With the New England quake and today being the 23rd anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, I thought I’d share my experience from that October day.

In 1989 I was ten years old and growing up in the hard streets of Oakland, a city that is approximately 12 miles east of San Francisco. To better defend myself form the punks in the neighborhood, my mom signed both my brother and I up for taekwondo classes.

On October 17th, 1989 I was at my taekwondo class which started at 5. We were done with our warm ups and were beginning our stretches with everyone sitting on the floor in a circle. As we sat there facing each other, I felt the need to fart. I slowly turned my body to one side to help the gas escape out slowly and quietly. While farting all my concentration was on myself trying to be a ninja and not make any noise. Next thing I knew the everyone got up screaming and running towards me to get to the door behind me. The room was rocking left and right but I just thought that someone had bumped into me. This whole time my thoughts were that everyone heard me fart and the room smelled hella bad, which is why everyone bolted for the door to get outside. As I sat there alone in the circle, I noticed that the rocking hasn’t stopped. That is when I knew that there was something wrong. I don’t remember getting up, all I remember was running for the door.

As I look back to the event, I’m just glad that I didn’t shit myself. As selfish as it sounds, I’m grateful that I did not lose anyone close to me that day.

Below is a California Highway Patrol recount and investigation from that day:

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2