April 21, 2006

StreetTalk by Carol Rosen

Given this week's anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, where were you when the 1989 quake struck? What happened to you?
(Asked at Evergreen Valley Plaza)

“I was in my home in San Jose starting to watch the World Series on TV when it started shaking. I was hanging onto the TV, it was on top of a table, and I didn't want it to fall [which it didn't] and it was moving too fast. I was shocked and scared.”

Maria Esquivel, 58
Evergreen
Retired


“I was in a Long’s Drug Store in Saratoga. There were tiny bottles all over the floor and they were moving. The store personnel finally took us all out of the store.”

Diana Zuccaro, 39+
Evergreen
Part-time secretary


“I had taken the day off and I was sitting at the counter. It really scared me, everything was moving.”

Karen Ranson
Evergreen
Retired


“I was in Mountain View sitting at a desk watching the street roll by. I got into my truck to help police secure major intersections because there were no lights.”

Mike Johnson, 57
San Jose
Propane truck driver


“I was home with the children, who were little at that time. Nothing happened in the house, some thinks shook and a couple of small things fell off the shelves. But nothing broke. My kids and my mom were scared."

Kathy Williams, 50
Evergreen
Instructional assistant for Evergreen School District


“I was at home and I was really scared especially since my children were playing outdoors and the doors got stuck. After it was over, I went out and found them by a neighbor's house, they were standing by a tree, away from all the wires, with their friends and their friends' mother.”

Ruby Munoz
Evergreen
Special education aide


"I remember vividly. I was at work in Mountain View. I worked for the county and it was very dramatic in Mountain View. The racket was terrible. I hid under a desk. Afterward, I was talking with a co-worker, but I couldn't understand him. It took me two and a half hours to get home using back roads and watching the [light, telephone] poles swing back and forth from the aftershocks."

Rhoda Macus, 70
Evergreen
Retired


"I was at home. I was sitting at the kitchen table. When I got up, I kept stumbling because the floor was moving. My kids were young, they had just gone outside to play. My first thought was about the children, they were on the sidewalk in front of the house, but they were fine. I lost a lot of knick-knacks and pictures off the wall, but there was no physical damage, it was just a mess."

Gary McChesney, 56
Santa Teresa
Receiving clerk