It was 5:04 p.m. on a Tuesday. October 17, 1989.
In San Francisco, the air was warm—that weird, heavy "earthquake weather" old-timers always talk about, even if scientists say it's a myth. Most of the city was glued to the TV or sitting in traffic. But this wasn't just any rush hour. The "Battle of the Bay" was about to start. The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics were facing off in Game 3 of the World Series at Candlestick Park.
Then the ground turned into liquid.
The San Francisco World Series earthquake, officially known as the Loma Prieta earthquake, wasn't actually centered in San Francisco. It hit about 60 miles south in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But for 15 seconds, the Bay Area felt like it was being put through a blender.
Honestly, if you weren't there, it’s hard to describe the sound. It wasn't just a shake; it was a roar. A deep, mechanical growl that sounded like a freight train was coming through the living room wall.
The Freak Occurrence That Saved Hundreds of Lives
Here is the thing people forget: the death toll should have been much, much higher.
Official records state that 63 people died. That’s a tragedy, obviously. But engineers and city planners had predicted that a quake of this magnitude ($M_w 6.9$) hitting at 5:00 p.m. on a weekday would kill thousands.
📖 Related: How to watch vikings game online free without the usual headache
Why didn't it? Because of baseball.
Basically, everyone had left work early to go to the game or get home to watch it. The Cypress Street Viaduct—the double-decker section of I-880 in Oakland that pancaked during the shaking—was almost empty compared to a normal Tuesday. Usually, it would be packed with 3,000 cars. When it collapsed, only a fraction of that number were on the road.
The San Francisco World Series earthquake is perhaps the only natural disaster in history where a sporting event acted as a literal shield for the population.
What Happened Inside Candlestick Park?
Inside the stadium, 62,000 fans were waiting for the first pitch.
Al Michaels and Tim McCarver were on the air for ABC. Suddenly, the picture flickered. Michaels famously said, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth—" and then the feed cut to static.
The stadium didn't fall. Candlestick was built on solid rock, and a recent seismic retrofit to the upper deck probably kept the whole place from coming down on people's heads. Fans actually cheered at first. In Northern California, a little shaking is usually just a novelty. But then the power went out. The scoreboard went dark. A hush fell over the crowd that survivors say was creepier than the shaking itself.
👉 See also: Liechtenstein National Football Team: Why Their Struggles are Different Than You Think
The Horror in the Marina and the Cypress Structure
While the fans at the game were relatively safe, parts of the city were literally falling apart.
The Marina District took the worst of it in San Francisco proper. Why? It’s built on "made land." After the 1906 quake, the city used rubble and sand to fill in the lagoon to build for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
When the 1989 quake hit, that sandy soil underwent liquefaction.
The ground basically turned into a giant bowl of Jell-O. Victorian houses didn't just shake; their first floors crumpled. Gas lines snapped. Fires broke out. Because the water mains had also snapped, firefighters had to use a special "Phoenix" boat to pump saltwater from the Bay to keep the neighborhood from burning to the waterline.
Over in Oakland, the Cypress Street Viaduct was the site of the most gruesome scenes. The upper deck of the freeway collapsed onto the lower deck. It didn't just fall; it sheared. Rescuers spent days crawling through gaps barely a foot high, trying to find survivors among the flattened cars.
The Myth of the "Big One"
You’ll still hear people call Loma Prieta "The Big One."
✨ Don't miss: Cómo entender la tabla de Copa Oro y por qué los puntos no siempre cuentan la historia completa
It wasn't.
Seismologists from the USGS are very clear about this: Loma Prieta was a "pretty big one," but the 1906 earthquake was about 10 times stronger in terms of energy release. The 1989 quake didn't even happen on the main San Andreas Fault; it happened on a secondary branch called the Loma Prieta fault.
The real scary part? The 1989 quake actually increased the stress on other faults in the Bay Area, like the Hayward Fault. It didn't "release the pressure" like a safety valve. If anything, it wound the clock tighter for the next one.
Why We Still Talk About October 17
It’s been over 35 years, but the San Francisco World Series earthquake changed how we live in cities.
- The Bay Bridge: A 50-foot section of the upper deck fell onto the lower deck. It took a month to fix it, but it took over two decades to build the new, seismically safe Eastern Span we use today.
- Building Codes: If you walk around San Francisco now, you’ll see steel "X" braces in the windows of old apartment buildings. Those are mandatory retrofits. The city realized that "soft-story" buildings (apartments over garages) are death traps in a quake.
- The Embarcadero: Before 1989, there was a giant, ugly double-decker freeway blocking the view of the Ferry Building. The quake damaged it so badly that the city decided to tear it down instead of fixing it. That’s why we have the beautiful waterfront today.
Practical Steps for the "Next" One
Living in California means accepting that the ground is temporary. If you're in a seismic zone, don't just read history—prepare for it.
- Retrofit your house: If you own an older home, check if it’s bolted to the foundation. It costs a few thousand dollars now, but it saves the whole house later.
- The "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" rule: Forget the "triangle of life" or standing in doorways. Doorways in modern houses aren't stronger than the rest of the wall. Get under a heavy table.
- Water is gold: After the 1989 quake, some neighborhoods were without water for days. You need one gallon per person, per day. Keep a week's worth.
The World Series eventually resumed ten days later. The Oakland A's swept the Giants in four games. But honestly? Nobody really cared about the score. The "Battle of the Bay" had been won by the Bay itself.
Next Steps for Your Safety:
Check your local hazard map to see if your home is built on a liquefaction zone. This is the single biggest factor in whether a building survives a 1989-style event. You can find these maps on the USGS website or through your local county's emergency management portal. Once you know your risk, prioritize securing large furniture like bookshelves and water heaters to the wall studs, as these are the leading causes of non-structural injuries during major tremors.