Earthquakes: The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Earthquakes: The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Even though it wasn’t an extremely large earthquake, the Loma Prieta earthquake made a big impact in the Bay Area.

Because the 1906 San Francisco earthquake had been so terrible, places built here after it had to be made earthquake-safe.

But some of these “safe” buildings collapsed or were damaged in the 1989 earthquake, showing people in the Bay Area that more had to be done to prepare for an emergency.

And the damage did not just happened in poor areas, or in areas where not very many people lived. Cities and communities across the Bay Area were affected.

In fact, the Bay Bridge – the biggest transportation hub in the Bay Area – was damaged. Local leaders took the threat of an earthquake so seriously that they just finished making it more earthquake-safe last year (more than 20 years later).

These effects made Bay Area residents re-consider what is truly earthquake-safe. It also made them consider emergency preparedness as a priority again.

And in this way, the Loma Prieta Earthquake affected the Bay Area positively, despite all the physical damage.