Earthquake
Another
concern is one that San Francisco shares with few other U.S. cities—destruction
by earthquake. Severe quakes have been felt in 1868, 1898, 1900, 1906, and
1989. But it was the 1906 earthquake that did the most damage and that has
become identified with the city. A little after 5:00 AM on April 18 the entire
city began to tremble and shake. There was a terrible noise, “like the roar
of 10,000 lions,” and San Franciscans knew they were experiencing a nightmarish
earthquake. Cable cars jerked to a stop and the $7 million City Hall crumbled
like a movie set. The glass roof over the Palace Hotel court splintered and
rained down shards.
That quake was followed by a massive fire that destroyed the centre of
town and burned for four days, until the smouldering ashes were wetted down
by rain. Starting
in the business section near Montgomery Street and the South of Market district,
the inferno swept toward Russian Hill, Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph
Hill, where Italians poured wine on the flames to save their houses. Gone
were 4 square miles (10 square km), making up 512 blocks in the centre of
town, along with 28,000 buildings and a total property value of about $350
million. Approximately 700 people died, and 250,000 were left homeless. Survivors
camped in Golden Gate Park. An Eastern journalist, celebrating the survival
of a local distillery, composed the verse, “If, as some say, God spanked the
town / For being over frisky, / Why did he burn the
Churches down / And save Hotaling's Whisky?”
Since
the 1906 earthquake, seismologists and engineers have warned that it could
happen again. Several relatively strong earthquakes (measuring more than 5.0
on the Richter scale) have since then caused little damage. But the quake
on October 17, 1989, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, killed more
than 60 people and caused severe damage to the Marina District and to some
freeways and even more devastation to surrounding areas. Modern office towers
were largely unaffected, indicating that new building methods may provide
some protection for the city.