I was at the World Series game for Loma Prieta. I was waiting in a beer line on the upper deck outer concourse at Candlestick. It started slowly - Oh an earthquake. It grew - damn a pretty big one. It kept going - O ****, look around for the exit ramps. And finally - Oooff, as the woman behind me freaks and grabs me for dear life. Then it stopped and there was a near riot, because the power went out and they stopped selling beer - someone jumped over the counter and tried to self serve - they quickly decided it would be better if they kept selling it (the kegs didn't need power and they just collected money by hand).
The most surreal aspect of it though was the tremendous noise, followed by a moment of sudden total silence, followed by an entire parking lot of car alarms going off.
The initial atmosphere was almost party like - people wanting to wait around and watch a baseball game. It was only as word began to spread from people with radios - the Bay Bridge, Cypress Structure collapse, fires in the Marina - that people realized how bad it was. It took the longest time to tell people that the game was canceled and to evacuate the park. The power was out so they couldn't do PA announcements - they had cop cars with loudspeakers drive onto the field, but you couldn't hear them in the upper deck.
I waited back by my car. Brake lights were bumper-to-bumper and not moving on 101.
People who had been tailgating before the game brought out coolers and grills and shared. People huddled around the few cars where someone had a portable TV.
I saw a familiar (and very unhappy looking) guy standing outside a limo a few cars down - some guy from TV. Was that Paul "I'm a Credit Man" from the Diamond Center (no), was it Sy "I'm not just the president, I'm also a client" Sperling of the Hair Club for Men (no), was it George "I Guarantee It" Zimmer, founder and CEO of the Men's Warehouse (yes!). Someone went over to ask if his lifetime pressing guarantee covered earthquakes - he was not amused.
Finally after about 2 or 3 hrs, traffic started moving on 101. I made the long drive back to West San Jose, through a patchwork of places with and without power. Fortunately my power was on when I got home - everything was pretty much OK except for one toppled bookshelf and a VCR which committed suicide by jumping off the top of my TV.
The other odd thing that I remember were the radio announcements asking for emergency personnel (police, fire, doctors, nurses, etc) to report (as expected) and ending with "and would all elevator repairmen please call your service".