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"Shake, Rattle, and Roll"

© Meg Greene Malvasi

"As I stood there, the street suddenly began to roll up and down, like a wave on an ocean. . . . I was afraid I'd be swallowed by the ground or buried alive under the rubble." So remembered Police Sergeant Jesse Cook describing the shocking sensation of that horrible April day when the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 hit.

The early hours of Wednesday, April 18th gave no indication that disaster was at hand. From all appearances, it was a typical morning in the "Golden Gate City" as San Francisco was known. Little did the residents realize as they awakened from their slumbers and prepared for their workday that deadly tremors were ready to erupt from beneath the San Andreas Fault. The fault, a large crack that runs 20 miles (32 kilometers) deep, spans the length of California. Consisting of two large plates, or slabs, the fault is in constant motion as these plates grind against each other. When pressure from the grinding becomes too intense, layers of rock "snap" causing an earthquake.

Earthquakes were not new to the residents of San Francisco. There had been earthquakes in 1856, 1872, and 1898, all of which had caused a great deal of destruction. But even though new construction in the city was strengthened to withstand the tremors of the occasional earthquakes, no one was prepared for the intensity of the 1906 quake.

On the first day of his new job with the San Francisco Police Department, Sergeant Cook couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. His horse pawed nervously at the ground and seemed unnaturally keyed up. At 5:13 A. M., the unthinkable happened. Cook and his horse were sent reeling amid a deafening roar, as buildings swayed and crashed to the ground. Two minutes later, it was all over. The once grand city lay in ruins with at least 500 dead and 250,000 homeless.

The first shock lasted forty seconds. Afterward, a dealy quite enveloped the city. The only sounds were the chiming of church bells in the distance. Two more tremors followed, shaking the city so violently that houses, stores, chruches,and publis buildings alike all crashed to the ground. Electric power lines snapped sending showers of blue sparks raining down on the devastation. Broken gas mains filled the air with noxious and explosive fumes. Fires raged everywhere. Residents dashed through the streets, many still in their nightclothes, looking for shelter.

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