1989 Loma Prieta earthquake Area's automobile transportation landscape. Not only did the quake force seismic retrofitting of all San Francisco Bay Area bridges, it caused enough damage that some parts of the region's freeway system had to be demolished. Damage to the region's transportation system was estimated at $1.8 billion. The 1989 World Series featured the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants in the first cross-town World Series since 1956. Game 3 of the series was scheduled to begin at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on October 17 at 17:35 PDT, and American TV network ABC began its pre-game show at 17:00 PDT. When
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake the normally crowded freeways contained unusually light traffic. If traffic had been normal for a Tuesday rush hour, injuries and deaths would certainly have been higher. The initial media reports failed to take into account the game's effect on traffic and initially estimated the death toll at 300, a number that was corrected to 63 in the days after the earthquake. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred, a group led by Antony C. Fraser-Smith of Stanford University reported that the event was preceded by disturbances in background magnetic field noise as measured by a sensor placed in Corralitos, California,