Today in History: The 1906 San Francisco quake kills thousands, costing $500 million
What has become known as the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 devastated a vast majority of the city, killing thousands of people.
Shortly after 5am on the morning of 18 April 1906, the San Andreas fault line (on which San Francisco lies) slipped along a segment approximately 430km long, leading to an earthquake that was felt as far south as Los Angeles (616km away), as far north as Oregon (848km away).
The quake came at a time when San Francisco had been experiencing an unprecedented number of smaller earthquakes over a number of decades.
Its epicentre is believed to have been somewhere off the coast of San Francisco, which bore the brunt of the damage caused by the earthquake.
Despite the earthquake predating the Richter Scale by three decades, the strength has been estimated to have been anywhere between 7,7 and 8,3, with 7,9 being the most widely accepted estimate.
During the earthquake, the city’s main water supply was damaged. This meant that when the subsequent fires broke out, the fire department was rendered useless as they were incapable of putting out the fires.
For the next three days, the fires would blaze their way through 500 blocks (10km²) of the city’s centre, after which the smouldering ashes were finally doused by some very timely rain.
The earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed 28 000 buildings, killed more than 3 000 people and left 250 000 people (more than half of the city’s population) homeless.
While the exact cost of the damage caused is widely debated, there are three numbers which are regularly thrown around that come to mind-boggling numbers in today’s currency;
$350 million – $9,2 billion *
$400 million – $10,5 billion **
$500 million – $13,1 billion ***
The subsequent rebuilding of the city saw the need for significant redesigns that could combat earthquakes and fires.
There had been previous plans to ‘beautify’ the city as Los Angeles was doing, but due to the city’s growing importance as a business hub on the West Coast, the rebuilding of the business districts was placed at the forefront of building plans, ahead of the beautification of the city.
If you would like a glimpse at what life was like in San Francisco in 1906, prior to the earthquake, it’s your lucky day.
Four brothers filmed a trip down Market Street four days before the earthquake and subsequent fires, after which they filmed the devastation that was caused.
While the film of the aftermath has not yet been released to the public, and is only available to a theatre in America, here is the footage from four days before the earthquake:
* Inflation calculation reference – “$350,000,000 in 1906 ? 2018 | Inflation Calculator.” FinanceRef Inflation Calculator, Alioth Finance, 17 April 2018: https://www.in2013dollars.com/1906-dollars-in-2018?amount=350000000.
** Inflation calculation reference – “$400,000,000 in 1906 ? 2018 | Inflation Calculator.” FinanceRef Inflation Calculator, Alioth Finance, 17 April 2018: https://www.in2013dollars.com/1906-dollars-in-2018?amount=400000000.
*** Inflation calculation reference – “$500,000,000 in 1906 ? 2018 | Inflation Calculator.” FinanceRef Inflation Calculator, Alioth Finance, 17 April 2018: https://www.in2013dollars.com/1906-dollars-in-2018?amount=500000000
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