In the shadow of one Northern California disaster, we mark the anniversary of another.
30 years after Loma Prieta
This story as been republished online as part of The Chronicle's Loma Prieta 30th anniversary package. See more from the project here.
Twenty-eight years ago, the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the Bay Area to its core, killing 63 people, most in the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland. The enormity of the calamity feels more familiar than we’d like a little more than a week after the Wine Country wildfires that have killed dozens and reshaped how we think about the regional landscape.
A recent trip to The Chronicle’s archive turned up a number of photos from the aftermath of the 1989 tragedy that haven’t been seen in years, including a shot of people in Marina District moving belongings in shopping carts past collapsed buildings and a photo of Joe DiMaggio waiting in line with other residents to see if their homes had been deemed uninhabitable.
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Across the region, the damage from the shaker along the San Andreas Fault system was estimated at costing around $6 billion. More than 3,700 people suffered injuries, and structures such as the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero Freeway would never be the same.
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The Marina was the hardest-hit area in the city, with the ground below the homes and businesses liquefying, causing more than 100 buildings to collapse. Many of the suddenly homeless stayed in shelters at Marina Middle School, which had been turned into a Red Cross evacuation center. Some residents never returned to their beloved neighborhood.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein toured several sites around the city, including the Marina Middle School evacuation center. In an opinion piece published in The Chronicle on Oct. 25, 1989, the former mayor wrote: “I saw fear etched in the faces of those displaced. But there was no panic, only quiet bravery. ... Behind it all was the fact that the city had a plan of action to deal with a major disaster and it proved itself that terrible night.”
Bill Van Niekerken is the library director of The San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. In his weekly column, From the Archive, he explores the depths of The Chronicle’s vast photography archive in search of interesting historical tales related to the city by the bay.