The earthquake caused 63 deaths and an estimated $6 billion in property damage. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On October 17, 1989, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake ripped through the Bay Area. 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. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Police began unsnarling the traffic jam, telling drivers to turn their cars around and drive back the way they had come. 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. Seldom have 15 seconds wrought so much for so many. 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. Research Loma Prieta earthquake cost $6B in 1989. 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. It took place around 5:00 p.m and lasted for 15 seconds. Total displacement for these shocks was relatively small (approximately 4 in (100 mm) of strike-slip 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 due to their location in space and time relative to the main event. ),The Loma Prieta (Santa Cruz Mountains), California, Earthquake of 17 October 1989, CDMG Special Publication 104, 1990. For such an immense catastrophe, the official death toll of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 seemed, for many years, weirdly small — only 478, according to the Los Angeles Times. The final death toll of 63 was well below the 300 expected deaths. More listings of on-line obituary collections; San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Records. Santa Cruz capitalized on fate, working together to rebuild downtown after quake", "The California Quake; NBC News Tells of Errors and Obstacles to Early Coverage of Quake", "Bay Area Television News Prepares For End Of An Era", "KTVU comes back on-air after 1989 earthquake". [39], An estimated 1.4 million people lost power following the quake, mainly due to damaged electrical substations. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California’s Central Coast on October 17 at 5:04 p.m. local time. Other damage included cracked walls and foundations and broken underground pipes. Only 63 deaths were recorded as a result of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, but over 3,500 people were injured. [37] There were structural failures of twin bridges across Struve Slough near Watsonville. These San Francisco Earthquake books include even more facts about the famous earthquakes in the region. Map of the 1989 San Francisco–Oakland earthquake (also known as the Loma Prieta earthquake). The baseball championship between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics was suspended for 10 days, because both cities suffered significant damage. [70] 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 San Francisco earthquake of 1989 was a magnitude 6.9 earthquake. [59], The quake claimed one life in Watsonville:[59] a driver who collided with panicked horses after they escaped their collapsed corral. 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. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in Northern California on October 17 at 5:04 p.m. local time (1989-10-18 00:04 UTC). [19] The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) turned people who were homeless prior to the earthquake away from homeless shelters and provided shelter for those with homes prior to the earthquake. [96] 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. Local History. THE FREEWAY DEAD: Portraits From Oakland - A special report. 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 exclaim, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth – . By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Also in Los Gatos, one man died when he fell or jumped through a window and impacted the ground five stories below. [25], When the earthquake hit, the third game of the 1989 World Series baseball championship was about to begin. 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 aftershocks occurred within a recognized seismic gap) but the earthquake that transpired was not what had been anticipated. Or jumped through a window that was near vertical with what happened in San Francisco marshland, and were! 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