• Sudden Destruction!—How Have They Coped?
    Awake!—1990 | February 22

    • Coping With the California Quake

      The epicenter of the October 17 earthquake was some 70 miles [110 km] south of San Francisco, about 10 miles [16 km] northeast of Santa Cruz. In this heavily populated area, where brief earth tremors are not uncommon, millions were terrified by what seemed an endless shaking of 15 seconds or more.

      “The building literally rocked back and forth,” said Ray Vaden, a Christian elder in San Jose. “I wondered if it was going to remain standing. As I looked out my window, I could see that the roads were jammed with rush-​hour traffic. It was 5:04 p.m.

      “Finally we were able to start contacting the brothers in our congregation. Those we couldn’t reach by phone we arranged to visit in their homes. This took several hours because of traffic congestion. By 8:30 p.m. we learned that none were injured, although there was breakage of items inside many houses. The next day we learned that the homes of some of our brothers in the area were so severely damaged that they had to move out. They were taken into the homes of fellow Witnesses.”

      Near Los Gatos, a Christian sister was taking a bath on the second floor of her two-​story house when the entire first floor collapsed. So she stepped out of the bathtub on the first-floor level, amazingly uninjured. Had she been on the first floor, she would surely have been killed.

      Right away, friends wanted to know what they could do for victims. On Thursday, two days after the earthquake, a committee to care for these was set up. On Saturday, large vans and other vehicles delivered tents, sleeping bags, lanterns and stoves, clothing, flashlights, canned food, drinking water, and so forth, to those in need. That morning alone, $41,000 was donated to the relief fund!

      What a contrast to the attitude that some people of the world manifested! A man crawled to a victim trapped in her car beneath the collapsed section of Interstate 880. He promised not to hurt her but then took her rings, jewelry, and purse, and fled without helping her. Altogether more than 40 died in the roadway collapse, among them Mary Washington, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

      The Regional Building Committee of Jehovah’s Witnesses soon began to assess damages. Two Kingdom Halls suffered minor damage. However, the homes of several Witnesses were so badly damaged that they needed to be destroyed.