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Stewart Brand happened to be driving by the Marina in San Francisco on the fateful evening of October 17, 1989. As the chaos of the 7.1 earthquake unfolded, he helped rescue victims and made mental notes of what worked and didn’t work. Later, he recorded his impressions and interviewed others to create a comprehensive record of what it’s like to go through a major catastrophe.
Mr. Brand, who is best known for founding the WELL (an early online community) and creating The Whole Earth Catalog, has kindly given permission to use this article "in any way you like," so feel free to print it out and share it with others. By the way, he’s still very busy. These days he lives on a tugboat in Sausalito and runs the Long Now Foundation, which is dedicated to encouraging long-term thinking.
Download "Learning from the Earthquake," by Stewart Brand, here.
Here’s an excerpt:
Arriving at the corner of Beach Street I gazed like a tourist upon two four-story apartment buildings collapsed to one-and-a-half stories and tipped into the street -- one on the east and one on the west side of Divisadero. The eastern one was shortly to become the most photographed building in the world that week. It was fascinating to contemplate. Inside it three women were trapped, but the origamied walls said nothing of that. Lesson: In any collapsed building, assume there are people trapped alive. Locate them, let them know everything will be done to get them out.
In front of the building I found off-duty police sergeant Dennis Gustafson doing the right thing, calling through the floor to two women who were buried, "What are your injuries? Are you bleeding badly? What sort of space are you in?" He and I proceeded to explore the building, looking for an opening down to their level. There wasn’t one. I headed around the back of the building, clambering gingerly in my sneakers over the splintered, careened walls, amid a menacing stench of gas.
Stepping into broken rooms I felt like an invader of the privacy of strangers. I dreaded finding a crushed body or someone badly hurt. I was silent, almost furtive. Directly below me, under ten feet of debris, one Sheila Cox was trapped. I never discovered her. Lesson: Searching a building, call out. "Anybody in here? Anybody need help? Shout or bang on something if you can hear my voice."
