kristoff@NET.BIO.NET (Dave Kristofferson) (10/19/89)
We got a really hard shake here, the worst in my experience of living in California since 1963 (and I was not too far from the major 1971 quake in the Los Angeles area). I was in my office at IntelliGenetics working on my Mac linking together the chapters for the new GenBank On-line Service Manual when we got a big jolt. Sometimes we just ride these things out, but this was sharp enough that I immediately jumped up and got in the doorway. We are on the third floor in a new office building which is built to roll with quakes, and it sure did! A lot of things fell out of bookshelves and machinery got shifted around (one mVAX even fell over) in our machine room. Amazingly enough everything was set back up today and functions fine! Not even any disks crashed which is even more surprising! Our connection to the network is out, so I have no idea when you might receive this. The problem could be at any one or more of a number of sites in the Bay Area. No one was hurt at IG, no broken windows or anything major apparently. This experience gives one a great deal of respect for modern engineering! I drove home 30 miles north on the freeway (280 for those who may know the Bay Area, away from the epicenter) and found only one spot where traffic slowed because of bulges (two of about 6 inches in height about 20 - 40 yards apart). My family and home made it through without even an interruption in electricity! The biggest damage was over in Oakland where a double decker section of the freeway collapsed during rush hour. Casualty figures have been jumping all over the map so I doubt that anyone will no for sure for many days. However most of the deaths seem to be in that one location and at a few other relatively restricted locations in San Francisco and Santa Cruz to the south. Everything was going along smoothly for a November 1 start up date for the new GenBank On-line Service. This may still be met, but I can't say for sure. Telenet PDN is out and they estimate 2-3 days before they are back up. News is saying that there is still a 20% chance of a large (magnitude 6.0) aftershock through this evening. If this occurs, further delays could result. All in all though, we have come through this in remarkably good shape. Perhaps San Francisco in winning the U.S. football Superbowl, both baseball pennant races and the World Series, being the home of Silicon Valley, Berkeley and Stanford, was letting its hubris show too much. The gods have a way of cutting one down to size every now and then 8-)! To the other BIOSCI newsgroup distribution centers: you will undoubtedly get bouncers from us until this message comes through ( and possibly even afterwards if the connection is intermittent). I leave it up to your discretion as to whether or not you should temporarily comment us out of your distribution lists. If the downtime is short, it may not be worth the effort. Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson GenBank On-line Service Manager kristoff@net.bio.net