🚀 go-pugleaf

nlu@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu) wrote in message news:<9licen$lpd$1@usenet.Stanford.EDU>...
> In article <70apntc1fhjvvu06r3ibl60bjpb3qse2ui@4ax.com>,
> Garry Wiegand  <gnews11@ithaca.com> wrote:
> >
> >There were about 63,000 people in Candlestick that day. The population of the
> >Bay Area in 1989 was just over 6,000,000. Therefore just about 1.05% of the
> >Bay Area population was in Candlestick at the moment of the earthquake, and
> >therefore not out driving.
> >
> >There were a total of 63 deaths ascribed to the Loma Prieta earthquake
> >throughout the Bay Area. If those 1.05% of the people hadn't been in
> >Candlestick, there might have been 1.05% * 63 == less than one additional
> >death.
> 
> However, that's not quite it; there were also a lot more people who went home
> early in order to catch the game on TV; they were probably better off at home
> than otherwise.


That's true.  Right after the Cypress Freeway collapse, they were
anticipating hundreds of deaths underneath the rubble; it was rush
hour, and that freeway was usually packed.  However, pretty much
EVERYONE went home early, or went to a sports bar, to watch the game.
Traffic there (as well as everywhere else in the Bay Area) was
extraordinarily light.  If the World Series had been any two teams
other than the A's and the Giants, there would have easily been at
least 200 more deaths on that freeway alone. Plus there would have
been more people on the Bay Bridge, and more people walking around
downtown (to get hit by falling glass)