Sunday, January 1, 2012

Loma Prieta, CA 1989 Earthquake Audio

Follow the link below to access a website that contains audio recording of a Ham repeater being used to coordinate reporting efforts just after the Loma Prieta, CA Earthquake in 1989.

Hear damage reports being called into the W6ASH (SPECS) Ham Repeater's Net Control station.
Hear the excitement and fear as aftershocks happen during the net.

http://n6oim.com/loma/

From the web site:
Excuse the open microphone, it's all I could do at the time.
I started the tape about 10 minutes after the main event. Seconds before I
pushed record, we had a Mag 5x aftershock. If you listen closely, you can
hear my neighbor's alarm sounding in the background. There were several
more aftershocks that happened during the taping. One knocked my phone
off the hook. You can hear the alert beeps. One aftershock interrupted the net
due to net control having to leave the Sunnyvale Fire Station he was in. I pulled
out my generator at dusk and we had the whole neighborhood at our house
watching the news. We were without PG&E Power for 3 days after the event!
The night of the quake around 11:00pm, I was called to open a Red Cross
Shelter at the Senior Center in Mountain View. I checked people in all night,
but in the morning the city condemned the building due to damage. We moved
the shelter to the Rengstorff Park Recreation Center where I finished my shift.


2 comments: