University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, October 18, 1989
9
Quake was worst, residents say
By Bryan Swan
Kansan staff writer
Some people who suffered through the earthquake in San Francisco and its surrounding areas yesterday quickly decided that it was the worst earthquake they had ever experienced.
Lisa Oliver, a switchboard operator at the Huyt Burningame Hotel in San Francisco, said in a telephone interview that the hotel's computers still were operating on emergency operators about 3% hours after the 7-940am power outage. She said there was no power for lighting or air conditioning.
She said that the hotel, about two miles from the San Francisco Airport, had suffered no damage but was already shattering in buildings next door.
Oliver said the only information available to her and hotel guests was coming from car radios. She said
that she' had been through earthquakes before, but that this was the worst she had experienced.
Oliver said there was no warning of the earthquake. But she said that when it began, she thought the earthquake would stop in a couple of seconds, but it instead lasted ten to twelve seconds and had no after-shocks.
Hotel guests were gathering in the
body and were not panicked, she
baby.
Ida Mahoni, also employed at the Hyatt Burlingame, said it was the worst earthquake she had experienced.
"Lamps and TV's were falling in the rooms," she said. "As soon as it was over everyone evacuated into the room, and I realized the quake and didn't know how to react."
Mahoni, a San Francisco resident, said that her family lived in the city and that she had not been able to contact them.
She said most of the guests at the hotel were there for the World Series or on business.
Michael W. Pierce, a reservation agent for USAir, said that the American Airlines terminal at the San Francisco Airport had collapsed.
He said that 10,000 to 30,000 USAir passengers had been affected by airport closings in San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, but that USAir flights to those cities were beginning to fill up, and in some cases were already overbooked.
Jan Cockerhim, Winston-Salem, N.C., resident, said she had arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday for a meeting and had tried to get on the first flight out as soon as she had heard about the earthquake.
She said that she could sympathize with San Francisco residents because she had been through Hurricane Hugo but that one disaster was enough.
Bay area residents alter routines
By Kate Lee and Paula Parrish Kansas staff writers
Yesterday afternoon's earthquake abruptly altered Bay Area residents' daily routines.
Students working at the Daily Californian newspaper at the University of California at Berkeley are accustomed to looking across San Francisco Bay at the illuminated skyline of the city.
That skyline was black last night.
Emilio Castaneda, managing editor,
said the cuake started slowly.
"At first, it wasn't too bad ane seemed to start subsiding," he said.
"Then it kicked in. There was a real sudden jolt."
The quake hit just as editors had finished laying out the paper to meet deadline.
"We had to totally redo the front
page," Castaneda said.
Immediately following the tremor, the staff went outside, where they watched as a nearby building burst into flames, Castaneda said.
Unconfirmed reports throughout the evening said that the university library had burned. Castaneda said that there was a fire near the public library but that the university library was not damaged. University officials surveyed the campus and saw little damage.
Chris O'Sullivan, city editor, said that he could hear the explosions but that it was impossible to get within a block of the building.
He was most concerned about getting the paper printed because the printer is about 20 miles south of Berkeley, he said.
News reports said no classes would be conducted today, but the chancellor told a reporter that it would be
business as usual. O'Sullivan said.
Farther to the south, the 35,000 residents of Pleasanton, Calif., also were rocked heavily by the earthquake.
City founder John Scaglione and his wife, Joan, were at home visiting with a neighbor's daughter when the quake hit.
"We were just enjoying her company, and the ground started to move," he said. "The house creaked and she (Joan) got kind of pale."
Seaglione said that his house suffered no structural damage but that power in his neighborhood had been out since the quake hit.
Seaglione said he thought hundreds of gallons of water had been sloshed out of his backyard swimming pool. He had filled some containers with about 10 gallons of water, in case of a water shortage, which never occurred.
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