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Since I created the Daly City Earthquake page, I have received a number of emails from people who experienced it. I have published these - with their permission, of course! If you experienced the Daly City Earthquake and wish to have your recollections included here, feel free to email them to me!
These accounts have now been split into multiple pages. This is Page 1. There is also Page 2 and Page 3.
I don't know if you are interested in strictly anecdotal recollections, but the 1957 quake is the one I most remember. I am now 66 years old, and I was attending San Francisco State University, which is very near the border of Daly City. I was working in the Library, which was a building planned in two phases of building and the second part had not yet been built. The first shock came at about 11 AM. After the usual embarrassed titters and looking around we resumed our work. Shortly a friend and I walked to a small shopping center nearby to have lunch in the cafe. While at lunch, about 1 PM, the window beside us started shaking - almost a ripple effect. Again we sort of laughed until the waitress started to panic, when we got up and held her between us under a doorway. There was no damage in the cafe, so we collected ourselves and finished lunch. Afterwards, we decided to go next door to the pharmacy, and were stunned to see that much of their stock had fallen into the aisles. So, we returned to the campus and the library where we were refused admittance. There were cracks between the floors in the stairwell and, of course, books fallen all over. We finally persuaded the guard to allow us in to retrieve our own school books. After all, we had a performance of a play to give that night! Of course, there was to be no play that night and the library had to be thoroughly inspected before we could resume work. When I got home (about a mile away to the east) I found that my mother had placed all the house-plants in the middle of the living room floor - those had to be protected above all! I don't remember any aftershocks, although we must have had some. That is basically what I remember, I decided to write you because I never see mention of the 11 AM foreshock. Very interesting the theory that Daly City might have been the epicenter of the 1906 quake. I now live in Point Reyes Station and we may now lose our main distinction?? Ah well, history must move on. Good luck with your studies.
I'm pleased to have stumbled upon your webpage on the 1957 Daly City quake. Surprised it only registered as magnitude 5.3 I remember it well as the most intense quake I have ever experienced, yet there was so little publicity about it that all I could tell friends was that it was when I was six or seven years old. (I was seven, as it turns out.) The shaking was extraordinarily intense, even from 50 or so miles away. I was playing in the front yard of a neighbor's house on Pleasant Ridge Drive in the eastern foothills of San Jose. The shaking knocked me and my neighbor to the ground, and we weren't able to get back on our feet until it was over. When it ended, his mother rushed through the front door and called: "Earthquake!"
I was 12 years old at the time and living in the Southwestern area of San Francisco, adjacent to Daly City. I felt the first quake around 11AM and then the big one around 12PM while eating lunch in the schoolyard. It was terrifying as the schoolyard was like a rolling pin was rolling under it and the windows of the school building were slamming open and closed. The school building and adjacent church sustained a great deal of damage. Being in a Catholic school at that time, I thought for sure it was the end of the world. Absolutely the most frightening thing I had ever experienced. We had a great deal of chimney damage and also objects falling from cabinet shelves. I remember hearing fire engine/ambulance sirens into the night. According to my Mom, I didn't leave her side for nearly a month after the quake and was extremely withdrawn. One observation comparing the Loma Prieta quake -- there were so many aftershocks with the '57 quake -- a rather large one close to midnight as I recall. I don't remember feeling many after the Loma Prieta quake and we live on the San Mateo Peninsula. As far as I'm concerned the '57 was "the big one" to me. I can truly bring myself back to that day and still shutter with fear. I don't know whether to thank you for putting out info regarding that quake, but it is interesting to finally touch base with people who experienced that day. Thanks, Signed: Marlene Panacci
I have inherited the house in which I experienced the first and most terrifying quake I can recall.
The one in '80 seemed a breeze by comparison. I was 39. But the one in '57 hit me when I was only 7. I
experienced absolute panicked terror as I saw cups and plates and knick-knacks launching themselves off
the shelves and shatter on the floor. I was in the kitchen, home from the third grade for lunch, and Mom
was outside pinning up the laundry on our new ranch dryer. I nearly went right through the glass-paned
dining room door. I fell down on the ground and hugged her ankles and prayed! I still can hear the
rumbling of the earth, and sense that feeling that the lawn was swinging in an arc, left and right.
Then it was over. We had a great time talking about it in class. That afternoon Mikey, my best friend,
and I were in the garage playing when an aftershock happened. We were so blase, we just ignored it. You
adjust quickly when you are seven!
I was in the 1989 earthquake (born and raised in San Jose) and anyway, I remember my father told
me about that 1957 earthquake... this is a cute story you may enjoy.
My father was a mechanic inspector at United Airlines then, and he said he was working at a bench on
one of the jet engines (sitting on a stool) and you know back in 1957, they did not have much experience
with earthquakes... so it was a huge deal, and he said everyone ran outside the hangar area where they
were working on the aircraft... and he said he was so embarrassed because he realized when he got
outside, he had jumped up and ran with his stool and he had no idea why he wanted to "save the stool!"
I would like to add some things.
I was 6 yrs old at the time of the 1957 earthquake. I was sitting in my parents 1956 Buick on
London St. in San Francisco "s Excelceor district. The thing that really got my attention was the
shaking of the car and a Big Crack going up the stucco wall of my grandmothers house my mother was a
worried about my brother at Saint Gabriel's on 40th Ave as we went to pick up my brother my Mom stop at
where my father own his butcher shop on 24th and vicente that's when i saw the picture windows on the
store next to my fathers store broken up all over the side walk as we went to get my brother at school
we seen a lot of windows broken all up and down Taraval St.
That's what I remember of the 1957 earthquake.
I was 18 years old and was working in downtown SF, near Bush and Market Streets. I worked on the second floor of a tall office building. What I remember most is the loud noise that preceded the quake. It sounded like a loud roar or rumble in the distance, getting closer and closer. Then it started shaking. I thought the world was coming to an end. I never felt anything like that, although I had lived in the City all my life. No furniture moved in our office because we were on a lower floor, but it sure scared the heck out of all of us. The only one who wasn't scared was a woman from Japan, named Mary, who just kept walking around doing her office tasks. She just shrugged her shoulders and said "earthquake" in a normal tone of voice! However, up on higher floors, we were told shortly thereafter that elevators were swinging, crashing into the inner walls of the elevator shafts, and on upper floors, desks and file cabinets slid all the way across office floors. My father was also working in downtown SF, and was near 3rd & Market Sts. walking along on the sidewalk. He said he had to hang on to a nearby pole in order to not fall down. We didn't have much damage at home, just a few things fell off the shelves. We lived in Miraloma Park.
Strange how you are from UK and have specialized in an earthquake that I was basically on the epicenter of. Added coincident I got a degree in geology later. I was 4 years old living on Fairlawn Ave in Westlake (Daly City). As others has testified there were a lot of earthquakes, not just one.
When I was in Seismology classes at California State University, Chico 16 years later we studied the 57 quake and I was amazed to see the epicenter was about 100 yards west from my house (27 Fairlawn was our address if I remember it correctly). This may explain the amazing things that happened in my neighborhood. I was in the 89 quake too, but driving.
The first thing that I remember is my mother telling us it was a game, with things like, "oh here comes another one, we get to hide under the table" as if it was a treat. There were lots of aftershocks and they were strong. Memories that stand out are that over our dining room table was a hanging chandalier type light with a 2 foot cord, and that thing was slapping back and forth hitting the ceiling. After that shock which may have been the main shock we went into the kitchen and when my mother opened the cabinet where the glasses were, ground up glass poured out, it had broken every glass I believe.
Later I was in the bathroom and another shock hit, I watched with amazement as my father's shaving mug moved about a foot (Actually the mug was stationary it was the house that moved) and dropped into the sink, then the sink was moving back and forth fast with the mug like a bell clanger hitting both sides, bang bang bang then it exploded into small pieces. Wow that got my attention! It was hard to stand up when this was going on.
There was a fair amount of damage as this was the epicenter as I found out many years later . A telephone pole partially fell over. Our neighbors waterheater tore itself lose from the pipes and fell over, etc.
When studying the San Andreas fault later I realized that we always lived on the edge of it. When we moved to San Bruno according to geology maps it ran through the intersection of Skyline and San Bruno avenue which was a block away, then we moved to Burlingame one block from Skyline, which is on the East escarpment of the fault. In the 1989 quake only one candlestick fell over. So in terms of personal experience, 57 was the big one for me.
I will never forget the 1957 earthquake.
I was 6 years old and attending Thorton School in Daly City at the time. At that time, Thorton was an old wooden two story school house and I can tell you it rocked! I can remember waiting out in the school yard with all the other children for our parents to pick us up. On the walk home I marveled at all the chimney damage. On my arrival home I was shocked and terrified at the damage in our home. Virtually everything in cupboards or hanging on the walls was on the floor in pieces. There was a large crack in the wall in one of the hallways. Probably the most vivid of all memories was my dreading going indoors... there were some pretty frightening aftershocks! I slept in bed with my dad that night, while my two sisters slept with our mom. Like others who experienced the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, I still remember the 1957 as the "big one"... maybe not in the grand scheme of things, but in the eyes of a very frightened six year old!!
I was two years old and crossing 18th street/Castro holding my grandmother's hand. The street cracked behind us and I looked back and saw a huge crevice open up. My grandmother snatched me up in her arms and began to run down the street.
I can still see that huge crevice..........
As a native of S.F. who grew up in Daly City, comparing quakes to the 1957 one has always been a family pass-time. I was 5 and playing in a friend's backyard, I remember being frightened of the electrical lines which were sagging up and down and running down the alley to the relative safety of the front yards. We spent the rest of the day outdoors. Waterheater had waltzed across basement floor and typical of the 50's, several men were home from work and they went door to door shutting off gas, water etc. The ladies cooked dinner picnic style on the front lawns using camp stoves and barbecues. There were aftershocks. Mom lost most of her crystal out of the kitchen cupboards and some dishes. My dad had a shop downtown and thought it was just a little shaker. One of his customers told him that the Westlake area was really hard hit - so he rushed home. My father's father was in the '06 quake, my mom was in the 1933? L.A. quake, we went thru '57 and '89. It's fun to talk about where we were, what we heard and saw and compare.
I was in the second grade at Parkside elementary and we lived on 20th Ave between Taravel and Santiago. Our flat was above the garage on the second floor and my mother was home at the time. Actually in the garage doing laundry when she heard the timbers creaking above her. She ran up to the top floor where the owner lived and she had had all of their dishes dumped on the floor. The school room I was in was on the second floor and I remember the corner of the brick building opening up enough to show light into the room. The bookshelves fell and everyone was under their desk. The round, planet orbit looking light fixtures were swinging so hard it knocked holes in the acoustic tile. I believe the building was condemned later. After the quake the second floor always seemed to have "spring" in it. I remember the power lines swinging and the poles shaking as we prepared to get out of town. My Dad worked for the railroad and was in Klamath Falls I think. We caught the Daylight going north from Oakland Pier and I remember being stopped on the Bay Bridge and watching the bridge rock back and forth from aftershocks. A VERY traumatic experience for me. I remember also reading about the damage in Westlake. One house had a brick fireplace chimney collapse into the living room where a baby had just been in a bassinet minutes before. It seemed like the further up the hill, the worse the damage to the house.
The main quake hit around 11:45AM. Like all good Catholic school children on a Friday during Lent, our class was attending Mass in the Church (Our Lady of Mercy). The quake was preceded by a heavy rumbling sound. My first reaction was that the Russians had nuked us -- a big scare during that era. After a couple of seconds, I decided it was an earthquake. The nuns were yelling at us to get under the pews. I can still remember the suspended "PX" piece swaying like it was aboard ship. The pastor assured us that we were in the "safest place in the world." Perhaps ... but with things swaying and falling, I would have preferred another "safe place" -- say New York. I do remember being at recess about an hour or so before the quake. I didn't feel any pre-shocks, but I experienced the "feel" of the air -- "earthquake weather." I experienced that same feeling about 5 minutes before the '89 quake hit. School was, of course, dismissed. When I got home, I wouldn't go inside the house. I stayed outside until the Kansas-USF NCAA playoff game came on TV that night. Nothing like a sporting event to ease the fears of a ten year old boy.
I was in the 3rd grade at St. Jerome's School, El Cerrito, in western Contra Costa County, across the bay from S.F. The classroom had a row of windows on an outside wall that were facing due south-southwest. I am not particularly good, usually, at recalling childhood memories but this is one that I will never forget. Although I have been in any number of earthquakes before & since that time, I have never heard such a SOUND as that ! All of us were transfixed on the direction of the windows - it seemed like some great rumbling thing was coming directly at us from the window side of the room - only it was incredibly primal. It was something that struck to the deepest part of ourselves. Even the teacher, Sister Catherine who was recently from Scotland, was paralyzed and staring at the window. The rumble seemed to approach slowly although it must have been faster than it seemed. Finally, almost like an anticlimax, there was a small bit of shaking and the windows rattled for a second or two. The shaking was definitely secondary to the sound. My husband was, he tells me, in school (in the 5th grade) in San Francisco near Lake Merced that same day and recalls it much the same way, although I am sure he must have felt the shaking much more than I did. He says that he will send an email to you later when he has more time. Everyone with whom I have spoken regarding this earthquake who experienced it, has said the same thing: it was the sound that got to them, and it was the primal, almost religious, quality of that sound. It was like the voice of God. Wendy Murata, currently living in Coarsegold, CA, only a little ways from Mammoth Lakes as the crow flies.
Howdy!
I do remember the quake and I was just shy of turning 7. I don't really remember the
first quake, but sure do
the aftershocks. I was going to Anza elementary school and they had sent us home.
While at home I just remember
having to go to the bathroom and was literally terrified as the old flat at 1931
McAlister Street kept shaking.
I was born on April 18th too!! One time when we were doing some construction at
United Airlines at the SF airport,
we'd just gotten there at 6 am on April 18th (1990?) when a quake hit. Really
bizarre. I was in the east bay in Dublin
when the Loma Prieta hit.
I now live in Enumclaw, WA and just about 2 years ago we had one hit at about 10:30
am that was centered around Olympia and it lasted for 40 seconds!! That was scary
and I kept wondering if it would ever stop. My poor cats didn't
know what to do. My 'safety training' really kicked in as I grabbed my TV to keep it
from falling off the stand! haha.
Gotta save that television, ya' know!!
In 1957 I was 18 years old and lived in Daly City. I was home with my
mother since I had half day sessions at Jefferson Union High school. All
of a sudden the earthquake hit. My mother was running around the house
confused. I finally got her under an arch way in the front room on the
second floor and put her head in my chest and held her tight. With her
head in my chest she was not able to see what was going on around us.
The house shook violently and items where falling off the shelves and
the big counsel TV fell over onto the floor. Cabinets in the kitchen
opened up and plates, pot and pans, glassware all fell and there where
broken glass, plates, bowls etc. all over.
We will never forget this quake. When the quake stopped, Mom and I sat
down for a minute and then we went outside. The entire front of the
house was all cracked like a spider web. The homes across the street
slipped off their foundation about 2 inches because they where on an
incline. Our house was on flat ground. Neighbors where all outside
yelling and where frighten on what was going to happen. Lot of our
neighbors where Italian like us as well as German, etc. We never
experienced earth quakes. Our house inside was a mess as well as our
neighbors.
My father and my brother then came home and we started to clean up as we
suffered through the after shocks which lasted all night. We also helped
our neighbors. No way could any of us sleep. Then the next day we all
began the major clean up. This quake will always be etched in my mind.
32 years later in 1989 I faced the Loma Prieta quake. I was in a shop in Menlo Park about 30 min. South of Daly City sitting at a desk. The quake hit and the entire building shook. Many items fell off the shelves crashing all around me. This was an old build 2 story. I was on the first floor. I looked up and saw a ceiling heater right above me starting to fall. I jumped out of my seat and started to run outside. The motion of making a mad dash to the door to go outside I felt a severe pain in my leg. I knew I had tour my calf mussel. As I fell to the floor in terrible pain I was able to pull myself outside. I watched the building sway side to side and the cars in the parking lot where moving around. It brought me back to 1957. Oh! No not again. One of the cars was moving towards me and when the quake stopped, the car stopped 2 feet away from running over me.
I was in total pain and could not walk. Two people helped me and put me in the back bed of my truck and rushed me to Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto a few miles South from Menlo Park. When I arrived, the hospital was on generators and all hospital personal where wearing construction helmets. Some male nurses came out and put me on a gurney and rushed me into the hall way of the hospital with other injured persons. Within 5 mins. They came and rushed me to a trauma room and began to cut my shirt off and putting me on a heart monitor plus oxygen. They where just about to stick a needle into me when a nurse ran into the room and yelled "NO this is not the person who is having a heart attack. It's the other man in the hall way". They said, "Sorry" and rushed out.
I was then put into another room and a cast was put on and sent home via some friends. This is another one I will not forget. Two times is enough.
My wife and I now live in Arizona where there are no earth quakes.(I HOPE)
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