[Maggots & Mayhem]

A collection of recently scanned print photos I took 2 days after the Oct. 17, 1989 7.1 earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area, photos were taken in Oakland, CA and show the collapsed section of the 880 freeway and also many damaged buildings in the downtown area. That was an experience I will never forget, the quake itself was truly terrifying for the 15 seconds that it lasted, those who have felt a quake of that magnitude will know what I mean. I was in the East Bay suburbs which shook hard but suffered little damage, the power at our house was out for most of the night and we gathered around a little battery powered TV on the front lawn with our neighbors to get damage updates from the news. After seeing the shocking images of the collapsed 880 freeway, I went down there and took these photos 2 days after the quake. People were still trapped in their cars from the upper deck falling on them and a desperate rescue attempt was underway, It was surreal to be there and see the 1.5 miles of flattened double deck roadway, knowing that many people were dead in their cars. These images have rarely been seen and I post them for the historical value they hold for the events that day.

The night images were taken a few hours after the quake by a friend of mine Todd Houwling, I was lucky enough to get copies and have added them to this collection, he is sole owner of those images and any commercial use must have his permission first. All other photos have my copyright ownership and I ask you please seek permission first for any commercial or for-profit use of the images.
I will try to upload them in the sequence taken, but there are a lot of them so they might end up different on the post.

The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time. Caused by a slip along the San Andreas Fault, the quake lasted 10–15 seconds and measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale (surface-wave magnitude 7.1) or 6.9 on the open-ended Richter Scale. The quake killed 63 people throughout northern California, injured 3,757 and left some 3,000-12,000 people homeless.
The earthquake occurred during the warm-up practice for the third game of the 1989 World Series, featuring both of the Bay Area's Major League Baseball teams, the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Because of game-related sports coverage, this was the first major earthquake in the United States of America to have its initial jolt broadcast live on television.

Fifty-seven of the deaths were directly caused by the earthquake; six further fatalities were ruled to have been caused indirectly. In addition, there were 3,757 injuries as a result of the earthquake—400 severely hurt. The highest number of fatalities, 42, occurred in the City of Oakland because of the failure of the Cypress Street Viaduct on the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880), where a double-deck portion of the freeway collapsed, crushing the cars on the lower deck. One 50-foot (15 m) section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also collapsed, leading to the single fatality on the bridge. Three people were killed in the collapse of the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz, and five people were killed in the collapse of a brick wall on Bluxome Street in San Francisco.
When the earthquake hit, the third game of the 1989 World Series baseball championship was just beginning. Because of the unusual circumstance that both of the World Series teams (the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics) were based in the affected area, many people had left work early or were staying late to participate in after work group viewings and parties. As a consequence, the usually crowded freeways contained exceptionally light traffic. If traffic had been normal for a Tuesday rush hour, injuries and deaths could have been higher. The initial media reports failed to take into account the game's effect on traffic and initially estimated the death toll at 300, a number that was corrected to 63 in the days after the earthquake.

[Maggots & Mayhem]

I could only load 100 at a time so here are the rest of the photos.

[stevew3765]

Thank you. I live in Oklahoma now. But, then I was living in Bellingham, Wa. About an hour and a half up I-5 from Seattle. And remember this very well. It was horrific. Thanks for the post.

[GregK]

My sister was born 20miles from the epicenter on the 18 of oct.

[kellyhound]

great collection of pics

[Ozzman]

Neat!