They started in late summer… Tremors like we experienced on our first trip to San Francisco. Through our contacts there, after we felt it on August 29 at 2:29 pm, we learned they had the biggest earthquake since San Francisco's in 1906 at 7.8 estimated on the Richter scale. Government seismic sensors were still working along the coast through the satellite system and operated by AI. We also learned that this one was 7.6 and centered on the San Andreas Fault at the Crystal Springs Reservoir, 15 miles south of the City.

       The Council immediately got in touch with the group in San Francisco we were trading with and they told us the bad news. Many of the older buildings built just after the 1906 earthquake out of wood had collapsed and those buildings rebuilt after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 in the fill areas along the San Francisco Bay suffered great losses when the subsoil turned to jelly and everything came down that had been built or rebuilt since.

       Fortunately, the settlements, occupying the more solid bedrock areas anticipating earthquakes had survived with a few deaths and injuries. And only five major high-rises came down… None of them lived in–thank goodness. Broken gas lines caused some fires to break out and broken water lines caused a lot of structural damage where water was still in the mains, washing out streets and foundations from under buildings.

       The roads and streets had been cleared of abandoned vehicles across to Oakland, down the Peninsula and across the Golden Gate to Marin County where there were settlements of survivors, too. 

       The Golden Gate Bridge suffered some damage and was a regular “Galloping Gertie” from those who saw it undulating during the earthquake and took videos. The damage was mostly from about 15 vertical cables holding the bridge that snapped. Something that the local infrastructure/government wouldn't be able to get fixed very soon if at all, making the bridge very unstable and fearful to cross.

       Worse, the Bay Bridge with its 2013 rebuilt Eastern Span was completely blocked by both older and newer sections of the roadway dropping into the Bay. Much worse than the Loma Prieta damage that resulted in the rebuilding. The San Mateo Bridge also lost several sections making it impassable. El Camino Real and US 101 was badly damaged in many places and would have to be repaired.

       But, worst of all, the Crystal Springs Reservoir, built 300 yards from the epicenter of the earthquake in 1888, that had stubbornly withstood many earthquakes since with very little damage, finally broke. The resulting surge of water and earthquake took out the buttresses of the Father Sierra Freeway as the water surged 80 feet high down the San Mateo Creek to the Bay.

       While earlier flooding from heavy rain had caused damage all along El Camino and US 101 that was being repaired, the floodwaters from the broken dam were a half-mile wide when they reached El Camino and destroyed everything in their path. Fortunately, there were no settlements, only vacant buildings… But all three major thoroughfares were completely washed out leaving the Peninsula cut in half with only the badly damaged and dangerous Skyline Drive linking San Francisco with the South Bay cities passable. Cal 1 was completely destroyed, too, and would take a very long time to rebuild with much of its Peninsula length fallen into the sea or covered with huge landslides.

       To add insult to the injury, already occurred by the earthquake, there was a tsunami that left the San Francisco Bay nearly empty, and then, overflowing, destroying much of the remaining 101 and everything close to the shore, especially those areas of fill that were developed. At the south end of the Bay, the water sloshed out and overcame a settlement in San Jose, crushing and drowning many according to eyewitness accounts and videos.

       With that news, we put a plan into action. As the tremors, some thought to be aftershocks from the San Francisco quake, continued, we tested all the tsunami alarms and found them working. We set up evacuation plans and routes for those living in the port and in low-lying areas like we were living at LAX, only 129 feet above sea level.

       Knowing that all of our planes were at that level and the hangers were all susceptible to collapsing if a wave hit them, we created an evacuation plan using the planes. Most of the 43 trained pilots were living like us, above hangers and the rest were living close by. As the tremors continued and grew, every time we were away from home doing construction work, Drake and I worried that we wouldn't be able to save our planes being far from them.

       Fortunately, at 5:37 am on October 17, Melody and I were thrown from our beds and the twins were screaming after being thrown back and forth in their crib. There was no time to call anyone, but we grabbed our clothes.

       I yelled, “Melody, take the kids, I'll follow with our escape packs.”

       I slung one pack on my back and grabbed the other by the straps and ran downstairs to get to the NJN Studio helicopter waiting in the hanger with the other planes below, also stocked with emergency supplies.

       There was no time to call anyone. The tsunami alarms were blaring up and down the coast and if the earthquake wasn't enough to get people fleeing the lower areas, the tsunami sirens did.

       As Melody got the twins and our packs into the helicopter, I tried its hanger power door and it didn't open. It was jammed! I yelled…

       “Melody! Melody! Come and help me! The door is jammed… Help me try to lift it!”

       Melody joined me, but although we both strained as hard as we could, we couldn't open the door even when I tried a crowbar underneath to lift it. It wouldn't move. The door next to it wouldn't open either. We were trapped!

       While I figured we could ride out a tsunami if we had to, I saw another opportunity. I told Melody, “Quick, pull the blocks from the wheels of the CN40.”

       It was a twin-engine commuter with a lot of power. I hopped in the cockpit and turned on the twin engines. As soon as Melody got the blocks pulled, I revved up the engines, released the brake and drove right through its aluminum door with a loud crash. I could see the propellers breaking off cutting through the door as the door collapsed on the windscreen and stayed there while the plane taxied off at an angle to the right carrying the door with it.

       I was pumped so full of adrenaline that I didn't even notice that I had bent the yoke upon impact, the plane accelerated and decelerated so quickly. But I was unhurt, forced the jammed cockpit door open with my shoulder and jumped out.

       It took both of us to line the helicopter up with a battery-powered jockey to move the helicopter into position and out of the hanger. We saw two people running by that didn't have a plane and I yelled out with the loudspeaker, “Do you want a ride?”

       At first they shook their heads, “No,” and continued running towards their car, but suddenly, turned around and waved as I was starting to warm up the engines. Apparently they thought better of trying to save their car and out run a possible tsunami coming for higher ground.

       With them, neighbors just starting to learn to fly, aboard, we took off. But I didn't head for our ultimate destination just yet. We circled and watched as I saw other planes taking off and checked to see Drake fly out with the executive jet that Wondah and he had invited to join them.

       In the distance on the coast as the sun was coming up, we saw the water leave the coast for what seemed like minutes, but then, come rushing back in a monstrous wave. It was surreal to watch and record with our cinema-grade cameras.

       By that time, most of the planes had left on crowded runways. Finally, we saw Harlan with a 787-8 leaving the hangar with a load of airport housing residents who didn't fly as the first wave broke and surged across the runways about 4 feet high, catching Harlan and the plane mid takeoff but at a speed that guaranteed they would make it to the air.

       With all the planes that were leaving gone, we flew south amid other planes and helicopters who also were watching and videoing what they saw. Only to find the Rambler, just offshore on the sea bottom as the first wave receded under it and the second wave loomed ahead over its bow.

       The wave crest high over the bow and caught the ship listing a bit to the right side with no water for support as the bow was violently lifted by the wave and thrust backward as its engines struggled to overcome the wave and saved the ship from being washed back up on the shore.

       When the sea lowered again there was enough water so that the Rambler made good time and the next wave, the strongest, was only about 10 feet high to the liner but about 60 feet high when it hit the fish market and brought the hotel down.

       I exclaimed to Melody, our passengers and boys, “Oh My God! What a tragedy! I sure hope everybody got out all right.”

       “At least the Rambler made it. I'm glad we got video. Nobody would believe if we hadn't seen it happening.”

       I turned our helicopter to our destination not far away, noting along the way that some of the downtown LA skyscrapers had fallen even though they were generally earthquake proof. We arrived at Ontario International Airport (ONT) amid a traffic jam of planes and helicopters from LAX. We were very relieved to see the 787-8 prominently parked by the terminal.

       We learned later that not all of the planes made it. Derek, Melody, Wondah and I, after putting the boys with their LAX nursery attendants, flew back to LAX to assess the damage and see whether or not the planes could return. Some of the hangers had collapsed, but ours, set back behind others because it was closer to Airport Boulevard, wasn't damaged other than those jammed doors.

       There was a lot of debris on the runways, but we saw some other helicopters arriving with people jumping out and going to get their electric jockeys to help them move that debris off the runways ASAP.

       But a number of the people that lived there with us would not be coming back because their hangers had fallen and probably wouldn't be worth rebuilding right away. Some planes in the hangers like ours, escaped damage, but in those where the water came up higher than the bottom of the fuselage, there would be some that would need to be cleaned and/or restored before flying.

       Now that the rainy season was soon upon us, I began to think that it would take some time before we would be able to get things running again like they were during the summer. We had trucks all along the roads that were now unable to come into or go out of the LA area again. I began to wonder if our challenges would ever allow us to get back to normal again.

       Gramps was calling so I answered the phone.

Copyright 2024 © Ronald W. Hull

4/15/24