Epicenter: A Loma Prieta Earthquake Story with Larry Pearson

Epicenter: The Loma Prieta Earthquake 30th Anniversary Oral Histories Project

Interview conducted and produced by Jenn Hooker.
Recorded at Scotts Valley Branch Library, Scotts Valley, CA on October 10, 2019.

Larry Pearson worked for the City of Santa Cruz when the earthquake struck, and performed a public role in emergency response in the hours, days and weeks following. His account describes the setting up of an emergency operations center and gives his vantage point of the processes of rebuilding.

Duration: 27:30
Time Summary:
 0:27 Interview starts

0:41 Relationship to California, his home state, and Santa Cruz, his home for 47 years

0:58 Work as associate planner with the City of Santa Cruz, and as public information officer

1:13 Leaving City Hall by car

1:36 Experience of earthquake at River Street/ Highway 9 intersection; returns to City Hall

2:00 Describes scene around Pacific Avenue

2:16 Setting up emergency operations center

2:40 Potential for major flood, and involvement of city departments in the following days

3:17 Description of aftershocks

3:52 Describes demolition process

4:17 Business owners' efforts to return to their businesses

5:02 Taking business owners to observe the situation on Pacific

6:38 Assessment of damage and fatalities; effect of residents watching the World Series

7:37 Start of planning processes for rebuilding

8:00 Visit to San Francisco a week after, and comparison of damage

8:30 Description of unique smell

9:05 Discusses building codes

9:50 Reflection on his particular role in unique situation, and limited fatalities

10:13 Story of person killed by a horse in Watsonville

10:23 Focus in national coverage on San Francisco and the Bay Area

11:37 Further explanation of public information officer role and training in Anaheim and Coalinga

12:45 City of Santa Cruz's approach to emergency response

14:18 Description of outside support

16:00 Search and relief effort temporarily halted; frustrations voiced by citizens holding vigil

17:17 Interactions with local TV stations during this event

18:39 Personal experience with previous earthquakes

19:01 City's expectations of a destructive earthquake

19:44 Reflections on personal impact

20:36 Limited damage to house in Aptos

20:48 Impact on Santa Cruz community

21:01 Effects to downtown, collapse of Pacific Garden Mall

21:37 Reflections on new downtown plan

21:54 Use of recovery money from FEMA on new utilities infrastructure

22:39 Discovery of hundred-year old redwood box in water line under Pacific

23:40 Decision to demolish Cooper House

25:28 Personal precautions, confidence in wood-framed building

25:51 Differences between twenty-year and thirty-year anniversaries

27:08 Reflections on the project
Creator: Pearson, Larry; Hooker, Jenn
Date: 2019-10-10
Type: MOVING IMAGE
Coverage:
  • Santa Cruz (County)
  • 1980s
  • 2010s
Rights: Permission must be obtained before using this interview in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who want to make further use of this interview should contact Santa Cruz Public Libraries.
Identifier: LH-LP-PEARSON

Collection

Santa Cruz History Articles

Citation

Pearson, Larry and Jenn Hooker. “Epicenter: A Loma Prieta Earthquake Story with Larry Pearson.” 2019-10-10. SCPL Local History. https://history.santacruzpl.org/omeka/items/show/135867. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.