Well, another disaster to report on this day's feature. It was on this date in 1906 that San Francisco experienced a devastating earthquake. This was such a massive earthquake that it was felt thousands of miles away at Cape Town, South Africa!
As horrific as the earthquake was, the fire that engulfed the city for four days later was even worse. Initially, the government reportedly said there were 375 deaths because they did not want to let everyone know how bad things were. It would be bad for business and real estate after all. It would appear that at least 3000 were killed--Chinatown casualties were ignored completely. Some sources say 700. Anyway, it was pretty devastating. Possibly 300,000 people were left homeless, and the cost in damages was over 500 million. Remember, this was the early 1900's! Multiply that cost several times over.
San Francisco did recover in the ensuing years in spite of the devastation. As we know, earthquakes are always a danger in this part of the country. And while we know more than we did over 100 years ago, earthquakes are still devastating!
For more information, please check out:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/san-francisco-earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.php
I did not know that this ever happened. How scary that it was felt as far away as Africa!
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