The devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 — Life Before
- Chapter 2 — When Disaster Strikes
- Chapter 3 — Disaster Aid
- Chapter 4 — Recovery
Introduction:
On April 18, 1906 an earthquake at 5:12 a.m. struck San Francisco and is known as one of the deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States. The earthquake had an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and a Mercalli intensity of XI. The number of estimated casualties is 3,000. This is the story of what happened.
Chapter 1 — Life Before:
Many events happened before the great earthquake struck among which are the SS Valencia wrecked on Monday, January the 22nd, Kellogg’s company was founded on February the 19th, Ottawa Silver Seven won the Stanley Cup on March the 8th, Courrières mine disaster which caused the deaths of 1,099 miners on March the 10th and the Montreal Wanderers won the Stanley Cup on March the 17th. A day before the disaster struck it was just a normal Tuesday with people communing to work like every day of the week.
Chapter 2 — When Disaster Strikes:
As the clock switched from 4 to 5 a.m. a sudden earthquake erupted at exactly five twelve a.m. this earthquake woke everyone up abruptly in the bay area. Buildings started crumpling down and fires started to break out which resulted in most of the city being in flames. This disaster terrified about half a million of residents in San Francisco. At the time of the earthquake only 375 deaths were reported most of them being in San Francisco others being in the Bay Area. The total number of deaths are still unknown today and the rough estimate is at least 3,000 at the minimum.
Chapter 3 — Disaster Aid:
News of the earthquake soon reached the War Department in Washington which brought the U.S. Army across the nation to help out. Almost immediately after the earthquake, food donations began arriving into San Francisco. The Citizen’s Relief Committee was overcome by the food distribution efforts and the Mayor at the time with the name Eugene Schmitz asked the military to take over. A General by the name of Greely, initially refused Mayor Schmitz’s request to manage the food distribution.
However, Greely eventually agreed to setting up nine food depots. At this point many people are waiting for the city to begin rebuilding which over three hundred thousand people were left homeless and decided to flee across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. The beaches of San Francisco were mostly covered with makeshift tents as many waited for the city to be rebuilt.
Chapter 4 — Recovery:
The aftermath was devastating towards the city and the cities around the Bay Area. Cities such as Santa Rosa and San Jose experienced severe damage. The city began to start rebuilding with little time to plan. Critics said that San Francisco was rebuilt too quickly. The civic and business leaders said if the city were to survive, it had to be rebuilt where it had stood. Within weeks of building streetcars were up and running on Market Street, replacing the obsolete cable cars. The homeless families were taken care of in a respectful manner by giving them a temporary wooden cottages in city parks. The cleanup work was very tiring, the work was mostly done by horse power and it is said over 15,000 horses were worked to death months after the disaster. Thousands of tons of rubble were dumped in Mission Bay which is now the Marina District.
The new San Francisco looked more modern and cleaner. The old Victorian style downtown was completely gone. The California Street Cable Railroad Co. repaired its powerhouse, put the cable machinery back in order, and got the cable cars running on top of Nob Hill again. Between the years in 1906 and 1907 there was 500 to 600 new houses however, many San Franciscans moved from the city permanently. Most of them that moved went to Oakland which doubled to 150,000 between 1900 and 1910. After nine years of the disaster San Francisco was fully functional. They setup a world’s fair called the Panama Pacific International Exposition which is a city of domes and pastel-colored towers built in the Marina on the rubble of the old city. When the fair ended they tore down all of the buildings except one because it was too beautiful to destroy which is Bernard Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts, designed to look like a ruined temple.
The Palace of Fine Arts still stands there today.
