Time Summary:
00:38 Interview begins

0: 44 Jo Ellen has been a Santa Cruz resident since 1974 and Rick since 1978

1:04 Jo Ellen begins recalling day-of experience as both a resident of the Santa Cruz mountains and a business owner in Scotts Valley

2:07 Describes being able to hear and feel earthquake begin

2:20 Impact on Scotts Valley sandhills and businesses. Neither longer exist

3:00 Jo Ellen and Rick's tenant with a childrens dance studio

3:50 Concern about their property in the summit

4:13 Rick describes driving a car during the earthquake on Scotts Valley Drive

4:30 Describes people checking car tires– mistaking the earthquake for flat tires
4:55 Impact on dirt quarry that used to exist near Scotts Valley Drive

5:05 Rick describes experience in his autoshop immediately after the earthquake

5:54 Rick describes Scotts Valley residents buying all the unbroken liquor from liquor stores

6: 13 Rick likens the atmosphere post-earthquake as "Mad Max"

6:25 Driving along Zayante Road/Zayante-Vergeles fault line

7:05 Describes having to walk up damaged driveway that was unable to be driven on

7:14 Rick notices that his roof has moved and bottom of the house was broken

7:43 Discusses going to neighbors half a mile away; describes everyone staying in cars because they felt unsafe being indoors

8:07 Rick, Jo Ellen and their infant start living in their car

8:36 Rick describes earthquake flattening tires in cars and other effects of gravity on infrastructure

10:33 Rick and Jo Ellen describe their ridge top house

10:43 Discusses lecture at University of California, Santa Cruz by seismologist Karen McNally

11:00 Describes structural damage and 3-year process of rebuilding their house

11:17 Jo Ellen laments on how natural disasters build community

12:28 Jo Ellen describes bad smells from piled debris weeks after earthquake

13:00 Describes how Santa Cruz County created a secondary crisis after Jo Ellen called them for help

14:24 Rick discusses re-doing house plans, per county regulations, but the county refused to grant any permits.

14:39 Scrambling to find help to get the county to release permits for their rebuild

15:20 Jo Ellen discusses charitable responses from local organizations

16:15 Describes unstable housing situation for 3 years after earthquake and their second child being born during that time

16:47 County rejecting their housing plans but offering no guidance on requirements

17:10 New foundation for their house cost $55,000 in 1991
17:17 Rick describes how $120,000 FEMA loan nearly bankrupted them

18:14 Rick discusses government failures in natural disaster response

18:37 Moving into unfinished house a month before son could walk
19:25 Rick discusses insights gained from free therapy services after earthquake/attending couples therapy

21:18 Rick and Jo Ellen describe how friends came from Sacramento and helped rebuild their house

23:08 Rick discusses the challenges of rebuilding during winter

23:35 Reasoning for rebuilding as a one-story house; original house was two-story

24:38 Rick and Jo Ellen describe new anxieties about wildfires after recent drought and County refusal to maintain land

25:00 Rick describes how Santa Cruz mountains are especially susceptible to wildfires

25:27 Jo Ellen and Rick discuss rationale behind to rebuild home in the same spot

28:28 Briefly mentions the tearing down of Cooper House

29:37 Jo Ellen describes learning how to navigate the system after a natural disaster before the internet

30:22 Jo Ellen reflects her peer group in Santa Cruz going through the earthquake

31:05 Rick describes highway 17 being closed for one month and the geographic isolation it caused.

32:25 Jo Ellen and Rick hosted a 25th earthquake anniversary party

32:40 Rick discusses feelings during a 5.0 earthquake in July 1989

33:55 Rick reflects on the power and will of mother nature

34:37 Emergency preparedness and priorities after experiencing the earthquake

36:05 Attitudes towards material possessions changing after the earthquake

36:30 Rick discusses not having a meet-up plan with family in case of another disaster

37:24 Rick re-emphasizes anxieties around wildfires as most immediate natural disaster concern and lack of county preparation

37:50 Concern about narrow roads and poor infrastructure in event of wildfire or another natural disaster

39:00 Jo Ellen and Rick describe the feeling of reflecting on the earthquake 30 years later

41:07 Jo Ellen recalls calling the Santa Cruz Sentinel for help after having no luck with government organizations