‘Oh no,” I thought. “Someone shot my tires out.”I looked in my rearview mirror and every car had pulled over. Then I looked ahead and cars were driving as fast as they could. I followed them and got to Danville in less then 7 minutes. Yes, I was breaking the law, but I got home safe and sound.

I watched tv for the next 9 hrs. So much stuff, I will never forget: A totally blacked-out SF city and the fires burning in the Marina District…shots of oakland freeway flattened like a pancake…people helping people get out of cars that were under freeways..amazing memories!

I was going to catch a long ladder which was tied to the ceiling of the garage to save the car. It didn’t fall. My husband was trying to park the truck on the street as the street was making waves. The truck wouldn’t move. I thought, “He thinks something is wrong with the truck”. Those were the first words he spoke after the quake stopped. I can visualize those waves still.

I had come in to get just two packages of chicken breasts for chicken and dressing casseroles for a reception after a funeral and had
n’t bothered with a cart. When the quake started, I was looking at the bicycles. I had nothing to hold onto when it hit and went straight to the floor — unlike people who could hold onto their carts.

Both tires and boxes rose and fell as I crawled to the end of the aisle as fast as I could. Then, they settled into place almost in perfect order.

I went to the check out line and was told to get out immediately—no sales would be rung up. Almost nothing had fallen to the floor. Amazing! I went outside only to realize the parking lot would take forever to empty. So I cut short my conversation with others evicted like me.

I started walking backward slowly through the crowd which wanted to exclaim over the speed with which we all evacuated and how safe we were. And then I ran for my car. That started something of a stampede!

It took a while to drive the five miles home, but all drivers were very polite. At home, all that was disturbed was the little aquarium in the breakfast area where about a cup of water was on the floor, and two goldfish lay gasping. One recovered; one was a casualty.

My husband was a pilot and ended his trip later that day in Phoenix. The TV news showed the fires in the Marina along with the collapse of the Oakland freeway. Phones were overburdened and he could not get me, so he called his sister in Midland, Texas. I had been able to get through to her and to a son who lived in Scottsdale right after I got home, as I got to a phone before the lines were overburdened later.

I called during the afternoon commute and many thousands could not call because they were in their cars instead of at work or at home –or at Candlestick Park!