29 years since the Loma Prieta earthquake

October 17th marks a devastating anniversary. 29 years ago, the Loma Prieta earthquake ravaged northern California.

Roads and bridges collapsed and fires sparked around the bay. The 6.9 Loma Prieta quake was centered in the woods above Aptos. While Santa Cruz County has made some serious changes, the scars from the quake won’t be forgotten.

“It was just 20 seconds, it did not stop, it kept shaking, ” says John Hibble, curator at the Aptos History Museum.

Hibble was in the Redwood Village with his wife 29 years ago during the quake. It’s a memory he won’t soon forget. Hibble says, “It just sounded like a freight train started to back up and accelerate. You know it was a ‘do do do’… and then it was just like the freight train ran straight into the building, cause the building just snapped!”

Hibble was fortunate, and his building didn’t suffer any damage. But the same can’t be said for downtown Santa Cruz. Downtown suffered widespread destruction. Professor Thorne Lay with U.C.S.C says it comes down to foundation and architecture. “They have weak sediments from the San Lorenzo Valley filled in, and the buildings are on top of that. That really amplifies the ground shake. So they felt shaking 2 or 3 times stronger than we would have felt on campus.”

Since then, the buildings have been seismically upgraded, and officials believe they could stand a large earthquake.

Now the question is when could another big one could hit? It’s been years since a large quake, and scientists continue to believe our time is drawing near. Lay says, “We are quite confident that the whole region is vulnerable to multiple large earthquakes in the future.”

Earthquakes are still unpredictable. Most experts agree that a major earthquake could hit California in the near future. The best thing you can do is be prepared. This means having a plan, food, and lots of water on standby.