Survivors mark anniversary of deadly quake in Paso Robles
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS

PASO ROBLES - A year after an earthquake caused two buildings to collapse, killing two women, workers and customers who were inside the unreinforced masonry landmarks still get teary-eyed recalling their escapes.

The magnitude-6.5 quake struck at 11:15 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2003, as Christmas shoppers prowled the Acorn Building at 12th and Park streets. As the structure began to shake violently, life or death choices were made.

"I remember saying, 'Are we being attacked by terrorists?'

because it sounded like a jet plane coming through town," said Karen Arrambide, whose House of Bread bakery was in the Acorn Building.

She and employee Celeste Kerr moved to one side of the store to peer out the front window. When the window shattered, she realized it was an earthquake, not an attack.

"I thought, 'Am I going to die today? Am I ready to die?' I didn't feel terror. I felt more introspective," she recalled nearly a year later.

As those thoughts were crossing her mind, the earthquake threw her to the floor. The second story of the building slid, crashing to the street, and bricks fell onto the maple table where moments earlier Arrambide had been wrapping gift baskets. The table had steel legs, but it flattened under the weight of the bricks.

Before that day, she had thought diving under the table would be the safest thing to do in an earthquake.

"I should have thought to go under it," she said. "I'm glad I didn't."

Beams, drywall, bricks and debris surrounded Arrambide and Kerr.

"We were sort of sheltered under something that had fallen but was leaning against the wall," said Kerr, who managed to crawl to safety with only minor scratches and bruises. "In a sense it was surreal and strange. I think it was instinct, to try to get out."

Firefighters got Arrambide out 15 minutes later.

Outside, the choice of where to run proved fatal for two women.
Jennifer Myrick, 20, and Marilyn Frost-Zafuto, 55, were crushed when the building came down on them.

"The what-ifs can drive you bananas," Pan Jewelers owner Nick Sherwin said. "We chose the right direction. You can call that luck."

Sherwin, 62, was celebrating a successful Christmas season by bringing his employees mochas on the morning of Dec. 22. His wife, Pat, daughter and three other employees were helping customers when they suddenly heard a low-bass sound and the shaking began.

"Get out! Run!" he yelled. Sherwin held the door open as the employees and his Australian shepherds, Cody and Diamond, scampered out. He waited to help two elderly customers who fell as boxes and other debris rained down Once outside, Sherwin's daughter June Ellart and employees Carol Rios and Tanya Jones paused on the street corner, unsure what to do next: turn left and falling bricks would pummel them, turn right and the roof would have crushed them.

Across the street in City Park, a man in green overalls yelled, "Get in the park!"

"If he wasn't there telling everyone to get into the park, we would have stayed there - and that's where the clock tower fell," said Jones, 28.

"Someone was looking out for us," said Rios, 40. "It wasn't our time to go."

The quake focused attention on the state's unreinforced masonry buildings. Beginning Jan. 1, owners will face fines of up to $1,250 if they don't post warning signs on such structures, under a bill signed Sept. 21 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The bill gives teeth to a 1991 state law that required such warning placards. Previously, no agency was assigned to enforce it.

Mark Mastagni, whose family owns the now-razed Acorn Building, said he didn't post signs because he didn't know the law existed.