Personal Predictor

Below is a report received from someone who lived in the Santa Cruz mountains, essentially the epicenter, during the Loma Prieta earthquake. Aftershocks occured for years after this 7.1 quake. Portions of this report follow.

• I can tell you my personal experience with this. I lived in the Santa Cruz mountains from 1988-1994 and before each local EQ the noise level on a standard AM radio would fequently drown out the local AM radio stations.

• This was extreme in the 10 days prior to Loma Prieta when no AM stations could be received on my car radio until I got over to San Jose each morning. In the Santa Cruz area you can predict every EQ just by listening to your AM radio between 530 Khz and 1mhz.

• However, there are things to beware of, like local radio noise sources or the computer next door.