I was living at my parent's house when the 1989 San Francisco quake (Loma Prieta) hit just as game 1 of the World Series was starting. Being an SF native I'm used to quakes and invariably just ride them out and don't bother to "duck and cover." But about 5 seconds into that one I realized it was a completely different animal, and decided that I'd much rather be outside than in my room. As I ran out the door of my room toward the stairs this hall bookcase (see photo), which was bolted to the wall, and if your scoring at home is 11 feet high and 12 feet long, ripped out of the wall and collapsed - like a tree falling- right in front of me. Missed me by about 2 feet. If I'd decided to run one second earlier - well, not good.
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