When the Ground Shook: 35 Years After Loma Prieta, SJSU Looks Back
The Spartan Daily’s front page the day after Loma Prieta. Photo courtesy of Spartan Daily archive.
Linda Smith D’Ambrosio, ’92 Public Relations, will never forget the moment the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. She was in her dorm room on the seventh floor of Joe West Hall, settling in to watch the A’s play the Giants in the World Series with her best friend and roommate.
“We were staring at the TV waiting for the opening ceremony, and all of a sudden the television went to ash,” she remembers. “And then we felt the shaking and it was so violent we could barely stand on our feet. I ran to the doorway of our dormitory and just held on.”
The shaking was so intense and lasted so long – 15 seconds, by all accounts – that she and her roommate both had to hold onto something to avoid falling over. And after the shaking stopped, they were still on the seventh floor. D’Ambrosio remembers her roommate reaching for shoes, and how she urged her to get out instantly – they ended up barefoot.
The elevators weren’t working, so everyone took the stairs. With the power out, it was pitch-black as they descended. “Basically we had to feel around so that we didn’t trample over each other,” she says. “Talk about panic. You’re in a dark space with a million people at your back, and you don’t want to fall. So you just sort of hold on. And everybody was upset and screaming.”
Once they’d made their way outside, things improved. Students gathered, news spread and eventually D’Ambrosio was able to contact her family, who were all fine. No one on campus was injured, and even though they wouldn’t let students back into Joe West Hall, the building was still standing.
Joe West residents were urged to sleep somewhere else for the night – D’Ambrosio bunked on the floor of a friend’s dorm room – and the gathered students found a new sense of community and togetherness, swapping stories and even hosting impromptu parties. D’Ambrosio remembers walking around barefoot, somehow avoiding broken glass, to get to the nearest 7-11.
Campus life resumed afterwards, as it always has. But D’Ambrosio will always remember that day – even 35 years on, she says, she insists on living in a single story house, and gets a little nervous in hotels on high floors. She also always clocks the exit to whatever building she’s in – just in case.
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But that is just one Spartan story. On this, the 35th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, we think it’s best to let the people who experienced it tell their stories firsthand. Here’s another one: the lede from the Wednesday, October 18, 1989 edition of the Spartan Daily:
“A 7.0 earthquake shook most of Northern California Tuesday evening like a ragdoll in the mouth of a vicious dog, causing widespread damage across the Bay Area and the closure of San José State University.”
Loma Prieta was the worst earthquake in the Bay Area in 65 years — and the biggest one we’ve had in the 35 years after as well, according to Betsy Madden, assistant professor of geology.
According to the Daily, Clark Hall, which was Clark Library at the time, sustained some damage: “Bookshelves toppled like dominoes, according to witnesses, and books scattered across most of the fourth and fifth floors of the building.” Dorm buildings held mostly intact. Campus was closed that Wednesday, and the Daily staffers had to produce a truncated edition on someone’s personal computer. The 10th Street parking garage sustained minor damage, and there was a small chemical spill and a water pipe leak in the then-Science Building, but luckily, the worst human injury at SJSU was minor abrasions to a woman’s back as she dove under a desk.
63 people died in the earthquake, which had an epicenter in the Santa Cruz Mountains on what scientists now understand to be a minor fault slightly off the larger San Andreas fault.
“What was interesting about Loma Prieta was that it had a lot of vertical uplift,” Madden explains. “So it moved the ground vertically. Mostly what the faults do here in California is move the ground in the strike slip sense, sort of horizontally. But this earthquake actually moved the ground up more than what was expected.”
This kind of vertical uplift forms mountains like the Santa Cruz Mountains over long periods of geologic time, but it was unexpected from the San Andreas Fault at the time, and so its behavior took a while to puzzle out.
Be smart and prepared
In the years since Loma Prieta, many buildings have been retrofitted and lessons learned.
“The best way to not be scared is to be prepared,” Madden states. Her tips, adapted from American Red Cross recommendations, include “Make a plan, build a kit and communicate with loved ones.” The plan can be as simple as where you’ll meet up with family or loved ones – if one of you is at home and the other at work, for example. A kit should contain supplies for roughly three days without contact, just in case. And communication is key for all of these preparations. She also suggests that potential homeowners or renters ask about their houses’ retrofit status.
And what should you do during an earthquake? Madden acknowledges that usually there isn’t time to do much of anything, but duck, cover and hold on. In the US, she explains, you actually don’t want to run out of a building, since the building should stand and you often won’t have time. Door jambs are also not reinforced now as they once were—don’t run to one.
D’Ambrosio offers her own advice from personal experience: “Try to keep your wits about you. Think of all the lessons you’ve learned growing up.” As Madden says, “Think it through.” A calm head is most likely your best asset.
In fact, there are many people who hope to help prepare others for the next big one. The Great California ShakeOut is a local segment of an international earthquake drill set for October 17 at 10:17 a.m. local time to remind everyone to “drop, cover and hold on” and practice this drill to promote earthquake safety. Its date, on the 35th anniversary of Loma Prieta, is meant to serve as yet another reminder. Madden urges those of us in the Bay Area and elsewhere to remember that we are “living in earthquake country.” Earthquakes the magnitude of Loma Prieta are rare, but they do happen, and preparations can go a long way toward calming anxiety both in advance and in the actual moment.
Like Madden says: Don’t be scared; prepare.
