on CNN, in a manner anticipating later major catastrophes such as the
1994 Los Angeles earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...
and the
9/11 terror attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
). Power was restored to most of San Francisco by midnight, and all but 12,000 customers had their power restored within two days. The quake caused an estimated $6 billion (equivalent to $ billion today) in property damage, becoming one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history at the time. Private donations poured into aid relief efforts and on October 26, President George H. W. Bush signed a $1.1 billion ($ billion today) earthquake relief package for California.


Marina District

Four people died in San Francisco's Marina District, four buildings were destroyed by fire, and seven buildings collapsed. Another 63 damaged structures were judged too dangerous to live in.Fradkin, 1999, p. 188. Among the four deaths, one family lost their infant son who choked on dust while trapped for an hour inside their collapsed apartment. The Marina district was built on a
landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the wast ...
made of a mixture of sand, dirt, rubble, waste, and other materials containing a high percentage of
groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
. Some of the fill was rubble dumped into San Francisco Bay after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but most was sand and debris laid down in preparation for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a celebration of San Francisco's ability to rebound after its catastrophe in 1906. After the Exposition, apartment buildings were erected on the landfill. In the 1989 earthquake, the water-saturated unconsolidated mud, sand, and rubble suffered
liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of th ...
, and the earthquake's vertical shock waves rippled the ground more severely.San Francisco Earthquake History 1915–1989.
Retrieved August 29, 2009.
At the intersection of Beach and Divisadero Streets in San Francisco, a natural gas main rupture caused a major structure fire. The San Francisco Fire Department selected civilians to help run fire hoses from a distance because the nearby hydrant system failed. Since the bay was only two blocks from the burning buildings, water from the bay was pumped by the fireboat '' Phoenix'', to engines on the shore, and from there sprayed on the fire. The apartment structures that collapsed were older buildings that included ground-floor garages, which engineers refer to as a soft story building.


Santa Cruz and Monterey counties

In Santa Cruz, the Pacific Garden Mall was severely damaged, with falling debris killing three people, half of the six earthquake deaths in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Some 31 buildings were damaged enough to warrant demolition, seven of which had been listed in the Santa Cruz Historic Building Survey."Buildings Demolished in Downtown Santa Cruz as a result of the Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1989"
. Santa Cruz Public Libraries. Local History. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
The four oldest were built in 1894, the five oldest withstood the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Immediately, a number of civilians began to free victims from the rubble of Ford's Department Store and the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company – both buildings had collapsed inward on customers and employees alike. Two police officers crawled through voids in the debris, found one victim alive and another dead inside the coffee house. Santa Cruz beach lifeguards assisted in moving the victims. Police dogs were brought in to help locate other victims. A woman was found dead inside Ford's. The civilians who were helpful initially, were soon viewed by police and fire officials as a hindrance to operations, with frantic coworkers and friends of a coffee house employee thought to be trapped under the rubble continuing their efforts in the dark.Santa Cruz Public Libraries. Local History. ''Log of Emergency Response Operations. Tuesday, October 17, 5:04 pm, 15-second earthquake!''
Retrieved August 29, 2009.
Police arrested those who refused to stop searching. This became a political issue in the following days.
Retrieved August 29, 2009.
The body of a young woman coffee worker was found under a collapsed wall late the next day. During the first few days following the quake, electric power to most Santa Cruz County subscribers was out, and some areas had no water. Limited phone service remained online, providing a crucial link to rescue workers. Widespread search operations were organized to find possible victims inside the remains of fallen structures. As many as six teams of dogs and their handlers were at work identifying the large number of damaged buildings that held no victims. The quake claimed one life in
Watsonville Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self- ...
: a driver who collided with panicked horses after they escaped their collapsed corral."Earthquake"
''Time''. Monday, October 30, 1989. Ed Magnuson. p. 2. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
In other Santa Cruz and Monterey county locations such as Boulder Creek and Moss Landing, a number of structures were damaged, with some knocked off of their foundations. Many residents slept outside their homes out of concern for further damage from aftershocks, of which there were 51 with magnitudes greater than 3.0 in the following 24 hours, and 16 more the second day. The earthquake damaged several historic buildings in the Old Town district of Salinas, and some were later demolished. Damage to the Salinas River rail bridge and subsequent repairs led to reduced traffic on the Monterey Branch Line, which contributed to the discontinuance of freight rail services in western Monterey County.


San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge

The
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ...
suffered severe damage, as a section of the upper deck on the eastern cantilever side fell onto the deck below. The quake caused the Oakland side of the bridge to shift to the east, and caused the bolts of one section to shear off, sending the section of roadbed crashing down like a trapdoor. Traffic on both decks came to a halt, blocked by the section of the roadbed. Police began unsnarling the traffic jam, telling drivers to turn their cars around and drive back the way they had come. Eastbound drivers stuck on the lower deck between the collapse and Yerba Buena Island were routed up to the upper deck and westward back to San Francisco. A miscommunication made by emergency workers at Yerba Buena Island routed some drivers the wrong way; they were directed to the upper deck where they drove eastward toward the collapse site. One of these drivers did not see the open gap in time; the car plunged over the edge and smashed onto the collapsed roadbed. The driver, Anamafi Moala, died, and the passenger, her brother, was seriously injured.''An Oral History of the Presidio of San Francisco During the Loma Prieta Earthquake''
Retrieved August 29, 2009.
Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacrame ...
removed and replaced the collapsed section, and re-opened the bridge on November 18.


Oakland and Interstate 880/Cypress Viaduct

The worst disaster of the earthquake was the collapse of the double-deck
Cypress Street Viaduct The Cypress Street Viaduct, often referred to as the Cypress Structure or the Cypress Freeway, was a 1.6-mile-long (2.5 km), raised two-deck, multi-lane (four lanes per tier) freeway constructed of reinforced concrete that was originally pa ...
of Interstate 880 in West Oakland. The failure of a section of the viaduct, also known as the "Cypress Structure" and the "Cypress Freeway", killed 42 and injured many more. Built-in the late 1950s and opened to traffic in 1957 (as SR 17), the Cypress Street Viaduct, a stretch of Interstate 880, was a double-deck freeway section made of nonductile
reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion ...
that was constructed above and astride Cypress Street in Oakland. Roughly half of the land the Cypress Viaduct was built on filled
marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found ...
land and half on somewhat more stable
alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...
.EERI, November 1989
''Loma Prieta Earthquake, October 17, 1989. Preliminary Reconnaissance Report.''
Retrieved September 6, 2009.
Because of new highway structure design guidelines – the requirement of ductile construction elements – instituted following the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, a limited degree of earthquake reinforcement was retrofitted to the Cypress Viaduct in 1977. The added elements were longitudinal restraints at transverse expansion joints in the box girder spans, but no studies were made of possible failure modes specific to the Cypress Viaduct. Caltrans has since received widespread backlash for not thoroughly studying the structure. When the earthquake hit, the shaking was amplified on the former marshland, and soil liquefaction occurred. When the earthquake struck, the freeway buckled and twisted before the support columns failed and the upper deck fell on the lower deck. Forty-two people were crushed to death in their cars. Cars on the upper deck were tossed around violently, some of them flipped sideways and some of them were left dangling at the edge of the freeway. Nearby residents and factory workers came to the rescue, climbing onto the wreckage with ladders and forklifts and pulling trapped people out of their cars from under a four-foot gap in some sections. 60 members of Oakland's Public Works Agency left the nearby city yard and joined rescue efforts.Fowler, Dave
''The Initial Response to the Cypress Freeway Disaster''.
Retrieved September 5, 2009.
Employees from Pacific Pipe drove heavy lift equipment to the scene and started using it to raise sections of fallen freeway enough to allow further rescue. Local workers continued their volunteer operation nonstop until October 21, 1989, when they were forced to pause as U.S. President George H. W. Bush and California Governor George Deukmejian viewed the damage. That same day, survivor Buck Helm was freed from the wreckage, having spent 90 hours trapped in his car. Dubbed "Lucky Buck" by the local radio, Helm lived for another 29 days on
life support Life support comprises the treatments and techniques performed in an emergency in order to support life after the failure of one or more vital organs. Healthcare providers and emergency medical technicians are generally certified to perform basic ...
, but then died of respiratory failure at the age of 58. Although the freeway reopened in stages between 1997 and 1999, it was not fully rebuilt until 2001 so that it would comply with safety and reinforcement standards.Caltrans
''1998 Highway Congestion Monitoring Report''.
Retrieved September 20, 2009.
In the meantime, traffic was detoured through nearby
Interstate 980 Interstate 980 (I-980) is a short auxiliary Interstate Highway entirely within Oakland in Northern California, connecting I-580 and State Route 24 (SR 24) to I-880 near Downtown Oakland. I-980 passes the Oakland Convention Cen ...
, causing increased congestion. Instead of rebuilding Interstate 880 over the same ground, Caltrans rerouted the freeway farther west around the outskirts of West Oakland to provide better access to the Port of Oakland and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, and to meet community desires to keep the freeway from cutting through residential areas (at the time the original viaduct was constructed, West Oakland was predominantly occupied by African- and Hispanic-Americans). Street-level Mandela Parkway now occupies the previous roadbed of the Cypress structure.


Effects on transportation

Immediately after the earthquake, Bay Area airports were closed so officials could conduct a visual inspection and damage assessment procedures. San Jose International Airport,"Earthquake"
''Time''. Monday, October 30, 1989. Ed Magnuson. p. 7. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States, 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the Port of Oakland and has domestic passenger ...
and
San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middl ...
all opened the next morning. Large cracks in Oakland's runway and taxiway reduced the usable length to two-thirds normal, and damage to the dike required quick remediation to avoid flooding the runway with water from the bay. Oakland Airport repair costs were assessed at $30 million (equivalent to $ million today). San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) lost all power to electric transit systems when the quake hit, but otherwise suffered little damage and no injuries to operators or riders.Stead, William G., Muni Railway Manager
"Municipal Railway Earthquake Notebook Tuesday, October 17, 1989, 5:04 PM"
December 15, 1989, letter to Art Agnos, mayor. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
Cable cars and electric trains and buses were stalled in place – half of Muni's transport capability was lost for 12 hours. Muni relied on diesel buses to continue abbreviated service until electric power was restored later that night, and electric units could be inspected and readied for service on the morning of October 18. After 78 hours, 96 percent of Muni services were back in operation, including the cable cars.
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
intercity rail service into Oakland from the ''
California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overall ...
'' continued, but the ''
Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's format ...
'' was temporarily suspended north of Salinas because of damage to the Southern Pacific's Coast Line. The earthquake changed the Bay Area's automobile transportation landscape. Not only did the quake force seismic retrofitting of all Bay Area bridges, it caused enough damage that some parts of the region's freeway system had to be demolished. Damage to the region's transportation system was estimated at $1.8 billion (equivalent to $ billion today).USGS. Historic Earthquakes
''Santa Cruz Mountains (Loma Prieta), California''.
Retrieved September 6, 2009.
*
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 ...
,
Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one ...
: The Bay Bridge was repaired and reopened to traffic in a month. However, the earthquake made it clear that the Bay Bridge, like many of California's toll bridges, required major repair or replacement for long-term viability and safety. Construction on a replacement for the eastern span began on January 29, 2002. The project was completed on September 2, 2013. * Cypress Street Viaduct/Nimitz Freeway, Interstate 880: The double-decked Cypress Street Viaduct, Interstate 880 was demolished soon after the earthquake and was not replaced until July 1997 (To the Bay Bridge only, the ramps to and from Interstate 80 east were not completed until 2001 despite opening in 1999). The replacement freeway section is a single-deck rather than double-deck structure and was re-routed around the outskirts of West Oakland, rather than bisecting it as the Cypress Street Viaduct had done. The former route of the Cypress Street Viaduct was reopened as the ground-level Mandela Parkway. * Embarcadero Freeway, State Route 480: Earthquake damage forced the closure and demolition of San Francisco's incomplete and controversial Embarcadero Freeway (State Route 480). This removal opened up San Francisco's Embarcadero area to new development. The elevated structure, which ran along San Francisco's waterfront, was demolished in 1991 and later replaced with a ground-level boulevard. * Interstate 280: Seismic damage also forced the long-term closure of Interstate 280 in San Francisco (north of US 101), another concrete freeway which had never been completed to its originally planned route. The uncompleted northernmost stub of I-280 was demolished during August–October 1995 while one connecting ramp between northbound I-280 and southbound US 101 was opened in December 1995. The full I-280 project was completed in late 1997. In addition, another segment of Interstate 280 in Los Altos near State Route 85 also suffered seismic damage and was subsequently repaired. *
Central Freeway The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile (1.5 km) elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway (US 101 and I-80) with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is par ...
,
U.S. Highway 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
: San Francisco's Central Freeway (part of US 101 and a key link to the Bay Bridge flyover) was another concrete double-deck structure that faced demolition because of safety concerns. Originally terminating at Franklin Street and Golden Gate Avenue near San Francisco's Civic Center, the section past Fell Street was demolished first, then later the section between Mission and Fell Streets. The section from Mission Street to Market Street was rebuilt (completed September 2005) as a single-deck elevated freeway, touching down at Market Street and feeding into Octavia Boulevard, a ground-level urban parkway carrying traffic to and from the major San Francisco traffic arterials that the old elevated freeway used to connect to directly, including Fell and Oak Streets (which serve the city's western neighborhoods) and Franklin and Gough Streets (which serve northern neighborhoods and the Golden Gate Bridge). * State Route 17: Over half of the highway was closed for about one to two months because of
landslides Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environme ...
that occurred between Granite Creek Road in Scotts Valley and State Route 9 in Los Gatos (only Buses and carpoolers with three or more people could cross it). After reopening, retaining walls and barbed fences were added in damaged areas to prevent any further landslides/rockslides. The route crosses the San Andreas Fault in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the earthquake's epicenter. * Cabrillo Highway, State Route 1: In Watsonville, the Struve Slough Bridge collapsed, with concrete/steel support columns penetrating up through the bridge deck. The highway was closed for several months until it could be demolished and rebuilt (commuters took SR 152 and SR 129 as bypass routes). Another section of Highway 1 through Monterey suffered damage and had to be rebuilt as well. Additionally, the bridge carrying Highway 1 over the Salinas River near Highway 156 and
Fort Ord Fort Ord is a former United States Army post on Monterey Bay of the Pacific Ocean coast in California, which closed in 1994 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action. Most of the fort's land now makes up the Fort Ord National Monument, ...
was damaged and subsequently rebuilt. *
Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which u ...
: The BART rail system, which hauled commuters between the East Bay and San Francisco via the Transbay Tube, was virtually undamaged and only closed for post-earthquake inspection. With the Bay Bridge closed because of its damage, the Transbay Tube became the quickest way into San Francisco via Oakland for a month, and ridership increased in the three work weeks following the earthquake, going from 218,000 riders per average weekday to more than 330,000 post-quake, a 50% increase. BART instituted round-the-clock train service until December 3 when they returned to their normal schedule. In 2006, BART began the $1.3 billion Earthquake Safety Program to retrofit tunnels, aerial structures, and stations, with completion planned by 2022. *
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
: Historic 16th Street Station in downtown Oakland suffered significant damage and was rendered structurally unsound. Amtrak would shift its Oakland operations to a new station in Emeryville. * Transbay Ferries: Ferry service between San Francisco and Oakland, which had ended decades before, was revived during the month-long closure of the Bay Bridge as an alternative to the overcrowded BART. A ferry terminal was put together in
Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santia ...
, and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
dredged a suitable ferry dock at the
Berkeley Marina The Berkeley Marina is the westernmost portion of the city of Berkeley, California, located west of the Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80 and 580) at the foot of University Avenue on San Francisco Bay. Narrowly speaking, "Berkeley Marina" refers o ...
. Additionally, the demolition of the quake-damaged Embarcadero Freeway led to the Ferry Building Terminal renovation, increasing the efficiency of ferry service to the peninsula. The passenger-only service proved popular and continues to expand its service. The need for a robust ferry system in the event that the region's roads and tunnels become impassable in an emergency led to the creation of the San Francisco Bay Ferry system.


1989 World Series and television coverage of earthquake

The 1989 World Series featured the
Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The t ...
and the
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...
in the first cross-town World Series since
1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...
. Game 3 of the series was scheduled to begin at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on October 17 at 5:35 PDT, and American TV network ABC began its
pre-game show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger f ...
at 5:00 PDT. When the quake struck at approximately 5:04 PDT, sportscaster Tim McCarver was narrating taped highlights of Game 2, which had been played two days prior across the Bay Bridge in Oakland. Television viewers saw the video signal begin to break up, heard McCarver repeat a sentence as the shaking distracted him, and heard McCarver's colleague
Al Michaels Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for '' Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on n ...
exclaim, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth – ." At that moment, the signal from Candlestick Park was lost. The network put up a green ABC Sports “World Series” technical difficulties telop graphic while it scrambled to repair the video feed (the broadcast cameras and mics were powered by the local power supply), but audio from the stadium was restored after a few seconds via a telephone link:
Al Michaels: Well, heh, I don't know if we're on the air... We are in commercial, I guess. Jim Palmer: Yes, yes, we hear you. Tim McCarver: I guess... Michaels: I don't hear a thing. McCarver: I guess Dave Parker... Michaels: Well, heh, I don't know if we're on the air or not, and I'm not sure I care at this particular moment but we are. Well, folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television! Bar none! McCarver: Started with a bang! Michaels: Yes, it certainly did! Heh! We're still here! Heh! We are still, as we can tell, on the air, and I guess you are hearing us, even though we have no picture and no return audio, and we will be back, we hope, from San Francisco, in just a moment.
The combined screams of excitement and panic from fans who had no idea of the devastation elsewhere could be heard in the background."Earthquake"
''Time''. Monday, October 30, 1989. Ed Magnuson. p. 3. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
ABC then switched to episodes of ''
Roseanne ''Roseanne'' is an American sitcom television series created by Matt Williams and Roseanne Barr which aired on ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and briefly revived from March 27, 2018, to May 22, 2018. The show stars Barr as Rosea ...
'' and '' The Wonder Years'', which were on standby for a
rain delay Rainout, washout, rain delay, and rain stopped play are terms regarding an outdoor event, generally a sporting event, delayed or canceled due to rain, or the threat of rain. It is not to be confused with a type of out in baseball, though a basebal ...
situation, while attempting to restore electricity to its remote equipment. KGO-TV, the local owned-and-operated ABC station in San Francisco, lost power for almost 15 minutes upon the start of the earthquake, before beginning its coverage with anchor Cheryl Jennings. With anchorman Ted Koppel in position in Washington, D.C., ABC News began continuous coverage of the quake at 5:32 pm PDT, with Al Michaels, in the process, becoming a de facto on-site reporter for ABC. CBS News also began coverage around that same time with coverage from its San Francisco affiliate
KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside ...
.Gerard, Jeremy. ''The New York Times'', October 24, 1989
"The California Quake; NBC News Tells of Errors and Obstacles to Early Coverage of Quake"
Retrieved September 11, 2009.
About an hour later,
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
also began continuous coverage with Tom Brokaw anchoring and featuring local coverage from its then-San Francisco affiliate,
KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios on Front Street in the c ...
. A Goodyear Blimp had already been overhead to cover the baseball game, and ABC used it to capture images of damage to the Bay Bridge and other locations. Local Fox affiliate KTVU was knocked off the air for over 90 minutes before returning to the air with a raw feed fed from one of the station's remote trucks. KTVU anchors Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral began their coverage from the station's parking lot, as power had not yet been restored to that section of Oakland. Inside Candlestick Park, fewer than half of the more than 62,000 fans had reached their seats by the time of the quake, and the load on the structure of the stadium was lower than maximum. There had also been a seismic-strengthening project previously completed on the upper deck concrete windscreen that may have prevented large numbers of injuries in the event of serious damage or even a catastrophic collapse. Fans reported that the stadium moved in an articulated manner as the earthquake wave passed through it, that the light standards swayed by many feet, and that the concrete upper deck windscreen moved in a wave-like manner over a distance of several feet. When electrical power to the stadium was lost, someone drove a police car onto the field, where an officer used the car's public address system to advise that the game had been postponed. After the shaking subsided, many of the players on both teams immediately searched for, and gathered, family and friends from the stands before evacuating the facility. The October 18, 1989, edition of NBC's ''
Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
'' that covered the earthquake ran until noon Eastern Time. Bryant Gumbel,
Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host, and author, active in news reporting since 1972. Pauley first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the ag ...
and
Deborah Norville Deborah Anne Norville (born August 8, 1958) is an American television journalist and businesswoman. Norville is the anchor of ''Inside Edition'', a syndicated television news magazine, a position she has held since March 6, 1995. She markets and ...
anchored from
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
(where they had planned to originally do a special celebratory edition), with reports done by
Bob Jamieson Robert John Jamieson is an American former television news correspondent for ABC News until January 2008. After getting his start in local news in St. Louis and Chicago, he joined NBC's national news bureau in 1971. There he reported on a variet ...
and Don Oliver in San Francisco, and George Lewis in Oakland.
Jim Miklaszewski James Alan Miklaszewski (; born July 8, 1949), known to his colleagues and contacts as "Mik", is a veteran journalist whose career spanned more than forty years, most of it covering the White House and Pentagon for NBC News. On September 11, 2 ...
and Bob Hager covered disaster response from Washington.
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...
commentators Bob Costas and
Jimmy Cefalo James Carmen Cefalo (born October 6, 1956) is an American journalist, news broadcaster and sports broadcaster, radio talk show host, Voice of the Miami Dolphins, businessman, wine enthusiast and former professional American football wide receiver ...
discussed the effect the temblor would have on the 1989 World Series. The World Series was delayed while the Bay Area started the recovery process. While the teams' stadiums had suffered only minor damage, it took several days for power and transmission links at Candlestick Park to be repaired. After ten days (the longest delay in World Series history), Game 3 was held in San Francisco on October 27 and Game 4 the following afternoon as the A's swept the Giants, four games to none.Hinshaw, Horace. ''Pacifica Tribune'', June 17, 2009
"Remembering World Series Earthquake."
Hosted by MercuryNews.com. Retrieved August 30, 2009.
It is likely that the World Series game saved many lives, as Bay Area residents who would have normally been on the freeways were at home ready to watch the game when the earthquake hit. It is a rough estimate that thousands of people may have otherwise been on the Cypress Structure during the 5:00 pm rush-hour, as the structure was said to have carried 195,000 vehicles a day.


In popular culture

The earthquake is featured in films and television shows: * The events in the TV sitcom '' Full House'' episode "Aftershocks" (December 8, 1989) take place following the Loma Prieta earthquake; it centers on 7-year-old Stephanie Tanner having a hard time telling her father Danny about how she fears another aftershock might happen and kill him (since he is a widowed single father) as well as other members of the family. * ''
After the Shock ''After the Shock'' is a made-for-television movie about the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that hit San Francisco on October 17, 1989.Kay, Glenn and Michael Rose, Disaster Movies, Chicago Review Press, An A Capella Book, Chicago, 20 ...
'' (1990), a made-for-TV movie that was aired on the
USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madi ...
, with stories of rescue after the disaster. * ''Miracle on Interstate 880'' (1993), a TV movie fictionalization and re-enactment of events at the collapsed Cypress Structure. * '' Journeyman'' (2007), TV show on NBC in which the main character travels back in time to save a person who died during the earthquake. Occurs in third episode, "Game Three," in reference to the 1989 World Series. * ''
Midnight Caller ''Midnight Caller'' is an American drama television series created by Richard DiLello, which aired on NBC from October 25, 1988, to May 17, 1991. It was one of the first television series to address the dramatic possibilities of the then-growi ...
'' (1990), TV show set in San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake. In the show, a caller jokes about Candlestick Park being renamed "Wiggly Field". * The San Francisco-based punk music group Loma Prieta derived their name from the 1989 earthquake. * ''
Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation * Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium ...
'' (2005), TV show on NBC in which a character uses her coincidental presence in Oakland during the earthquake as an opportunity to fake her own death and disappear. Occurs in the episode "Sweet Dreams". * ''
Fringe Fringe may refer to: Arts * Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, known as "the Fringe" * Adelaide Fringe, the world's second-largest annual arts festival * Fringe theatre, a name for alternative theatre * The Fringe, the ...
'' (2008), TV show on FOX in which a character's parents are killed in the Oakland Bay Bridge collapse, while
the Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
is watching her and her parents. Occurs in the episode "
August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named '' Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month i ...
". In a later episode ("
Amber 31422 "Amber 31422" is the fifth List of Fringe episodes, episode of the Fringe (season 3), third season of the American science fiction drama television program, television series ''Fringe (TV series), Fringe''. It first aired on November 4, 2010 in t ...
", November 4, 2010), the alternate Walter Bishop refers to October 17, 1989, as the first time he used his amber-based protocol to heal breaches between the two universes. * The
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...
performed the
Rodney Crowell Rodney Crowell (born August 7, 1950) is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album '' Diamonds & Dirt''. ...
song "California Earthquake" at their concert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 1989, then again three nights later in Charlotte, North Carolina – the only times the band ever performed the song. On December 6, 1989, the band played an earthquake benefit concert at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena. * Gillian Welch in the song "Wrecking Ball" on her '' Soul Journey'' album. * The 2004 video game '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' takes place in 1992. In it, fictional San Fierro, the game's version of San Francisco, has a few quake-damaged areas courtesy of a major shaker occurring three years before the game begins. One location includes a damaged overpass resembling the collapsed
Cypress Street Viaduct The Cypress Street Viaduct, often referred to as the Cypress Structure or the Cypress Freeway, was a 1.6-mile-long (2.5 km), raised two-deck, multi-lane (four lanes per tier) freeway constructed of reinforced concrete that was originally pa ...
. * ''First Contact'' – A 2022 YouTube video from Kane Pixels' '' Backrooms'' creepypasta series that details the events following to the earthquake, in the video, the earthquake is an accidental byproduct from a scientific experiment conducted by the secret-society organization known as the Async Foundation. * Episode 6 Season 1 of the TV series '' Quantum Leap (2022)'' takes place during the earthquake. Some earthquake and disaster-themed television documentaries that feature the earthquake include: * ''The Quake of 89: The Final Warning?'' – a 12th episode of the 26th series of the BBC television documentary programme ''
Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
'', broadcast on 2 April 1990. * ''Nature's Fury'' – produced by
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
in 1994 . * ''
Earth's Fury ''Earth's Fury'' (also known as ''Anatomy of Disaster'' outside the United States) is an American documentary television series that ran on The Learning Channel from February 24, 1997 to November 17, 1998. Produced by GRB Entertainment, each epi ...
'' (also known as ''Anatomy of Disaster'' outside the United States) – produced by GRB Entertainment and aired on television networks around the world such as The Learning Channel in the United States, feature the earthquake. * '' Raging Planet'' – aired on
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...
in 1997, feature the earthquake. * ''Mega Disaster'' – produced by
NHNZ NHNZ, formerly Natural History New Zealand, is a New Zealand-based television production house. It works and co-produces with multiple major global broadcasters: Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, A&E Television Networks, Nat ...
and aired internationally on
National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...
in 2006. * ''
Surviving Disaster ''Surviving Disaster'' is a 2006 BBC, Discovery Channel, and ProSieben co-production documentary-drama series about disasters in the 20th century, starring people who survived them. It was produced in association with France 5. It is narrated b ...
'' – aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom features the earthquake. * ''World's Deadliest Earthquakes'' – aired on ABC television network in 1999 features the earthquake. * ''Minute by Minute'' – aired on A&E in 2002, features the earthquake. * '' Critical Rescue'' – aired on Discovery Channel in 2003, features the rescuers of the earthquake. * ''San Francisco Quake: A Matter of Seconds'' – aired on TLC in 1999, a special focus on the earthquake. * ''Loma Prieta Earthquake, 30 Years Later'' – aired on NBC owned-and-operated television station
KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded as NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's NBC network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television ...
in San Francisco Bay Area for its 30th anniversary in 2019. * ''The Day the Series Stopped'' – 2014 documentary film from
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
's ''
30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...
'' series that focuses on the disruption of the 1989 World Series by the earthquake. * ''
Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...
'' by Raina Telgemeier gives her account of how the earthquake felt, as well as the aftermath of it.


See also

*
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
* 1992 Landers earthquake *
1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately 1 ...
* 1999 Hector Mine earthquake *
2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes The 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes (more commonly referred to in scientific literature as the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence) of July 4 and 5 occurred north and northeast of the town of Ridgecrest, California located in Kern County and ...
*
Earthquake engineering Earthquake engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that designs and analyzes structures, such as buildings and bridges, with earthquakes in mind. Its overall goal is to make such structures more resistant to earthquakes. An earth ...
*
List of earthquakes in California The earliest known California earthquake was documented in 1769 by the Spanish explorers and Catholic missionaries of the Portolá expedition as they traveled northward from San Diego along the Santa Ana River near the present site of Los Angele ...
*
List of earthquakes in the United States The following is a list of notable earthquakes and tsunamis which had their epicenter in areas that are now part of the United States with the latter affecting areas of the United States. Those in ''italics'' were not part of the United States wh ...


References

Sources * * * * Fradkin, Philip L. ''Magnitude 8: Earthquakes and Life Along the San Andreas Fault'', University of California Press, 1999. * * * Palm, Risa; Michael E. Hodgson. ''After a California Earthquake: Attitude and Behavior Change'', University Of Chicago Press, 1992. * *


Further reading

*


External links

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loma Prieta Earthquake Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1989
1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
1989 in sports in California 1989 natural disasters in the United States History of the San Francisco Bay Area History of Oakland, California Geology of Alameda County, California Geology of San Francisco Geology of San Mateo County, California Geology of Santa Cruz County, California Santa Cruz Mountains 20th century in Oakland, California 1989 Loma Prieta 1989 Major League Baseball season ABC Sports Oakland Athletics postseason San Francisco Giants postseason World Series games October 1989 events in the United States 1989 in San Francisco Candlestick Park Buried rupture earthquakes