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The Loma Prieta Earthquake
Submitted by Helen Bridge
Chabot College
On October 17th, 1989, Chabot College, along with the rest of Northern
California, was rocked by a massive 6.9 earthquake. The quake struck at
5:04 PM, fortuitous in one regard because at that hour, day classes were
over, and evening classes hadn’t begun. It was unfortunate in another
regard, however. The evening commute was in full swing, paralyzing
traffic around the campus and the entire Bay Area, making emergency
response very difficult.
Notwithstanding Chabot’s good luck, the campus did sustain some damage.
In the library, several light fixtures came crashing down, breaking
glass and exposing electrical wires. Thousands of books tumbled from
shelves, and cracks were found in the library mezzanine. Outside the
men’s locker room, the concrete courtesy dividers were badly shaken,
causing them to break loose from their foundation. Two feet of water
spilled out of the campus swimming pool. Cracks were found in the
ceiling of the Performing Arts Building.
At Chabot, the most significant effect of the earthquake was on the
students and staff. For one thing, the new president of the college, Dr.
Terry Dicianna, had only been on the job for a few weeks, and as a
Texan, had never experienced a quake. He was really taken aback by the
whole event, uncertain, perhaps, at first about how to respond. For
another, Chabot students who were out and about earning a living,
driving, studying at home, hanging out with friends, or anything else
when the quake struck, were traumatized in varying degrees. When school
resumed the next day (after some indecision by school officials), only
about half of them came to classes. The ones who did attend were too
distracted by their individual experiences, and were not willing or able
to do much class work. They needed to talk about what had happened.
College staff, even though many of them had also experienced damage to
property or equanimity, responded very professionally, providing
whatever help and counseling students needed.
It took awhile for campus life to get back to normal. Repairs to the
library took several weeks. Classes got back to normal size fairly
quickly. All members of the college community, though, were transfixed
for a few days by endlessly repeated images on television of the broken
Bay Bridge, with that last car driving into the damaged section, and the
collapsed Cypress section of I-880 with the crushed vehicles mashed
beneath. The Marina district of San Francisco kept burning, over and
over again. And at Chabot, students and staff alike tried hard to stay
focused on getting back to our daily routine. None of us who were there
at that time will ever forget it.
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