Anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake

I get the Writer's Almanac emailed to me each day. Today it has a description of the 1906 earthquake that happened right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've read many accounts about it ... but this one had so many shocking bits to it. Read it and see if you don't learn some new things. Kinda reminded me of Katrina in New Orleans.

It was on this day in 1906 that one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States occurred: the San Francisco earthquake. The shaking started at 5:12 a.m. on a Wednesday, and lasted just over a minute, with the main shock 42 seconds long. It erupted along the San Andreas fault, which runs the length of California. The epicenter was two miles off the coast of San Francisco. It was probably about a 7.8 on the modern Richter scale.

In 1906, San Francisco had a population of 410,000 people. The earthquake and resulting fires left about two out of every three residents of the city homeless. The earthquake ruined many buildings, but historians estimate that 90 percent of the destruction to the city came from fires that followed the earthquake, rather than the earthquake itself. The initial fires were caused by ruptured gas lines, and then firefighters decided to blow up buildings with dynamite, hoping that they would create firebreaks. It didn't work, and it's estimated that half of the buildings blown up by dynamite would have otherwise survived. On top of that, since insurance covered fire damage but not earthquake damage, people started setting their own homes and businesses on fire. But as it turned out, insurance companies could not cover the massive disaster, so people didn't get their money anyway. About 500 people were shot and killed by police and federal troops who had been called in to keep order. Some of the people who were killed weren't actually looting — they were trying to rescue their own possessions.

The city of San Francisco hurried to rebuild in time for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. In the rush, many building codes and regulations were ignored, and buildings built after the 1906 earthquake were actually less seismically safe than those built before.

Some pretty awful stuff ...

• "The earthquake and resulting fires left about two out of every three residents of the city homeless."
• "... insurance companies could not cover the massive disaster, so people didn't get their money anyway."
• "About 500 people were shot and killed by police and federal troops who had been called in to keep order. Some of the people who were killed weren't actually looting — they were trying to rescue their own possessions."
• "... and buildings built after the 1906 earthquake were actually less seismically safe than those built before."

Would we fare any better now?

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