ABSTRACT
The major earthquake that began at 5:04 PM on Tuesday, October 17, 1989, lasted only fifteen seconds, but it took sixty-three lives, injured hundreds, and left thousands homeless in the overall San Francisco Bay Area. 1 (The earthquake was originally thought to be 7.1 in magnitude, but in 1999 seismologists adjusted the strength to 6.9.) Santa Cruz County as a whole experienced the most deaths and damage in relative terms. With a much smaller population base, the county suffered six of the sixty-three deaths, had the most homes destroyed (774) or damaged (13,329), and had greater damage to businesses, with 310 businesses destroyed and 1,615 damaged. Of the $36 million in funds disbursed statewide by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $12 million were earmarked for Santa Cruz County (Sentinel, October 13, 1991, A-8).
