1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake - Marina District

I was working at the Exploratorium at 5:04 p.m. on Tuesday October 17, 1989, standing in front of McBean Theater and yaking with friends. The gate to the museum had been down for a few minutes when it hit. There was plenty of the public still inside the museum store.

The ground rolled, the lighting fixtures swang madly, stacked metal fell in the shop and the rafters groaned. With glass doors still flapping, I got outside to the north parking lot in time to see the pavement crack and sink towards the bay.

Unbeknowst to me at the time, liquefaction had caused the Marina Green to rupture into sand spouts, thereby releasing the pressure under the surface of the parking lot and allowing the soil beneath the asphalt to shift. This had caused the water pipes to burst under ground, unbeknownst to the SFFD. At least until the fire started.

After a minute or so, staff went back in to make sure that the public was out and that there wouldn't be any explosions or hazardous gas releases. After securing the building, I decided to retrieve a video camera and check it out, expecting there to be something cool to shoot. Little did I know. Unfortunately the battery was low so I was only able to record about 4 1/2 minutes. Short as it is, it does include the smoke signaling the start of the Marina District fire.

Peace,
Michael Joseph Woody

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• 1989
• Earthquake
• San
• Francisco
• Loma
• Prieta

[anitalarson772]

Did you stop to help people after you filmed their misery?

[eyesoare]

Thanks for asking.

[narutofightindreamer]

Please don't forget that poor "Watsonville" suffered death and destruction too in all this. I'm not saying to forget what happened in Oakland, San Fran, Santa Cruz, and San Jose.....But, please "Remember Watsonville" too!!

[silverbogie]

Aren't earthquakes also possible in Phoenix?

[JackHaynes30]

@NicaPicha06 parts of manhatten is also built on a landfield so if like a 6.0 quake hits they are screwed

[Tonyturbo42]

Hey Michael,

Saw this clip and would like to discuss with you.

I am Producing a show for the History Channel and we are looking for archival footage from the quake specifically in the marina district. If you are interested in talking with us about the footage you have please email me at my youtube address of tonyturbo42. I tried to send you a private message but you have friend block enabled.

Thank you for you time. Look forward to hearing from you

Tony

[tylertyler82]

Thank God for fire escapes!

[NicaPicha06]

@PSNgregiskool Well, the only reason the ground was severely cracked in this 1 is because he's filming in the Marina District which is built on landfill, unlike other parts of the city built on hard bedrock...the ground cracks due to instability of the ground underneath as it moves during the earthquake, causing buildings to more easily collapse.

[stayAU]

That poof at the end was that a fire or did the building collapse?

[vanhenry71]

Lived in that area at that time, talk about awful! i just happen to be out of town when it hit! our places was destroyed but what my family never forgot was a young woman who was killed I think in a coffee house she worked at and everyone was outside calling her name including her father! We were the same age!

[PSNgregiskool]

@narutofightindreamer Where's that?

[PSNgregiskool]

@zack10164 I have been through 7.2 and that did nothing. It must have been 8.2. 7.2 was big, and there was lots of damage, but nothing like this. You would see broken windows, collapsed pillars and chimneys, but no cracks in ground. So yeah there were hundreds of aftershocks but this is unbelievable.

[MrChameleon2010]

I was at Exploratorium the next morning when cops and fireman ran down the street and told everyone to run because the ground was caving in. It never really did. But 5 minutes prior to it a bunch of people got angry and ran the yellow tape to go into their homes sick of having to wait for a red tag and their 2 minutes to grab stuff.

[iemmel42]

Kinda makes my palms sweat.