THE BATTLE OF THE BAY WITH A TREMBLE.

It was October of the year 1989, as I was getting ready to start watching the battle of the bay; I unexpectedly felt my body shake UN controllably. It was approximately 5:05 pm, when the earth trembled. At first I thought it was my nerves, considering that in just a few minutes my baseball team was about to start game 3 of the World Series. But to my surprise I was experiencing a big earthquake. Living in California for quite some time know everyone knew what to do when there’s an earthquake. In school we had earthquake drills and in the back of our heads we knew that someday we would experience a big one. Earthquakes have been around for many years. But what is exactly an earthquake? As a personal experience it feels like the earth is turning into a wave back and forth. For many people that don’t know the feeling of an earthquake, it’s very hard to explain. There’s a start a middle and an end. Depending how you see it. Sometimes the end seems endless, because there can be hundreds of aftershocks. The first wave is a trembling sound kind of similar to a train passing by, but without the sound of the train’s horn. Basically the earth moves very rapidly, in most cases it only last for a few seconds but those seconds feel like long minutes. As you are trying to take cover , depending were it gets you, things start to fall , walls start to  crack, concrete falls from some buildings , car alarms start sounding off uncontrollable and in some cases water pipes break and the electricity is lost. Many times the vicious movement of the earth causes all these reactions.  When I experienced the big one in San Francisco I was about 12 years old. Like I mention earlier I was sitting on my couch ready to see the 1989 World Series. The beginning was a mega thumping sound roaring from the ground. Vicious movements from left to right, I got my kid sister and we through are self’s under the kitchen table. My mother was in the kitchen numb trying to hold the kitchen cabinets close, but she was not successful. Almost everything started to fall and break, after the 15 seconds that felt like minutes the earth stopped shaking.

We crawled under the table and started to access the damage. The middle of the earthquake transaction we can feel the small tremors, which are called aftershocks. The aftershocks are basically the earth plates that are trying to get back to their original stage. Living in a seismic area one needs to be prepared for the earth to move any day. That’s why all the preliminary procedures should have been taken care of at all times. Here in south Florida we prepare for hurricane season, but earthquakes don’t really announce them self so we need to be ready all the time. Some people say that the best way to prepare is to be ready for the aftermath. And the aftermath can be very deadly and unpleasant. In the 1989 earthquake there were around 63 deaths and about 500 hundred injured. In my area we were without electricity for about 10 days and without telephone for about 15 days. It was hard to get around and to get food very similar to the days after hurricane Andrews. As the days passed the earth still shacks just not as hard as the beginning, but much smaller movements. Ones bodies get accustomed to the small tremors and at times you jump out of bed thinking that another is coming, but then you realize that it was just the garbage truck doing its routes. The psychological affect can be within you for many days. The final moments of a strong earthquake is very scary and important. Considering that when an earthquake occurs a tsunami is always a probability. Taking that into account the alert doesn’t just stop after the earth stops shacking. Getting life back to normal takes a while, your body will stop shaking and thoughts of the ground shaking will slowly fade away.