Your support helps us tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to big tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the finances of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word,’ which shines a light on American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know the importance of analyzing the facts of messaging. .
At such a critical moment in American history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to continue sending journalists to tell both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to block Americans from our reporting and analysis with a paywall. We believe that quality journalism should be available to everyone, and paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes a difference.
Where were you during the great California non-tsunami in December 2024?
When An unusually strong earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area at 10:44 a.m. Thursdaymost residents were not particularly alarmed. Small to moderate fluctuations due to small or distant earthquakes are normal here.
But when the phones started buzzing sharply with government warnings warn of an impending tsunamia more unusual situation has arrived.
“It was very scary,” said Carol Ruth Silver, 86, a retired San Francisco lawyer and veteran politician. The Independent. “It didn’t say how bad it was [the waves] wanted to leave… my thoughts were: let’s get out of here!”
Within ten minutes, Silver and her companions piled into a car and headed for a nearby hill—just like many San Franciscans who took the warning seriously and fled to higher ground.
As a flurry of messages and calls to loved ones spread across the city, police and firefighters roamed the waterfront with loudspeakers telling people to evacuate, while schools, businesses and beaches quickly emptied.
Huge waves never appeared, and the tsunami warning was canceled at 11:54 a.m. Officials stressed that this was not a “false alarm” and that there was a “real threat”, which fortunately did not materialize.
Yet in the short time between those two warnings, Bay Area residents went through a wide range of reactions: from sudden panic to eager curiosity to indifferent resignation to impending death.
And in the city of which they are residents always looking over their shoulder for the next “big one” – though often not as prepared as they’d like to be in the midst of the daily grind – even the relief sometimes had an uneasy edge.
“We were happy that there was no destruction or injuries or anything, but we also wanted to see a little action,” said Danny Diekroeger, a 32-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur and former minor league baseball player who climbed a nearby hill in hopes of live stream the waves.
‘You are in danger’
Silver was drinking her morning coffee and eating oatmeal at her home in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood when she got the alert.
While she was still soaking it up, a friend arrived and showed her the official US government hazard map – with the entire San Francisco Peninsula highlighted in bright red.
“A series of strong waves and strong currents could affect coastlines near you. You are in danger,” reads the message sent to California smartphones. “Stay away from coastal waters. Move to higher ground or inland. Stay away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.”
San Franciscans are used to being told that they should always be prepared for disaster. The bay area extends on top junction of geological fault linesand California officials predict a 48 percent earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or greater will strike somewhere in the state in the next 30 years.
Locals who know their history are all too aware of the devastation caused by the great earthquake of 1906, which flattened over 80 percent of the still-growing city and killed more than 3,000 people.
More recently, during a 1989 baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, the Loma Prieta earthquake killed 63 people and brought down the multi-story freeway that then ran along the city’s historic waterfront.
In fact, the actual evacuation zone for Monday’s tsunami warning was much smaller than the map Silvers saw, and was limited to a low-lying coastal area. But with no clear picture of how bad it could get, Silver, her friend and a family member headed uphill.
Not everyone was so worried. Across the bay in Emeryville, 33-year-old Mary Baker felt accustomed to repeated phone calls and ignored the latest warning. “All my friends texted me and said: ‘should we take this seriously’?” she said. “People are pretty tired.”
Later, however, she came out of her apartment and found the kayak in the hallway. It turned out to belong to her neighbor, an avid kayaker who told her he wanted to be prepared if their building was swallowed by floodwaters. “It was very stupid. I couldn’t tell how serious he was,” Baker said.
Meanwhile, crypto entrepreneur Diekroeger was leading his dog Sky — a large gray rescue pit bull — to higher ground. He was sitting on his terrace in the Marina district when he felt the initial tremor, and a few minutes later he received a tsunami warning.
“I thought, wow, that’s great. I’m always a fan of seeing Mother Nature do mighty things. I wasn’t worried, but I was quite interested,” he said The Independent.
Diekroeger’s own home was high above sea level and he could see police and firefighters closer to shore telling residents to evacuate at least an hour before the wave was expected to arrive. Therefore, he was confident that the people were “taken care of” and that he had enough time to get to safety.
“I really love when there are other natural disasters and people take the time to live stream so everyone can see what’s going on. I think they’re the best content because it’s usually just people in the situation, raw and unfiltered,” he said.
After relaying the warning to his family, Diekroeger climbed Fort Mason, a commanding hill overlooking the old military docks where American soldiers embarked for the Pacific campaign during World War II, and began broadcasting live.
He was not alone. A crowd of people gathered to watch the incoming tsunami, most of whom appeared to have been evacuated from the coast. The vibe was “calm” and “curious,” says Diekroeger, as officers continued to usher people further down the hill.
“This isn’t another simulation, is it?”
For Janine Zacharia, 50, the tsunami warning was strangely familiar land. As a journalism professor at Stanford University down in Silicon Valley, every October she surprises her graduate students with a simulated breaking news exercise.
The script? A damaging earthquake in the Bay Area – complete with rumblings, fake public address system announcements, fake press conferences, volunteers role-playing as victims, and sometimes even the floor shaking thanks to the virtual reality lab next door.
“Even though it’s a simulation, it feels real,” said Zacharia, the former head of the Jerusalem Bureau for The Washington Post who has reported on armed conflicts in the Middle East for years. “It’s really the only way to train for that kind of reporting,”
So when Monday’s quake struck 14 minutes after her last class on Monday, students were skeptical.
“I could tell they thought I was joking,” Zacharia said The Independent. “They said, ‘Janine, we’re not going to do another simulation, are we?’ I said, ‘no!’
“Then all the phones just blew up with the tsunami warning. And I said ‘okay, I guess we should start calling’.”
Zacharia quickly began setting angles, sending student reporters to call various public agencies, snacking on passers-by and live blogging on the course website, Peninsula Press. “Everyone was quite amazed at how exactly it looked like what we were training for. It was a bit unbelievable,” she said.
It was something to write home about. The San Francisco Zoo began moving its animals and staff to higher ground, while the Bay Area’s BART subway system temporarily halted all trains that cross the Bay Area. Tsunami sirens sounded in nearby Bonny Doon and Santa Cruz. The government’s tsunami map website crashed several times.
In Humboldt County, a rural area north of San Francisco known for legal and illegal cannabis cultivation, there was a power outage and reports of houses blown off their foundations by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Trees were felled, and goods were scattered on shop floors.
A class of third graders on a field trip to a historic mansion narrowly missed being inside when the mirrors, china plates and antiques began it crashes to the ground.
Upon returning to San Francisco, one of Diekroeger’s friends was concerned enough that he and his fiancee quickly packed a bag and took an Uber to the south hills of San Francisco—bringing along a portable generator and a Bitcoin wallet containing their life savings.
Others took a more optimistic view. After the danger has passed,The San Francisco Chronicle found Andre Sea, a 43-year-old teacher, stands on Ocean Beach on the city’s west coast and waits for the waves.
“My house is right over there,” he said, pointing inside. “So if it hits, I’m going to drown anyway.”
From her chosen shelter in Corona Heights Park, just above San Francisco’s LGBT+ Castro district, Silver and her companions had a good view as nothing much happened. “We could sit back and listen to the warnings until we heard that whatever was going to happen happened,” she said.
Diekroeger also said: “It was an interesting afternoon…I’m glad there were no distractions. I’m glad everyone’s okay.”
Although her house was not in danger, Silver is glad she took the situation seriously and evacuated.
“It’s a warning that we in California live right above cracks in the Earth’s crust and we have to be prepared for our evacuation at any moment,” said the former civil rights activist and San Francisco councilwoman – who escaped assassination when Harvey Milk was killed because she decided to drink her second coffee that day.
Officials say it was the right attitude. “Scientists were so concerned that they skipped the other two alert levels and went straight to the highest,” Fire Department Capt. Justin Schorr he said Chronicle. “Don’t wait and say ‘I can get up the hill in 10 minutes.’ By the time you can see or hear it, it’s too late.”
Just make sure you don’t forget your supplies if you ever find yourself in that situation. “I have a bright red emergency backpack … with medical supplies, water and stuff,” Silver added. “I should have taken it with me, but I didn’t.”