Chai's Analysis

One Anniversary That Shook

Loma Prieta. Doesn't that name sound beautiful? "Loma" means hill in Spanish. "Prieta" means [insert lack of Spanish knowledge here]. To me, those two words means earthquake. A big, bad earthquake. Today marks the seventeen (17) year anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Really? Seventeen years? Wow. Seems like yesterday.

I remember, on that fateful day, that I just finished eating my afternoon snack with my grandparents, mom, and little brother. My mom told me to go to my room to start my homework. I remember opening up my "Hello Kitty" pencil box to look for my favoritest pencil to start my fifth grade math homework. A few minutes after I started my homework, my desk started to shake. My first thought was that my brother was running around. While the shaking got stronger, I realized that it wasn't my brother, it was an earthquake. Earthquake in California elementary schools means "drop, cover, and hold on." I dropped what I was doing (homework) and found cover underneath my desk. I held on to the desk and in a few seconds, my hutch came crashing over me. I was a stunned.

After the earth shook, my mom yelled my name and when she could barely hear me, she ran into my room and almost fainted. So much of our rooms had shifted, but my desk area looked like a disaster zone. She thought I was in that mess. She thought correctly, but I wasn't hurt. Luckily, I listened to my teacher and did the routine successfully. That didn't stop my mom from yelling and praying to God while rescuing me.

Fortunately, all of us in the house were safe. We did not want to risk it again, so every year we updated our earthquake kits and had safety brackets on all our furniture. Ah, October 17, 1989, a date that I will never forget.

posted by Chai at 9:23 PM