Moments after the Great San Francisco Earth Quake of 1989

[cootercat486]

People are really in shock here. I've seen the same thing happen at a bad car accident. The guy barking orders was the best thing for tem to get them to try to come to their senses.

[jeffper2]

santa cruz and loma prieta...centered tmm

[abehammy]

Was Candlestick the safest place to be in SF at the time?

[DoUWanna007]

@abehammy Not really. Candlestick could have collapsed if the shaking continued. Best place to be is on Potrero Hill or Twin Peaks. The area around the cable car turnaround on Market Street all the way to the Ferry Building is 'land fill' dirt, which means if a quake happens, a thing called 'liquidfaction' would happen to the dirt which means it turns to mud. The bay water is directly under all that area. I'm outta San Fran now in Northern CA in the foothills.

[abehammy]

@DoUWanna007 I also heard the Academy of Sciences was damaged severely, too, and had to close the bird hall building permanently, until the 2004 renovation closure.

[BerkeleyBuilt]

2:04 hose win, fetching a pail of water fail.

[GudinoSF415IF]

@2:26 that guy is a G

[CountryRoadTrip]

"Shut off electricity." I think the earthquake took care of that. The fireman forgot to tell them to stock up on bread and milk.

[JADEAV]

@JadeFawkes3 hahaha I noticed that too!

[bluegrass1dcr1]

@JadeFawkes3 Many were probably in shock and wern't thinking clearly. Doesn't mean they were idiots, at least not all of them

[starfleetofficer1]

I've been looking for this footage for a while now. I remember seeing it a long time ago in a classroom, and what the cop said kind of stuck with me. Go home, secure your homes, we've obviously got major problems. You've got 90 minutes of daylight left, you better make use of your time. That quote always stuck with me. It's a lot like America's situation today. We have only so much longer to turn things around before it's all over. We better make use of our time.

[nosenzo]

back in 1989 just 19 when quake hit i on my way to the gem now I am 40 now

[Thundering24]

guy at 2:10 was trying to be real and smart, these assholes were ignoring him, I bet 90 minutes later they regretted it when they had been looted or didn't have any of their shit secured...why are so many ppl such morons

[MrFLICKYOLI]

0:27 there's a 95% chance that guy with the cat is queer.

Those kinds of pants didn't make it to the east coast back then.

[4SCARECROWS]

I recognize the the time frame at 2:23 to 2:27 is used quite frequently in documentaries concerning , destruction, fall of civilization scenarios, documentaries regarding survival in different scenarios like, oil shortage, nuclear attacks, disease outbreak etc.

[82Nikkis]

Where I live we have Tornadoes...I don't know if the New Madrid Fault line will ever blow in my lifetime, but when it does it is supposed to be the worst, and I don't want to be anywhere around it. It is sad to see this quake and Im glad Cali and it's residents bounced back.

[MrFLICKYOLI]

Dominoes Pizza at 2:13!

[Balto2WolfQuest]

wow this happened 83 years after the 1906 earthquake.

[MatthewSkates97]

if an eartquake like that happens cant the ground seperate? that would suck if someone fell in

[garycalgary]

hopefully people remember the quake that happened back then, think of haiti and give something to help

[dinfg6]

I hope we Bay Area residents don't end up like Haiti when the Hayward fault goes off.

[NobbyKNobbs]

@dinfg6 I think most houses in the Bay Area follow the earthquake safety regulationcodes and most older buildings have been retrofitted. There'll be some damage but I doubt it'll be as bad as Haiti.

[JaeDizzley1995]

Well the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake wrecked havoc that time and the 1989 World Series at the Candlestick Park.

[chunk1978]

i was 9 years old at the time living in nova scotia, where it was 9:00pm when the quake hit. i was just in bed when my dad and older brothers started freaking out because there was an earthquake during the ball game.

[frambesbuckeye]

This looks like it would be so much fun to see.

[sammysf415]

@ frambesbuckeye it would be exiting, but not fun, i witness this

[frambesbuckeye]

@sammysf415

Neah it would just be fun.

[jarzzez]

and there are still potholes on the road in front of my house from this quake..

[autumngold100]

SF didnt even feel it like SC.. I watched the earth move like a wave. I tried to run but couldnt even keep my footing. Freshman in High School.. seems like yesterday.

[kongsinchi1976]

@autumngold100

According "San Francisco is Burning" by Smith Dennis, street of SF also moved like wave in the 1906 earthquake - and he has given an explanation about that.

[mscrazy51501]

@autumngold100 sf got it worse than sc i was at daydare i was 7yrs old then

[jonzmaster]

@autumngold100 sympathy for you man, i curantly live on 1 of the worlds greatest fault lines, which is 12 years past do, they say when the sf fault breaks, this will go with it, cant wait for that shit, as the western half of the us breaks into mass earth quake, it will be here soon enough, can gurante that, with any luck will happen close to 2012, prove all those religious fucks right, and make them feel right for once in 2000 years..

[hpd707]

@autumngold100

I was in Gilroy a few miles from Loma Prieta, the epicenter. I was out running and heard trees cracking in the distance. The trees were along a creek next to the trail I was on. I looked up and saw the trees swaying before I felt anything. These were the P waves and I actually got to watch them come before I felt anything. When the first waves hit, I had already braced myself. I watched a small crack open up in the asphalt between my legs. I will never forget that day.

[jessecol1]

I was there right on 4th. st and market st i had just gotten off of work from the restaurant on maiden lane it is called MOCCA ON MAIDEN LANE  and its still there

[snopbox]

I was scared of that black smoke for years after seeing it on TV. I was 7 at the time.

[dolcevitausa]

It does not seem like 20 years have already gone by even though the memories are still pretty vivid... PG&E and SFFD were the heros of the day as they all worked 24/7.... the only way to describe it was surreal as the brain cells tried to process what we were seeing....

[ronnykmarshall]

I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was downtown at work.

[karoomay]

Today is the 20th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake.

[Keeper1st]

It's the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. It was nowhere near San Francisco (about 80 miles away), and the amount of shaking there was comparatively moderate. The damage suffered in S.F. just shows how vulnerable it is since most of the city is built on landfill. When people moved into the city in the mid-1800s, they just dumped dirt onto wetlands and built on it. It's a recipe for disaster. Should a big quake actually hit S.F. directly, the devastation will be unfathomable.

[AmericanAirlinesRule]

Well, just imagine if the quake was centered right below the city.

[Nudelsalatbomber]

@Keeper1st , let´s hope, that it will whack the city one more time. we need some space on this planet and mix the cards all over again.

but going back to 1800 and smacking the idiots who dumped dirt on the land to build on., would be fun.

[Adramelk]

@Keeper1st a big quake DID hit SF or did you forget about the 1906 quake that nearly leveled SF. I have no idea why they taged the Loma Prieta Quake as the AF quake when it was accually the "south bay" quake. I remember this quake rather vividly as i lived through it as well even when i lived futher south in the state

[Keeper1st]

@Adramelk Of course a big quake hit in 1906; I thought that much was obvious. What I mean is if one struck the San Francisco of today.

[Jonita123]

There was no target in 1989...

[b4mv0212]

is that abc 7 news channel for tennesse

[recto89]

No its KGO-TV san Francisco

[tmmccorm]

I was in this earthquake in 1989. I was in target in the very back of the store and it was the scariest moment of my life!! There was soo much destruction! I lived in the Los Altos area then and even there, the damage was crazy! I will never forget it!

[Keeper1st]

There's no "even there" about it. Los Altos is considerably closer to the epicenter than San Francisco. I was in Capitola, about three to five miles from the epicenter. Major shaking? You betcha. It's the only time I ever have felt up-and-down motion in an earthquake as the waves passed beneath my feet. It's one of those milestone dates, isn't it? You remember things as "before the earthquake" or "after the earthquake".

[recto89]

@tmmccorm Is there any clips of Los Altos and San Jose getting damage from the quake I noticed that I never seen a clip from San Jose in 1989 getting damage since its closer to the epicenter than Oakland.

[tillyboos]

We're going to have one sometime soon. We're in the 20-year window NOW!!!! I just hope I'm lucky enough to get through it without pissing on myself! I moved to SF from NYC 5 yrs. ago -- so I didn't experience 89. The USGS says the next one will be upwards of 7.0 -- NERVE-WRACKING!!!!

[EdOscuro]

That officer at the end is great. Their white balance test didn't quite work out though :D

[Z3R0FiR3]

Or maybe that they live on or close to the fault line.

[omarjz]

somthing very big is coming people big!!!! just keep your eyes open in the next 2 weeks!!!! something big is coming please be ready!!! pls have everything ready it will be big!!!! make sure you tell all your love ones!!! is coming before the 26 of this month.

[Tinkerbell7689]

do u mean a big earthquake oh no where

[DarkLotus42000]

Ok I Goggled it and found out it was a magnitude 6.9 (moment magnitude; surface-wave magnitude, 7.1), earthquake severely shook the San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions.

[IDzy]

I am guessing this was Beach and Divisadero? sure brings back memories.

[dolcevitausa]

Hard to believe that it has been almost 20 years.

[MelodiousGarden]

I was in this earthquake, 8 years old at the time. I was at my daycare when it happened and the ground was rolling, sounded like crumbling bricks and all the car alarms went off. My mother was on a bus on her way to pick up my brother and I from the daycare and the bus swerved all over the road. Came home & my walls were cracked and bed was on the other side of the room my bookshelf fell over..We were out of power at my house for quite a few days and didn't have school that week as a result.

[Jefro3033]

the guy between 2:11 and 2:30 kepps it all the way real....i wa living in Hercules at that time, man o man memories. i miss Burgerama.

[andymac7420]

There are still sidewalks that look like the one at 1:45. Kids use them as ramps for their bikes now.

[Cjl99]

Incredible footage from KGO or KABC, all really sad/compelling scenes. Love the cop at 2:12, talking like something out of a Bruce Willis movie or something - lulz!

[tornadoman566]

It was KGO because I do not know if L.A. got hit as bad, but I know that San Francisco was hit badly

[jongreek]

Oh yeah, that cop is classic, hectoring the populace to go home and secure their world.

[FraMart2007]

damn dats crazy, nd i live in fremont :O

[lewisautomatic]

Hey loxas332, I agree with you but please, check your spelling the next time you post something.

[CelticDragon0]

Whoa. Spaz much? But you are right

[JimmayVV]

dude - caps; #1 rule of internet - NO CAPS

[bmrcutiepie]

the san francisco bay is not ready for the next one thats supposed to happen in like 25+yrs from now...

[funintegras]

How can anyone ever be prepare for an earth quake? We just cant because we cant see it coming.

[deftoned2]

there are still places that haven't been fully repaired yet in the city. :(

[doby00]

wow

[lilhalfback]

LA area (us) are supposed to have one NOW!

[agentsab]

damn man i was like 3 when this shit happened, i remember it was fucking scary

[lilswtangel92]

wow! really?? and that was when i was just born

[ilikethewayyoumoo]

Cont..

scum like you are not worth the 5000 mile journey I'd have to make and come and beat you up my self.

[ilikethewayyoumoo]

omg gopconservative94 I cannt believe you said thatl. Thouands of people died in that quake. And you'r glad? Your glad that life has been ruined for so many americans? GET SOME HELP!!! You need a seroius reality check dude.theres sommin wrong with you if you think that this diasaster is acceptable. Just bcause someone is a different colour or sexual orientation. I sincerly hope you run into someone who feels the way I do about what u just said becuase they will kick the shit out of you.

[NonsensicalHandle]

Actually only 63 people died in the 1989 quake. You're thinking of the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires where it's been estimated over 3,000 people died. You're right about gopconservative94, just, you know, know your facts.

[kwolds]

Billy talks Quetzal into taking him into the future to see the great earthquake in San Francisco.

They are 300 kilometers from San Francisco. Quetzal opens the hatch to look down. Billy takes a picture of the San Andreas fault. Billys pictures will not come out good if he shoots below the ship as the radiation will effect the film.

San Francisco is on fire.

The Destruction is worse then he thought it would be.

[laxxla]

Hey! Not all white people are racist assholes you know! I don't get why people get so hung-up about skin colour... its just skin pigmentation, nothing more or less. A person is a person, whatever they look like and where ever they're from.

[YogabbaYo]

I agree with you good job!

[gopconservative94]

At least I don't live in the Chocolate City

[gopconservative94]

why thank you Liberal traitors, I know you want Bin Laden the President of America

[floatfloaton]

oh yeah, no problem when the quake hit. I had already parked and had just finished a beer standing next to my car on the dirt landfilled parking lot when the quake hit. Myself and my friend were literally surfing on dirt, and my car was swaying from side to side, along with the other 1000 cars in the lot surrounding us. As soon as it stopped, car alarms were going off everywhere.

GOP Cunt-servative. Can't wait to see Obama kick McCain's ass, and GW Bush get thrown in the slammer, dork!!

[gopconservative94]

I can't wait for terrorists to destroy your liberal shithole city, you hate the military so we will not help you. Democrats caused 9/11

[TheEnthusiasts]

fuck you

[AJ627]

how old are you? dose your mom know your on?

[gopconservative94]

I hope San Fran gets a 10+ on the scale and slide in the sea and all of those liberal hippies die

[floatfloaton]

what a scum bag.

[gopconservative94]

Thank you I take great pride in hoping for the day that hippie terrorist loving city slides into the sea

[JeffreyHaugen]

lol you are really dumb. By the way Obama is president. haha

[TheEnthusiasts]

what a scum bag.

[gopconservative94]

thank you just like the Chocolate City, worth less people and the city should be wiped off the face of the Earth. San Fran=Gay Fags and liberal scum, the Chocolate City....gang warfare Venice

[TheEnthusiasts]

NORTH CAL BITCH

[chukochewycocopuff]

Fuck you gopconservative94. It's people like you who make the world a worse place to live. You guys are so caught up in other people's lives....WHY DON'T YOU GET A LIFE !!! motherfucker =)

[Hnil96]

54,355 voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004. Do you want them dead too. Would that just be collateral damage?

[gopconservative94]

We will airlift them to safety, Democrats can fend for themselves

[statboy08]

I am a Republican that lives within 90 miles of San Fran and I have family that lives in the Bay Area that are Republican...do you hope that we die too?

-response to gopconservative94

[Mark271792]

Questions for the people who went through this event. That morning..... some writer named, Kevin Cowherd, from the Baltimore Sun predicted that an earthquake was going to happen that day right before Game 3. Do any of you guys remember that? And if you did, did you think he was just joking around or being serious? I wonder if he took any heat for it or was called a genius?

[floatfloaton]

I was driving to game 3 with a friend, got to the parking area at Candlestick and got stuck in traffic underneath an overpass. I turned to my friend and said, "I hope an earthquake doesn't hit right now". About 20 minutes later a 7.1 did.

[Mark271792]

Man........ that sucks. I hope you and your friend were okay.

[TigerXero]

Super kudos to the EMS guys handling of the people standing around.

[soundwave5150]

halarious.>_>

[mmhfreak]

what the fuck is wrong with you?!!! go to hell!!!

[jroviso391]

Thanks socalltd. God bless all the people who were injured or traumatized by this earthquake. I live in the Midwest and we just had a rare 5.2 magnitude earthquake near our area. I didn't feel a thing, although others I talked to did and there have been 15 or 16 aftershocks since Friday.

[jroviso391]

Does anyone know what the magnitude of this earthquake was in 1989?

[socalltd]

yes, 6.9 magnitude

[vidsquid66]

7.1

[verk89]

yeah, that's my favorite part of the bible too, when jesus curses the fags, real smart there latteliberal. also does this mean you hate ronald reagan, the late gov. of california? if so, what kind of a republican are you?

[amg4322]

hello latteliberal. im sorry if you cant handle making babies with your cousins but thats just the way it is. so you have no right to say anything about free spirits in california you sister loving freak. have a nice day :)

[raysonhongrh]

OMG!!!!! I hope i don't die on the nex Earthquake. Bigger than 1906 before 2010 earthquake. BEWARE. Oh yea, n' does anyone goes to Aptos Middle school? My homeroom is at 203

[LatteLiberal]

God owes California some punishment. They harbor homosexuals, environmentalists, vegans, feminists and all the other destructive forces of liberalism.

[ohbrilliant]

And you are an authority on God how? Please don't use God as a front for your ignorance!

[ohbrilliant]

Oh yeah, and I live in the SF Bay area and have lots of friends who are of all walks of life. I'm proud to live in the Bay Area. :D

[tomo566]

OMG SHUT THE FUCK UP!

[LatteLiberal]

Thats what you get for being a homo or homo apologizer. Rot in hell. Alabama will never be punished by God like this. I hate liberals and they should ALL DIE! As a Christian and a Republican, they should pay for their own rebuilding. Federal taxes should NOT FIX FAG STATES! THIS IS A CHRISTIAN NATION!!!!

[roxyroxy7]

Listen you arrogant hick I am from San Francisco, and lost a relative in this tradegy. I too am a christian, and a republican. I hope you are real proud of yourself for the way you represented the faith and and the republicican party you prick, go tennessee!!!

[drakeneyez]

Oh no Alabama doesn't experience devastating hurricanes. Do you suppose hurricanes in the south are created by fags?

Let's see, you must be mad at the world because the Salvation Army declined your mattress.

[Yahiko25]

Alabama got Hurricanes and a heavy punch in the face by the Civil War. Hmm.

[thesethingz]

yeah, real funny

[shakysyxx]

and just watching a propehcy of ppl seeing another one coming,now i read bout today that u californiansare do for another..be careful...thats one thing id be terrified to witness

[LukaSteinberg]

Earthquakes are awesome. California has been overdue for a major earthquake for the last 20 years. Tokyo is overdue for a major earthquake since the 1970's.

[schrodingercat91]

I was there near 7th/Bryant

Walking down the street, heard a mighty roar. You could SEE huge ripples, like ocean waves coming at you.

The steady, crunching, tide, moving 7 miles a second.

The pavement buckled, and I staggered, as if drunk, trying to keep my balance, while above all the transformers on the phone poles blew up in blue flashes, and I felt I that would die for sure.

Swallowed up by God's earth or electrocuted by live wires.

Longest 10 seconds of my life.

[havaniko777]

oh lord ... like a neutron bomb ... poor people ..

[Jemmer1000]

Wait while we get a reflection take on your face, officer, thank you. We're in control here, thank you. Earthquake is big story, you need to hold still for our lighting man. What's that burning over there? Send a crew there to get live footage.

[iloveyousj06]

that is sooo scary i do not wanna be alive during an earthquake.

[michaelwright999]

were many killed ? I worked there all of 1988

[gitmeout]

My dad was a surgeon in the city at the time of the quake. there is a photo of him with an injured person and two firefighters against a background of flame that made it to the cover of people magazine.

[krudmonk]

Loma Prieta =/= San Francisco

[teto123]

No! the cop wasn't an ass. He was doing his job. Imagine: your in a city that has just experienced a major catastrophe, the city itself is in ruins...you might be seconds away from an aftershock...the cop was scared and frustrated.. his adrenaline was pumping. I would act the same way.

[justinzeiser18]

You know, people really shoundnt judge unti theyve lived there and been through somthing like that. that cop was only doing his job. hats off to the sfpd.

[twh1st]

ich glaube dieses video war ein "Favourite" von Sturmgeist89 ..

[apnigga]

people are fucking retarded, thats why the cop was the way he was. At that point, that could have just been the tip of the iceburg, since this area is known for huge earthquakes. that could of been the aftershock compared to what is suppose to hit here, hopefully after i move.

[fanbutton]

The cop was an asshole, plain and simple.

[BacchusFA]

we live here ya turd do you? He was helping...asshat.

[fanbutton]

I live in the country you fot face.

The cop was being a dumbfuck!

[Tuber30A]

now we know what happens to SOME school yard bullies when they grow up.

[56BUICKRiviera]

Its kinda like the Stanford Prison Experiment. I had cop pull his gun out and start waving it around because he didnt like me standing around after the earthquake. Where am I supposed to go? To my smashed up house across town in traffic with no working signals & everyone all freaked out? I'm sorry but that cop was being a dick.

[Recruit555]

the stereotype about cops were that they were nerds and constantly picked on... Either way, false

[fanbutton]

People are not retarded. You are for assuming that all people are retarded.

"Shew - go home. You got serious problems, obviously!"

- Dumb Cop

[dolcevitausa]

Havine gone thorugh it KUDOS to SFFD and PGE that go

Having gone through it KUDOS to SFFD and PGE for all they did during that time.

[joeyc85]

That cop looked like an ASS