More than three decades ago, a powerful jolt shook the Northern California area for 20 seconds and “ ended decades of tranquility in the San Francisco Bay region.”
The 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, which “severely shook the San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions” just after 5 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989, was the strongest to hit the area since the 7.9 Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The quake, also known as the World Series Earthquake, caused an estimated $6 billion in property damage, left 63 people dead and injured more than 3,700, according to USGS. Parts of three bridges, including the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, collapsed.
Loretta Eskenazi was trapped on the Bay Bridge that day, she recounted in an essay published by Mission Local.
“I began to run. I breathed hot auto exhaust as I weaved in and out of the abandoned cars as others now came out of their stupor and decided to move it,” Eskenazi wrote. “Yes, this was, indeed, reality. We were awake. This was really happening.”