How many people remember what they were doing at 5 pm twenty years ago on this day? I remember.

I was sitting with my grandparents at home when the ground started to shake - I remember my grandfather running out the door while we scrambled to hide beneath the dining room table.

That's right. Twenty years ago today was the Loma Prieta Earthquake, more commonly known as the World Series Quake. It was 6.5 on the richter scale and it collapsed part of the Bay Bridge, the Embarcadero Highway and did a lot of damage. It drove home the realisation that we are still, for all our advances, still at the mercy of the planet in all its shifts and changes. It was also a day that sparked my fascination with natural disasters that contines to this day.

I was eight.

So... Happy Anniversary, Loma Prieta. May we all take a moment to remember what we've learned from you.

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