How Quickly It Could Go
I was reminded Wednesday night while dining at Modern Thai and after feeling my first earthquake, brief but obvious, that my fabulous life in San Francisco could change in a matter of seconds. I was reminded again tonight when Elaine emailed asking if I had felt the quake twenty minutes earlier that shook Samira's house like crazy.Fascinated -- and not in keeping with the holiday cheer I'm feeling otherwise -- I started exploring the Internet anew and found eyewitness accounts about the 1906 earthquake on The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
Here are some quotes pulled from stories. The descriptions are terrific.
On the morning of the 18th of April I was awakened from a sound slumber by a terrific trembling, which acted in the same manner as would a bucking broncho. My bed was going up and down in all four directions at once, while all about me I heard screams, wails, and crashing of breaking china-
Arnold Genthe's famous photograph of San Francisco following the earthquake, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street (from Wikipedia.com)I take no notice for the moment, and then, as the rocking continues, I get up and go to the window, raise the shade and look out. And what I see makes me tremble with fear. I see the buildings toppling over, big pieces of masonry falling, and from the street below I hear the cries and screams of men and women and children. Enrico Caruso, on tour in San Francisco
My mother then went after some stuff to eat so that we wouldn’t be without something if we had to go up to the hills to get away from the fire. By the time it was gaining headway and cinders from the fire came floating down on us until there was a thin layer of them all over the yard. Lloyd Head, a member of the Roosevelt Boys’ Club
posted by Jay @ 12:31 AM
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