Fifty-two years ago, hundreds of people roamed Santa Rosa streets in the dark after power was lost following two major earthquakes in one night.
The earthquakes occurred on Oct. 1, 1969 at 9:56 p.m. and 11:20 p.m., magnitude 5.6 and 5.7, followed by aftershocks.
“Everyone could feel it but many couldn’t see it; the lights were the first to go,” Dick Torkelson, Press Democrat editor, wrote the next day. “Books and dishes cascaded down. Shouts filled households as parents groped in darkness for their children. Residential streets filled instantly, everyone wondering if there would be more.”
Homes, offices, schools, businesses, sidewalks and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital were damaged, but the earthquakes caused no immediate deaths. Total damage was estimated at $8.35 million, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Between the two quakes, 89-year-old George Van Buskirk went down the elevator of the Occidental Hotel to watch a sports program on TV in the lobby. The second quake hit as he was in the elevator, and he remained stuck there for the night.
“I wasn’t scared,” he told The Press Democrat. “I must have slept for four or five hours” in the elevator.
After he was rescued, Van Buskirk was photographed next to the elevator with a slight smile and wearing dark sunglasses. The picture was featured in the paper alongside this old school caption: “Crusty Oldtimer Spends Night There.”
The earthquakes were the biggest in the North Bay since the devastating 1906 earthquakes, which killed at least 85 people in Santa Rosa.
Another earthquake anniversary approaches this month. More powerful than the 1969 quakes was the Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct. 17, 1989, which had a 6.9 magnitude.
See the gallery above for photos from the 1969 earthquakes.
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September 30, 2021 at 08:36PM
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'Shouts filled households': 1969 earthquakes left Santa Rosans in the dark - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
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