Clever Magazine: Issue #3, "Earthquake" (www.Clevermag.com)

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Earthquake! Guam-1993

By Tom Beall

(Note from the Editor: When it gets close to World Series time in the Bay Area of California, we all start to think of the great earthquake of 1989. The last repairs to the Cypress Freeway were just completed last month so it doesn't seem possible that nine years have past since that scary day. Tom Beall was living in Guam in 1993 when their big quake occurred. Here's his journal of that horrific day.)

August 20, 1993, Agana, Guam: A personal memory

It's a little over a week now since we were hit by a "great quake" of 8.2 magnitude on the Richter Scale, and we're still suffering from the stress and leftover problems resulting from the many aftershocks that are still occurring. The good news of course, was that no one died as a result of the quake and the injuries were slight. I'll attempt to take you quickly through the chronology of the events to give you a feel for the experience.

My wife Lanna and I had different experiences. It was Sunday evening here and Lanna had driven to the veterinary hospital with our house guest and her son, to check on their sick cat. The earthquake hit at about 6:35 p.m. and since they were in the lower part of a two-story structure, they fled to the parking lot along with the veterinary technician who was on duty at the time. Lanna described the experience like this: "We huddled together, the four of us, hugging each other for support while watching the ground undulate and the power poles sway. The elapsed time was about one minute with the first 30 seconds building the pressure and shocks until you felt it was never going to stop. When the vibrations ceased, we went back into the hospital and found medications and supplies scattered over the floors, along with the vet's computer, but surprisingly little other damage. The animals were all ok. I'm not so sure we were."

I was at home and involved in frying chicken for dinner when I heard what sounded like wind picking up. It had been cloudy and raining all day because of typhoon Steve, which passed just to the northeast of us, and I thought we were just experiencing more typhoon-related weather. I stepped out of the kitchen, into the hallway that led toward the lanai and the sea, to see the effect of the wind.

I had moved forward about three feet and was still in the hallway when the shaking began. I realized at this point that the sound I heard was the earthquake itself. It started as a mild shaking but built up so rapidly that I stopped in my tracks and braced myself with my arms between the hallway walls. Playing Hercules didn't help. Oddly enough, and no bragging intended, I did not feel fear even though I thought about what it might be like to get squashed. I figured it would be quick.

I've been through earthquakes in Tokyo and San Francisco but I didn't pay close attention on those occasions, even though they were in excess of 6.0's. This time I did. I knew that if I survived, I wanted to remember it clearly, not just as a blur of emotion. I concentrated on sight, sound and feel while the shaking built and built, feeling endless. I could see our cabinets swaying ever further from the kitchen wall, and watched as different items continued to build up their rocking until they began to fall and crash. The walls and floor were shaking, of course, but they were also experiencing sharp jolts that continued to worsen as the endless 30 seconds continued. While watching things in the living room and dining area rock and crash, I could hear cupboard doors in the kitchen fly open and glassware, plates and food, make their way airborne for the brief trip to the rapidly building pile of fried chicken, liquor and ceramics on the kitchen floor.

In the back of the hallway, near the entrance, is a hall closet where Lanna kept all of her Noritake china, crystal and the Japanese dishes she prized. The majority of this stuff too became a pile of rubble. The sound of grinding building, rocking furniture and the crashing and breaking of so much glass was nearly deafening.

The second thirty seconds was followed by a gradual lessening of the shocks and trembling until it all finally was quiet. Power was gone and it was dark because the sun was down. Outside I could now hear the wind and rain. It was a minute of intense emotion, ending in shock and a realization I had survived.

I immediately grabbed our camera (not the video) and took pictures of the damage for posterity as well as insurance evidence. I checked the phone after I dug it out from under a pile and found it not working, so I grabbed the cellular and tried to call Lanna at the hospital. No luck. The circuit was busy, either down or in use, I couldn't tell. I left quickly to go look for her, and told the building manager on the way out where I was heading, in the event she returned before I did.

On my way to the hospital, I stopped at the office to replace the battery in my cellphone, checked the damage there, and made sure everyone was okay. I was preparing to leave when Lanna called me from home. She and our guests were all okay too.

We had no power or water for three days, and the elevators were shut down so we had to carry toilet water up seven stories. That was certainly fun. In the ensuing nine days after the quake, we received over 1,000 aftershocks, most very slight. However, we did get one at 6.1, one at 6.0 and one at 5.0! We were all are afflicted with "Richter-butt" for days, constantly leaping up at the slightest vibration and searching wildly about for other panic-stricken people. One morning at 3:20 a.m. we felt a 5.2 quake, which brought Lanna and I out of bed and standing in our "safe-spot" before the bed stopped vibrating. We became very stressed-out, nervous and twitchy. I think there is a different mind-set when an earthquake takes place on a small island that could sink. There's no safe place to run or hide.

The sad footnote is that Lanna is in mourning for her treasures that cannot be replaced. It took a real effort on her part to sort through the piles of damaged things so that we could determine the loss. She kept putting it off until she was forced to for insurance purposes. Then, still depressed, we moved into the typhoon season!

(Tom and Lanna survived life on Guam were eventually transferred to Colorado. Now they just shovel snow and watch the deer in their mountain retreat. Perhaps they are out of earthquake country at last.)