I was in a cafe for that one, luckily it had very heavy tables in booths and as soon as I felt that unmistakable feeling I immediately got underneath mine where I sat watching the cakes and pastries one by one fall off he shelves onto the floor. The sign that all the specials, etc, was written on was attached by two huge hooks and it also was rocking so far back and forth that soon it too fell off. Everywhere , glass was breaking (and many buildings were falling off of foundations) The glass in countless windows was falling in pieces and sometimes in sheets, in some cases several stories onto the street. Miraculously, in the part of town I was in, the electrical power remained on for quite some time. (A least a half hour!) So did the telephone, long enough for me to walk around a half mile back home, and then call family members and tell them I was okay. Right afterward, the power went out everywhere.
Shortly after that the first of what was to become a huge flood of people appeared all walking home from work, a huge flood of tens of thousands of people all walking southwards and westward, completely filling Market Street.
We spent the night in Delores Park along with thousands of other people, afraid to go back indoors.
Some time later I learned that a friend had actually been on the Bay Bridge driving towards SF at the time the earthquake hit. Being in a car she did not feel it or see any shaking, however, she was alerted to the fact that things were very wrong by the fact that suddenly ahead of her cars were slowing, stopping AND THEN TURNING AROUND AND DRIVING BACK waving to her "go back go back"!!!
A that point she was close enough to see that a huge gap had opened up which a bus was precariously teetering over. Cars were stopped and turning around to drive back which she also did.
If you lived somewhere earthquakes were common, wheels could be problematic in one if there was a lot of ground motion. I've been through two big earthquakes. It's quite the experience.
(One of them was at night and there were bizarre green flashes of light in the sky).
Both good ideas, tablatronix and nanofrog. The bench is heavy enough that even when I want it to move, I have to work at moving it. It's not going anywhere, that's for sure. ![Phew :phew:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/phew.gif)
That is something I don't want to ever experience. My wife lived in the SF bay area during the 1989 earthquake. She said it was one of the scariest things she has ever been through, along with being chased by a tornado in Texas years ago and being at a convenience store 15 minutes before another tornado took it down to the concrete pad, also in Texas.