To help the people on the cypress freeway, and it was also a reminder that the big one is yet to come. Right here where we are standing, 42 people perished in the cypress collapse. Reporter oakland mayor libby schaaf led ceremonies today honoring First Responders and citizens who went to help when violent shaking from the loma prieta deck brought the upper deck crashing down on to cars on the lower deck. And im watching telephone poles moving, and im watching streetlights bouncing up and down. Retired deputy fire chief mark hoffman was a outside fire station 1 when the quake struck. He and his crew sped to the collapsed freeway and immediately began the search for victims. I felt my best role was to bird dog and go from collapsed section to collapsed section, to try to get an assessment on how many bodies need to be rescued. Meantime, neighbors in the cypress mandela neighborhood also went to work. We moved quickly in the community to see what was going on and how we could help others. Wilfred harvey got a wrench and went around to his neighbors homes, turning off gas to reduce the fire risk. The cypress freeway was never popular in this neighborhood. Commuters who used it may have seen it as a quick link between interstates 80 and 880, but neighbors felt it an eyesore. They prefer the replacement that gently winds around the area. We couldnt see that we had a city here. The vista here was nonexistent on this side of cypress mandela. But now we can. And that replacement was no accident. There was a lot of lobbying to get the replacement freeway to wrap around that area instead of go through it or above it as it did earlier. And lets not forget that people who live in that area had fought hard not to have a cypress freeway there, not because it was dangerous, but also because they couldnt see the city they lived in. Live in oakland, eric thomas, abc7 news. So many changes as a result. Eric, thank you so much. If you lived in the bay area when that earthquake hit, you likely remember exactly what you were doing. I dont know how you could forget, really. No question. Leslie brinkley was on her way to a story in the east bay, but then the quake hit that part of the bay bridge that collapsed. Its been a frightening scene here. As you can see just below me in bridge occurred. A 50foot section. You see down there below the two cars, two cars that were on the upper deck when the bridge collapsed. They fell below. Leslie had just crossed the bridge and ended up being the first reporter on the scene of that collapsed portion. She is here to talk than. Leslie, we were talking earlier. We were all a little more reckless 30 years ago. Ltht do that but instinct kicked in. We were there and we went up right to the edge. Do your job. Yes. Still very precarious. Very much. So. Walk us through some of your memories. As you said up there, i was driving to a story in oakland. We were on the lower deck of the bay bridge, almost in oakland when the shaking started. I was with the news crew at the time. You felt it on the bridge . Oh, absolutely. It was like the truck was on a trampoline. It was jumping around, bouncing around. We werent sure what was happening and realized it was an earthquake. Well pulled off on the oakland side, interviewed people. A man told us that in his rear view mirror he saw what seemed like a concrete garage door closing in his rear view mirror, which was the collapse of the bridge. We were just barely ahead of where the bridge collapsed. And we managed to get caltrans to take us up to where the break in the bridge was. So we were the first on the scene. Thats just absolutely scary. You even have a little piece of the bridge. I do. What a memento. The bridge was out for a month, and during that time we were constantly going up there, working with caltrans on the repairs. This is a bolt, one of the sheared off bolts from the stress, the intensity of that earthquake that just sheared these off. And that is one of them. Thats amazing. Its heavy, and you can see. What a memento to have of that terrible day. It really is. Isnt that amazing . Oh, my gosh, its heavy. It is heavy. Its a paperweight. Were doing a little showandtell here. Thats great. One of the images ill never forget was the car going over down into the gap. Terrible. And that person was killed. There were two people in the car. The woman perished and died by the time they rescued them. But that car and the man survived. We interviewed him for years after the quake. But that car was told to turn around and go to get off the bridge in San Francisco, but they went the wrong way. And they sped across the upper span and didnt know the break in bridge was there, flew across, dangled by two tires as they tried to rescue the folks. I was as far away as i am from you, ama, as they were trying to rescue those folks. And looking at them. Just that whole surreal aspect of that day, being up there with that quake having struck. And i know that image of the car and then the other image, it always sticks with me because it brings out the best in people, that image in the marina. I was reporting from the marina in the days after, but not that day. When you saw people running with hoses, helping firefighters, just civilians grab. I knew what you were going to say. Grabbing the hoses, flames. Everybody pitched in. It was the same thing over in the cypress structure area, because i left the bay bridge after we did our reports there and was told to go to the cypress area b couldt o in a unn to be able to go there. We did, and thats what we saw there. Were all the people pitching in. It wasnt there were no police tape up there. Were no official cordoned off area, and it was everyday people, workers in the area who were risking their own lives and crawling into that structure to respond to the calls for help. It makes you a little teary to think about people risking and sacrificing so freely. Its an instinct. Its just something people do when there is a disaster like that theyre face. And you did a wonderful job reporting. Incredible. Dont ever do that again. I promise. Thanks, leslie, very much. Thank you. Well, the Marina District was the hardest hit area. See, dan . This is it here. Hit areas of San Francisco where four people died. Volunteers help firefighters battle flamesbreaks. Four buildings were destroyed by fire. There were also several buildings that collapsed on to the street in part because of the sandy soils beneath them, the liquefaction effect. The loma prieta also changed the way San Franciscos waterfront look. The shaking made the old embarcadero freeway, interstate 408 structurally unsafe. It withstood the shaking 30 years ago, but the doubledecker freeway that ran from broadway to the bay bridge had to come down. The demolition opened up the citys waterfront to this lovely view that we have today. Santa cruz county residents felt some of the most intense shaking and experienced some of the worst damage. The epicenter of the quake was in the mountains a few miles north of the city of santa cruz. Abc7 News Reporter chris nguyen visited that beach town, where memories of what happened 30 years ago today are still vivid. 15 seconds that forever changed the city of santa cruz. Many say the vibrant downtown as we know it now may have never been if the quake didnt happen. And i saw black smoke rising up from the downtown area, and i thought oh my god, the downtowns on fire. But it turned out it was just the dust from buildings that had collapsed. Historian ross gibson served on a committee that was created to help the city rebuild its downtown, one that had been struggling well before the quake. We had to get stakeholders from all different sides of the spectrum to come together. You had the business community, you had the Historic Preservation community, you had neighbors and people who use the downtown. Like many, Community Leader tom brezni was getting ready to head home to watch the world series when the shaking started. He said 40 of the buildings downtown were beyond repair. People can remember the sights, the sounds, the smells even of that day. It was a visceral watershed moment for many, many individuals. And those stories are still here flowing through the heart of santa cruz. Reporter pacific avenue in particular was hit pretty hard. In the 70s and 80s, coopere w to meet. It has since been replaced with this building behind me, which is home to shops and restaurants. Just down the road, visitor co to this spot to grab a slice of pizza, but back in the day, a popular Mexican Restaurant and hotel stood in its place. And take a look. Video from the abc7 archives shows the old Fords Department store in the aftermath of the quake. This is what it look likes today. It was truly a disaster. It was one that exceeded all organizational resource structure that the city had in place. But buzz of the work of people like brezni, gibson and many others, this city was able to turn it into a comeback for the ages. Chris nguyen, abc7 news. Coming up at 6 30, we have a commercialfree special broadcast of our abc7 news original documentary, the earthquake effect. It looks back on loma prieta and gives a glimpse into the future. You can also see it anywhere you get abc7 news, including amazon fire tv and the abc7 news app. Taking matters into their own hands following that pg e power losing an estimated half a Million Dollars during last weeks outage. How atrisk is your home for earthquake damage . Im Michael Finney, and ill show you the most you know when youre at ross and your new fall look just keeps Getting Better . Check this out thats yes for less. Score a headtotoe look youll love and save 20 to 60 percent off Department Store prices. At ross. Yes for less. Blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun all we need is somebody to lean on doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. And you get first dibs on that brand. At that price . Thats yes for less. Seriously, get the fall brands and styles you love and save 20 to 60 off Department Store prices. At ross. Yes for less. . High winds swept up a controlled burn that turned into a 15acre grass fire along highway 37 today near sears point. The chp shut down all lanes of highway 37 at about 1 50 while crews worked to contain the fire and released a traffic advisory due to the heavy smoke in that area. All lanes were reopened about 3 00 p. M. And all is back to normal now. San jose mayor sam liccardo says he has a solution for pg es Public Safety power shutoffs. Thats right. It starts with the company itself. Abc7 News ReporterLauren Martinez has the story. We believe the solutions are local, and we have solutions to offer. Reporter san jose mayor sam liccardo is proposing those solutions against pg es Public Safety power shutoffs. Im proposing we create a public utility to create and develop microg improve our resilience. Both ideas pose legal and financial risk is. We know its a very expensive proposition. It will cost billions of dollars for that distribution infrastructure. We know there are liability concerns that are very real. In south san jose keith laurel runs his own mailing business that was affected by the most recent power shutoffs. Told me noon and then like 4 00 p. M. And 8 00 p. M. , and until itned off. That wo mitigate. What happened last week was a disaster. We saw overnotification and undernotification of residents. Laurel hopes if there is a cityowned utility, his price for electricity wont go up. There is no different price creases or anything like, that it should be fine. Liccardo says a poll should be released to gauge how san jose residents feel about his solutions. We know there is a lot of analysis that needs to happen between now and the time we would take that leap. The Governors Office of Emergency Services today launched the my shake app and urged everyone to put it on their phones. The earthquake Early Warning alert developed at uc berkeley can provide up to 20 seconds of warning before the ground starts to shake from a nearby quake. Hopefully enough time to take some kind of protective action. The app is powered by the u. S. Geological survey, a primitive version was used in 1989 to warn search and rescue teams trying to free people from the cypress structure in oakland that collapsed during the loma prieta quake on this day 30 years ago. When the earthquake begins, ground motion sensors detect and gather information rapidly and allow the system to estimate the potential size and location of the earthquake. Local and state Officials Say the app should be considered one part of a larger emergency plan. All right. On this 30th anniversary of loma prieta, many people are looking back on the terrifying day that quake hit 30 years ago today. Abc7 News Reporter kate larsen caught up with some of the people today. Kate . Well, ama, dan, were here in the marina green area where the city just wrapped up their official 30th anniversary of loma prieta ceremony. And of course i did speak to a lot of people who were here in San Francisco a5 p. M. 30 , bec could you possibly forget where you were and what you were doing. I spoke to a man who live new years day the Marina District, the assistant fire chief for the San FranciscoFire Department who battled the fires here in the area, and also a woman youre going to hear from right now. She was yards away from the break on the bay bridge. She had to turn around, get on a ferry to go back into San Francisco and spent three hours mostly walking back to her home in the sunset district. I was actually on the bay bridge. It could have been a real tragedy for me. And at that time, i had two Young Children that i was concerned about. There was a lot of fear there was a lot of well, we didnt even have cell phones back then. What was it like when you were reunited with your kids and your husband . I couldnt stop crying. You had to think about the situation. Major earthquake. All communications went down. No electric power. And a major fire breck out in the marina. And so we had 137 water main breaks just in the marina. So there is no water supply. The marina looked like beirut the next day. There was just no people around. There were people not allowed inside their homes. It was kind of miserable. And it was very solemn too and quiet. And in all of that tragedy, i feel like there was also a lot of coming together. And thats what i remember when i was little girl here in San Francisco, hanging out with my neighbors, eating over a camping stove because we didnt have electricity. And one of my coworkers, my favorite story from today met his wife thanks to the loma prieta earthquake. He helped her out. She was a stranger, didnt have a place to stay, and two years later, they got married and had a beautiful family. So its important to remember the tragedy, but also how everyone here in the bay area came together and now is working together to prepare for the inevitable next big earthquake. Live in the Marina District, im kate larsen, abc7 news. Great perspective, kate. Thank you. And we just received, i know i got it on my phone, the San Francisco emergency alert. Theyre testing that system. So you can sign up for alerts to get that as well. Myhone didnt go off. Interestingly. Need to let them know. Spencer is here with the forecast. Youre going have to fend for yourself, then. Here is a look at live doppler 7. We have breezy conditions around the by area. Not just breezy, windy. Check out the gusts, surface. 36 Miles Per Hour here in San Francisco. 24 Miles Per Hour in novato, and half moon bay. Its pretty breezy about everywhere at the moment. And its breezy because weve had strong winds out over the sea, whipping up a northwesterly swell, which has produced higher than average wave heights. We have a High Surf Advisory in effect until 9 00 tomorrow night there is a possibility of strong rip currents and beach erosion. The golden gate, clear skies there. Traffic flowing freely at 60 degrees in San Francisco. We have low to mid60s at oakland, redwood city, san jose and gilroy. 57 at half moon bay. I have two views of the setting sun for you. This one from emeryville. Like that one. 66 degrees in santa rosa right now. San rafael 59. 63 petaluma. Mid 60s in concord and livermore. And another view of the setting sun from the sutro tower camera. Hes are our forecast features. Mostly clear and breezy to gusty tonight. Mainly sunny days ahead through the weekend. North bay showers are possible saturday morning. Overnight look for mainly clear skies. High clouds will develop later. Low temperatures will be in the mid to upper 40s. Low 50s right around the bay shoreline. Tomorrows highs will range from low 60s at the coast to mainly upper 60s around the bay shoreline, and well see only low 70s inland. Not very mild, not very warm tomorrow. It will be breezy again. Here is the accuweather sevenday forecast. Over the next few day, well have mostly sunny skies through the weekend. There is a slight chance of some Early Morning showers saturday morning. A little impulse moving through friday night and saturday morning. But by midday, we expect some clearing. And sunny skies on sunday. That will be the beginning of a little bit of a warmup, but a bigger warmup occurs next week, starting on monday. Monday through thursday of next week, look for high temperatures inland, in the mid80s. Feeling like summer. Up to about 80 degree around the bay shoreline. And 70, maybe some low 70s on the coast. Thats a pretty warm late october weather. Definitely. Hey, looks good to me. Well take it. Thanks, spencer. All right. Up next, more memories of loma prieta. How one artist is translating stories into portraits. Stay with us. Aaddiction. How juuline hooked kids and ignited an Public Health crisis. Other news outlets report juul took 12. 8 billion from big tobacco. Markets ecigarettes with kid friendly flavors and uses nicotine to addict them. 5 million kids use ecigarettes. Juul is following big tobaccos playbook. And now, juul is pushing prop c to overturn ecigarette protections. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. Its no secret we live in earthquake country, but even in the bay area, some areas are more at risk for major damage from a large quake more than others. Its true. And 7 on your sides Michael Finney is here to show you which areas are most vulnerable to really catastrophic damage. I got to tell you, this is important information. You really need to know this. We spoke with two experts with varying opinions, but both agree that the bay area is in for some major damage. Now heres what you need to know to find out if youre in an earthquake hot zone. This building in San Franciscos Marina District collapsed like a house of cards in the loma prieta quake. Something similar happened in 1964 in japans ngata quake. Experts blame damage to buildings in both quakes to liquefaction. We have the very soft soils combined with a high water table that is known as probabilities. The u. S. Geological survey put out this map with the bay areas liquefaction zones in red for danger. The zone starts at San Franciscos Marina District, goes along the embarcadero, and extends to the airport and parts of millbrae and foster city. In the east bay, its the outer portion of alameda, along the oakland waterfront as well as the airport. Extensive damage is predicted for many buildings there in a quake of 6. 7 or higher. If you have a structure, a house or any building that is built on that, it may tip or fall over. Reporter he says he is even more concerned about the hayward fault, which runs from the San Pablo Bay to fremont. It includes the cities of berkeley, oakland, and hayward. Scientists say there is a one in three chance of a quake 6. 7 or higher there in the next 24 years. Im not saying there is no hazard due to liquefaction, but if you ask me what has the higher hazard, i would say the densely populated area arn the hayward fault. The u. S. Geological survey says liquefaction zones span several faults, thus warsening the chance for damage. He points back to loma prieta. So in oakland along the we had the cypress freeway where we had strong amplification of the soil, and then we also had significant amplification and damage within the Marina District. The california conservation core corps released this map. The pin indicates where his home sits. The darkened areas are the liquefaction zone. Its important to have that earthquake insurance then. Robert of millbrae also discovered he is in a liquefaction zone. You know, you just have to take that chance. Cory topper found out shes not in a liquefaction zone, but she isnt breathing any easier. Sorry. Im just looking around this whole map. Its pretty alarming. We have a link to the interactive map on our website at abc7news. Com. Here is a prediction for you. Moving forward, homeowners or home buyers, theyre going to ask you to get your house earthquake safe before theyre going to make a loan. So start thinking than right now. And before you buy, find out where you are. Good point. Thanks, michael. An abc7 news can help you prefair for an earthquake or really any natural disaster. Quick on the prepare nor cal link. Its on abc7news. Com. You can get tips on preparing for the next quake. And remember the loma prieta quake happened before cell phones and social media. And that is why one San Francisco artist has spent the last five years collecting memories of that day and using illustrations to bring them to life. Abc7 News Reporter liz kreutz has that story. Whether youre outside of mervyns or in the stands at the world series, artist Jennifer Wofford wants to know your story of where you were and what you were doing when the earthquake hit. I built a very simple website, asking them in 300 or 400 words, keeping it very precise to tell their personal account of where they were at the moment of the quake, how it felt, what was the aftermath for them, if any. And then i endeavored to figure out how to illustrate. Wofford has been gathering and illustrating the memories for five years. Her work now on display at Chinese Culture center, an exhibit about memories from 1989. The Tiananmen Square incident, the berlin wall and the loma prieta earthquake. Whats interesting is that in that moment in 1989, there are a lot of both physical and psychological shifts and rupture in the city and also in the world. A huge year filled with big memories and some very small. One of my favorite stories is a woman who was very young and this quake was scary, sure. But because she was a kid, she was more preoccupied with the fish tank overflowing and soaking her chocolate teddy grams, and wanting to eat these mushy crackers. One guys memory of a shake is a baloney sandwich and throwing it across the room in a panic. The stories i like are the ones that are maybe less dramatic. Theyre really intimate and really personal. And i like that somebody was generous enough to share that momnt with me. In San Francisco, liz kreutz, abc7 news. Thats great. Pass night. Interesting. School kids were reminded where they need to be when a quake hits. Thats under some sort of protective cover. Yes. Abc7 news was at rosa parks elementary in San Francisco. Take a look as the kids took part in the annual duck, cover, and hold drill. And you saw who they were joined by. San Francisco Mayor london breed and other city officials. Kids were asked to look for places at home that can also protect them against falling objects. The kids can help protect their families with this information. Absolutely. And we are marking the 30th anniversary of the loma prieta earthquake. Yeah, it was an event that forever changed the bay area, of course. We learned a lot, and we are stilllearning. It changed the way we build, prepare and even think about earthquakes. In a commercialfree half hour documentary, were going to take a look back how we can and should move forward. Enjoy. Two key plays early in that one as well. I tell you what, were having an earthquake oh my god, look at that. The freeway has just completely collapsed. A major earthquake, an earthquake which was felt from oakland to sacramento, as far south as los angeles. The natural gas lines have ruptured. You can see this building is collapsed. They dont know if people are still in there, or if they arent. An entire section of the bay bridge has been lost. Downtown section of santa cruz is basically gone. The loma prieta quake was a magnitude 6. 9. It left 3800 people injured, 63 dead, 16,000 homes uninhabitable. As bad as it was, experts say loma prieta was just a warmup. The first thing for people to realize is that loma prieta was not the big one. So what will it be like when the real big one hits . Where is the biggest danger . And are we ready . It is going to be the challenge of all of our lives when we have this earthquake happen here. Im drew tuma with abc7. Standing in the middle of the incredible beauty that makes the San Francisco bay area so special. What you might not realize is the samet create our gorgeous bays, hills and valleys also make our region what some scientists call a tectonic time bomb. Power of the San Andreas Fault exploded in the bay area was the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, now believed to have been a magnitude 7. 9 with devastating results. Geologists now believe the 1906 earthquake released 16 times more energy than the loma prieta quake in 1989. Ive never seen anything like it. It was like the exorcist. She was thrown from one side of the room back and forth, being pounded into the wall. And it will happen again. Regardless where you live in the bay area, youre not far from a fault. And there are enough faults that if any one of them has a major earthquake, its going to affect the entire bay area. I lost everything, except for me. Scientists say the network of faults running under the bay area is locked and loaded with a major quake expected at any time. This map shows the likelihood of an earthquake of 6. 7 or higher on each of the by area qualities by the year 2043. The probabilities range from 6 to 33 , but put them all together and the chance of a major quake somewhere in the bay area jumps to 72 . And thats a very, very high number. David schwartz has spent most of his career trying to refine those calculations and get the public to take earthquake danger seriously. I think were going to be very, very surprised at the amount of damage that occurs. Mean, for all of the thats been done, i think we could look at small earthquakes like napa in 2014, that was a magnitude 6. And look at the extent of damage. You go to a 7 or you go to a 7. 9, the damage is spread over a much, much wider area. And if you have a minute and a half or two minutes of shaking, you know, its really unclear what thats going to do to a lot of structures that are out there. To get an idea of how much the ground moved in 1906 and will move again in the future, im here in west marin county right on the San Andreas Fault. The fault line runs right along here. Check out these two fences on either side of me. Before the 1906 fetu matched up with that fence in a straight line. When the earthquake struck,shak. When it was all over, the ground and the fence on the west side of the fault had moved north an incredible 16 feet. The reason california is at such a high risk for earthquakes is that we are right on the edge of two huge plates in the earths crust, the pacific plate on the west and the north american plate on the east. The San Andreas Fault runs between the two plates, right through california. The pacific plate on the left is constantly moving north. The movement is usually so slow, we dont feel it. But sometimes the pressure builds, and the ground shoots forward faster, causing an earthquake. Zooming in, you can see how the San Andreas Fault lines up here with most of the bay area to the east. Fast forward through millions of years of Ground Movement and los angeles is actually expected to be right alongde San Francisco. But long before that happens, we have many other earthquake faults to worry about too. Right now im flying over the hayward fault, which many experts say is the most danger were using sky map 7 to show why its such a threat. That red line is the hayward fault. You can see it runs through some of the most Populated Areas in the bay area, with about 300 buildings directly on the fault itself. So when it moves, if it moves two feet or three feet or six feet, those structures are going to be stressed, and many of them are going to fail. The hayward fault runs along the east bay hills from san jose north to san pablo. Some of the buildings along the fault are iconic structures. The Mormon Temple in oakland, the claremont hotel, the uc berkeley football stadium. E hajorennenmend ts n telling t when a big earthquake hits the fault. It also, of course, crosses large numbers of lifelines, that is roads and utility lin and water mains that go from the eastern part of california into the bay area. Take a look at the hayward faults path along Lake Temescal in oakland. The fault crosses highway 24 and 13, runs along a pg e substation, crosses a water line and a bart tunnel. Serious damage to any of these will likely affect the whole bay area region. The last time a really big earthquake hit the hayward fault was in 1868. Back then, there were about 25,000 people in the area. Now there are about 2 most probably have no idea whats happening right below them. Hayward flt iretty iquen that it crps. So it actually is moving very, very slowly all the time. Over the past million years, that nonstop east bay hills, an it has not stopped. We are in fremonts original city hall. This building is right on top of the hayward fault. This crack first appeared in 1972 and was never repaired. So now its an ongoing record of how the fault keeps moving. One side has moved forward. One side has moved backwards. You can also see there has been some separation between the two sides. And one side of the floor is actually higher than the other side of the floor. So we have all three of those things happening at the same time. This muddy pond nearby is the epicenter for research on the hayward fault. What weve been able to show here is that during the past 1700 years, there have been 12 large earthquakes. We opened up trenches. They went down 8, 9, 10, 12 feet. We cleaned the see the differen layers in the trench that had been deposited in the ponds, and you can see the fault. This is the fault. The research at the pond is over, and now a bart over the fault. The fault is spread out beneath our feet. David oso showed us around downtown hayward where the faults signature is especially obvious, from buildings slowly sliding apart to others like the Old City Hall completely abandoned. You can cover the fault up, but in the end, the fault always wins. Braces and bolts tell the story of constant effort to prepare for the next big earthquake. But its a neverending battle. This floor was painted only two years ago, but it sits atop the hayward fault, and you already see its doing its damage. And its not just the floor thats cracking. The hayward fault is also causing the side of the building to begin to crack as well. Crac, but experts say its critical the public understand the danger that is coming. Thats why the u. S. Geological survey and its partners spent years on a project they call haywire, a sciencebased scenario showing what could happen if a magnitude 7 earthquake hits the hayward fault. The earthquake begins. With an epicenter at oakland, the rupture races 52 miles along the fault towards fremont and richmond at speeds of 7,000 Miles Per Hour. In berkeley and hayward, the ground shifts 3 to 5 feet, ripping through buried pipes and wires. The usgs shake map shows areas of violent and extreme shaking, lasting up to 30 seconds orer, y epi, fore strong shaking begin. Impacts and destruction are magnified by a cascade of hazards. The predictions in the haywired scenario are grim. 800 dead. 18,000 injured. Of course this is just one possible way a major earthquake may play out. But it is a serious planning tool. So how we prepare for something we havent experienced is that we pretend. Mary Ellen Carroll is part of the San Francisco office of emergency management. Were in the command center, where her team handles real events and practices for the next big quake. We are looking at thousands of buildings lost, potentially hundreds of thousands of people that may be trapped in the city, depending on the time of day there will be many injuries and deaths. There is just no way around that. Its not a good scenario. And dont think you are safe just because you dont live or work right on a fault. So this shaking intensity isnt right at the fault or just at the fault. Its over a wide swath. Youre going to feel shaking across the entire region. The epicenter of the loma prieta earthquake was in the santa cruz mountains, but some of the worst damage was actually 50 miles away, and the effects of a bigger earthquake could travel even farther. Expect major power outages, most communication, including mobile phones and the internet will be down. Thousands of people may have no water for weeks, maybe months. In addition to shake damage, major fires could cause even more destruction. The question is what will that be like for those of us who survive. And so the steps that we take to prepare individually is so critical. As bad as a major quake will be, every expert we talked to agreed, we are safer now than we were 30 years ago. Area region estimated 80 billion on a wide range of seismic improvements since loma prieta. Mary camarillo is a Disaster Recovery expert. We have required hospitals to be significantly upgraded all across the state. Locally, we have improvements to hetch hetchy, the water supply system and to bart. We also have had retrofit ordinances for brick buildings and soft story apartments. Weve spent over 9 billion on the large bridges in the bay area. Weve had tens of thousands of professionals come here over the last 20 years and help us with this. Its the biggest thing that weve ever done as a state. Is prepare this region for the next earthquake. Even so, a major earthquake will do serious damage to many roads and bay area airports. So caltrans has built what it calls lifeline route, specific highways engineered to withstand the regions strongest expected earthquake. These are going to be the roadways that Emergency Services use to begin the relief for the area once this earthquake hits. Prepare yourselves prepare yourselves shut off the gas. Shut off electricity. Store water in your bathtub. Dont expect services for 72 hours. One of the enduring lessons from loma prieta is that in a large scale disaster, many of us will be on our own for hours, maybe days. Our preparation for disaster will make the difference. And so will regular people who step up when First Responders are overwhelmed. Thats what happened in San Franciscos Marina District. People we never knew and they never knew us, but they carried us in their arms down the stairs. And at the collapse of the doubledecker cypress freeway in oakland within a few minutes, a Police Officer came by and we asked were they going to send help. And she said there is no help to send now. You guys are on your own. A company right across the street had some extension ladders. We went over there, climbed the fence, got the ladders, threw them back over the fence and thats how we got up on top of the freeway, because the Fire Department was not here. No one was here but us. Ultimately, those experiences led to the formation of a more organized citizen response for future disasters. Neighborhood volunteers and teams. Just everyday people, your neighbors that are trained by the Fire Department around first aid, around basic what we would call search and rescue. [ siren ] looking back on the terrifying hours after the loma prieta earthquake, its the courage and the heart shown by both First Responders and ordinary citizens that stand out. First, fighting disaster. Then trying to help victims move forward. A tidal wave of volunteers staffing shelters. Residents taking people into their own homes. This kind lady, a perfect stranger took us in. And she is a wonderful, wonderful person. She is a good christian. Restaurants donating meals. Union workers providing free labor. The crane operator with a delicate touch, trying to save peoples belongings in the rubble. Emotional over a piece of stained glass. All proving over and over when it comes to fundamental values in a crisis, we in the bay area are made of the right stuff. Theres a lot that was inspiring about what happened after the loma prieta earthquake, and we learned some critical lessons, especially about the way we build things in the bay area. Abc7 News ReporterLeslie Brinkley was on the bay bridge when the earthquake struck. Its been a frightening scene here, as you can see, just below me is where this crack in the bay bridge section. You see down there below the two car, two cars that were on the upper deck when the bridge collapsed. We were just floored by what we were seeing. Things were so much worse than we expected them to be. We were shocked at the outcome of some of the structures then. And we learned that we needed to design bridges differently. It was a normal news day. We left the station, got on to the bridge, were headed for a caltrans meeting on the oakland side, were talking. All of the sudden it felt like our truck was on a trampoline, or tir own. It was just moving in every direction, up and down, side to side. And that was right at 5 04 p. M. Looking out our windows all around us were dirt, crumbles of little rocks falling down, raining down on to our truck. We managed to drive off the bridge and pull off to the side of the road. We got out of the vehicle. I put my foot on the ground and an aftershock hit. It was an amazing sensation. It was one thing to experience the quake inside the truck and the motion of that. It was yet another to put your feet on the earth and feel it move. But it was the moment we pulled off and started talking to some