The+San+Fransisco+Earthquake

By Emmett Grade 5

San Francisco was destroyed by a huge earthquake on Wednesday, April 15, 1906. About a half a million people lived there. A lot of people lived in wooden houses which would collapse easily and burn quickly. The earthquake did a lot of damage. There were huge cracks the size of small streets. Whole buildings fell inside the cracks. Trolley car wires twisted and chimneys broke. The City Hall collapsed. The largest building in California fell. Only the steel pillars were left, and after the earthquake the building looked like a skeleton. The whole front wall of a hotel fell off.

The people of San Francisco built shelters and they stayed in touch with family and other people. They nailed signs to everything that was standing. All the lost people went to Golden Gate Park. Babies were born in the street. People were surrounded by fire but they couldn’t put out fires.

The city revived quickly. Ten years after the earthquake you couldn’t tell it happened. People all over the world sent money, doctors, food, clothes and beds. Students in Oregon baked 830 loaves of bread. San Francisco learned to build buildings that can withstand the pressures of an earthquake.

Image source http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayintech_0418