S.F. Marks Anniversary of ’89 Quake

San Francisco area residents marked the 10th anniversary of a devastating earthquake Sunday, one day after a strong tremor in Southern California.

“No one can say we haven’t been warned, exhorted, admonished and warned again,” the San Francisco Chronicle said in an editorial, capping a week of media retrospectives on the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, which killed almost 70 people.

“Sooner or later the Bay Area will be struck by another major earthquake. It’s inevitable.”

In gatherings around the area, longtime residents and California newcomers paused to reflect on the disaster, a magnitude 6.9 temblor that pancaked freeways, collapsed bridges and caused an estimated $6 billion in damage.

In San Francisco, where the upscale Marina district was hit hardest by the 1989 quake, dozens of people gathered at the plush Marina green at 5:04 p.m. to mark the exact minute that the ground began to buckle.

“It was frightening, but it changed my life,” said Charles Robinson, 62, who was driving across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge when one portion of the two-level roadway crashed to the lower deck. “I became more aware of what really mattered in my life, what it was all about. I will never be the same.”

In Santa Cruz to the south, Mayor Katherine Beiers launched a “remembrance and renaissance” celebration for the sunny surf city that was slammed by the quake. And in churches and family gatherings around the region, people recalled the grim anniversary in their own way.

“We usually don’t stop to think about it, but every little step of preparation [for the next earthquake] will be invaluable,” said San Francisco city Supervisor Mark Leno, noting that since 1989 some 10,000 city residents have been through an emergency training program to respond to disasters.