Oh, Thank Goodness : The Earth Moved and She Got Out Alive

In 1989, the Earth trembled, skies poured, killer winds howled, tankers spilled and revolutions swept the globe. In Los Angeles, gang violence claimed yet more victims and traffic seemed to grow ever worse. Still, amid the tide of oft-tragic happenings, small rays of hope keep shining through. Here are a few of many stories worth sharing on a day of feasting, family and friends. They’re enough to remind that it’s still worth saying: “Oh, Thank Goodness.”

Out of the corner of her eye as she drove north on Pacific Coast Highway two weeks ago, Bobbi Phillips saw dust coming toward her down a hill.

Before she had time to react, earth and rocks slammed into the side of her Mercedes sedan “like a fist,” spinning it across the highway and flipping it on its roof. The Santa Ana housewife worried that the car would blow up.

But she walked away with two broken ribs, cuts and bruises.

“I have a lot to be thankful for,” Phillips, 47, says of her Pacific Palisades mishap. “I was in a large, very heavy car. My seat belt protected me, even though it hurt my ribs. The lifeguard from the beach was there so quickly to help. As soon as I started to open the door, he was pulling on it.

“The paramedics were so thorough. The doctors and nurses (who treated us) at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center were wonderful. They were very caring.”

Phillips says when she first saw the moving earth, she thought it wouldn’t do much damage. “I assumed it was a landslide, but I never expected it to be a big one,” she says. “Then when it hit me and started to throw the car all around, it really scared me.

“It happened really fast. I just remember being flung around. Somehow, I hit my left cheek bone severely, but I don’t know how. When the car came to rest and I knew I was going to get out, I was just thankful to be alive.”

Phillips, who was on her way to see her daughter play volleyball when the accident occurred, will celebrate Thanksgiving with her husband, Jerry, a lawyer, and three children Laura, 21; Joe, 19 and Ben, 14.