A 15-second earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, inflicted extensive damage in the San Francisco Bay area on Oct. 17.
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Initial estimates of a death toll in excess of 250 were later revised to fewer than 100. The uncertainty arose from the fact that most of the dead were crushed within their cars when an elevated section of the Interstate 880 highway in the Oakland area collapsed on to its lower tier during the evening rush hour.
The epicentre of the earthquake was in a relatively unpopulated area some 10 miles north of the coastal town of Santa Cruz. The most extensive damage within San Francisco occurred in the Marina district where many of the buildings were over 50 years old. The area was also devastated by fires caused by fractured gas pipes. Elsewhere in the city--with the exception of the I-880 collapse-- damage was less severe, in part because of strict building regulations but also because most of the city (other than the bay area) was built on rock rather than mud. These differences ensured that the consequences of the earthquake were considerably less serious than those experienced in Soviet Armenia which was struck by an earthquake of a similar size in December 1988.
Pressure from the two tectonic plates which meet at the San Andreas fault made the San Francisco area particularly vulnerable to seismic disturbance. Although the disaster was the second worst earthquake suffered by the USA (the most serious being in San Francisco in 1906), many geologists considered that it did not constitute the severe earthquake which had been widely predicted.
Congress passed legislation on Oct. 25 which added $2,850 million to the federal disaster relief funds, and which relaxed restrictions on how the money could be used. The bill, which was signed by President Bush on Oct. 26, was also designed to extend relief to those areas of the country which had been damaged by Hurricane Hugo.
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