Hi All. I remember the day of the Loma Prieta quake as if it were yesterday. I was sitting on the couch when the quake struck. I stood up to grab the plant we had hanging over the TV, but never got to it. When the S wave hit I was knocked backwards onto the couch. My cat was sleeping at the time and she looked at me as if to say, “Will you quit shaking the couch. I’m trying to sleep.”

We immediately lost electrical power and our section of the town was without electrical power for two days. Our home only sustained minor damage with a doll case being broken and a bookcase was knocked over. We were very fortunate as there were numerous homes in the park that came down. Most of these were on jacks and faced north/south. I few facing east/west came down. My front and rear steps which are located on the same side of the home move away from at the bottom about a foot while the top never moved at all. It was as if someone had pulled the steps sideways at the bottom. An inspection the next day showed that we had moved a ˝ inch on the blocks.

No one was killed in the park, but there were some injuries. One elderly gentleman went into shock. I told his granddaughter to get him to the hospital as soon as possible and to keep talking to him so as to keep him awake. A week later he was back home and his wife brought me the best lasagna I have ever eaten. That reminds me I still have to get the recipe from her.

A friend of mine who lives near the entrance to the park came off the blocks. His wife had hundreds of knickknacks all over the place. Skip told me he sat there for almost an hour trying to figure out how a glass frog that was on the bottom shelf got into a dish that was on the top shelf without either one of them breaking when they hit the floor.

Another friend on mind who lives on Forth Street near downtown Hollister had his home ripped from the foundation. It was completely destroyed. No one was home at the time, which they considered them selves fortunate that they weren’t.

Al Martinez was nearing Hollister's busiest downtown intersection when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit. ``It was the first quake I ever actually heard,'' he said.

He got out of his car and walked to the suddenly stock-still intersection of Fourth and San Benito, where he saw ``a huge white cloud'' approaching. It was dust, kicked up by the collapse of the old Oddfellows building facade on Fourth Street.

The dust settled soon enough, revealing the catastrophic damage to Hollister's historic downtown. But today, after a decade of overwhelming growth throughout the county, the cloud of Loma Prieta still lingers, as downtown businesses struggle to fill the holes punched out by the quake.

My Aunt and Uncle were stopped at a stoplight when the quake struck. Mario said the car started rocking back and forth and then up and down. They could see the light standards in front of them moving back and forth as if an unseen hand was pushing them. He said he could see the wall of a building in front of him buckling like a wave was going up and down. To this day no cracks have appeared in the wall. The plaster inside wasn’t even cracked. Several buildings in Hollister were investigated. Several tilt-up building partially collapsed as the result of inventories of stacked cans containing tomato product impacting the walls during the earthquake. Damage was extensive. Much of the inventory was lost or severely damaged. This underscores the importance of addressing seismic issues relating to equipment and contents, as well as structural design. The buildings appeared to be late 1960s or early 1970s vintage and as such were observed not to have roof-to-wall anchors. These anchors were required following collapses of tilt-ups during the San Fernando Earthquake in 1971. Much of the roof of a half of one building occupied by the adjacent tenant also collapsed, causing extensive interior damage.

Hollister, the town that calls itself the ``Earthquake Capital of the World'' for its history of tremors, was nowhere near the epicenter of the '89 quake (I live 27 miles from the epicenter) but its losses -- especially to downtown -- were still devastating. About a dozen downtown buildings were lost to the earthquake. In addition, 50 houses were badly damaged; about 30 of them were demolished.

Countywide, overall damage was placed as high as $100 million. More than 100 people in the county were hurt, but no one was killed.

Oh yes. I remember it as if it were yesterday. Take Care…Don in creepy town