Earthquake and fire

Sunday, April 22, 2006 Kentifield, California

Dear Diary,
I intended to write earlier, but life just hasn’t been the same since last Wednesday morning. I remember that I was dreaming that we were out on the sea to go fishing, swaying back and forth in the swells, when suddenly the deck started to rattle and shake. I woke to the real nightmare of my bed rattling so violently that I was thrown out and heard the big pictures on the wall of my room crash to the floor, along with all else atop my dresser drawer. I thought everything was going to collapse. Daddy called out loud from the 1st floor and told me to get up immediately and into the doorway, but I couldn’t open it. I started to cry and pulled and pulled on the handle, when suddenly it just flew open. I hung onto the jamb with all my might, and could hear that everything was crashing all around. There was such a din of rattles and thuds, and cracking and crashing it was hard to tell just what was happening. When cracking and shattering finally stopped Daddy called again and told me to put on something and come get out into the street as quickly as I could. I could care less how I looked, just wanted to make sure I’d be warm enough…so I put on my riding pants and a wool sweater and my jodhpurs. I remember walked carefully as I could down the stairs, afraid that they would break under the strain of my weight. The back porch had actually collapsed, and there were cracks and dust everywhere and broken windows. There were lots of people on the street...
more later

your Polly

P.S. I am in Kentifield now, because we packed some bags and took the ferry to Marin County on Wednesday afternoon, and are staying with our Grandpa and Grandma Sherbeck. Daddy’s office building on California Street is gone as well as most other downtown buildings. I suppose you could say it is a good thing the earth quaked so early in the morning, because daddy might have been crushed to death otherwise. He is down there now, working with a rescue crew. With all the broken gas lines, fires have been raging out of control in the City ever since. The air, even here in Marin County smells of burnt redwood, and the sky is a haze. I can still see smoke curling up across the bay.