San Francisco fetes great quake on 100th anniversary

A young girl takes part in a 1906 earthquake evacuation reenactment in San Francisco. Picture / Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO - San Franciscans were jolted out of their beds at 5.13am 100 years ago by an earthquake that devastated their city, and today they were up before dawn again to celebrate its survival and rebirth after the "Great One".

Thousands of people crowded around Lotta's Fountain, a monument where families left messages in search of loved ones after the 1906 quake, to mark the anniversary. Among them were a dozen survivors of the disaster.

An estimated 3000 people died in the minute-long, 7.9 magnitude quake and three days of fires that devoured 500 city blocks and left more than half of the city's 400,000 residents homeless.

Most of the survivors were infants when the quake hit, but still had tales to tell.

"I remember a cow running up the hill with its tail straight in the air," said survivor Violet Lyman.

Another woman, 99 years old, said she considered herself "a product of the earthquake" because she was conceived and born in one of the many tents erected for survivors in Golden Gate Park.

Mayor Gavin Newsom said San Francisco is an example to places devastated by disaster, such as New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year.

"Who would have imagined that just a few days after that people would literally dust off and step up and seek to resolve to rebuild their home in the miraculous way that we see it here today," Newsom said.

Sirens were sounded and bars were open at dawn to enhance the anniversary commemorations. Residents awoke to find a copy of the morning-after 1906 edition of The Call-Chronicle-Examiner newspaper on their doorsteps, with the headline "Earthquake and Fire: San Francisco in Ruins."

But for all the celebrations of survival, the anniversary also has served as a reminder of how vulnerable the Bay Area is to the movements in the seven faults in its environs.

Seismic experts believe the Bay Area has a 60 per cent chance of a major earthquake in the next 25 years. An earthquake today on the San Andreas fault of the magnitude of the 1906 disaster could kill thousands and cause US$150 billion in damage.

"I live on the Hayward fault and we are up for another one," said Art Brandenburg, who came to the ceremony in long underwear, a coat and top hat. "Everyone needs to carry a whistle and a flashlight."

Brandenburg said he dressed for the occasion to emulate Enrico Caruso, the great Italian tenor who was similarly clad as he fled his room at the nearby Palace Hotel when the quake hit. Caruso never came back to San Francisco.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took advantage of the day to admonish families for not preparing for a big quake.

"Ninety per cent of the people in San Francisco do not have a family disaster plan," Schwarzenegger said. "After all we have been through in this state and after what we have seen in New Orleans, I think this is shocking."

A Field poll released today showed that two out of three Californians do not think the earthquake threat makes the state a more dangerous place to live.

Most people's earthquake memories centre on October 1989, when the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake 100km south of the city killed more than 60 people and severely damaged the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland.

Over at the Sutter Station bar on Market Street, early-morning revellers -- reminiscent of the drinking traditions of the city's Barbary Coast a century ago -- played down the danger of living on the faults.

"Very few people get killed and the odds are that you will live," said Paul Meaney, 66, a San Francisco native.

"I think about it enough to make sure my food and water supply is rotated -- and also my beer supply."

- REUTERS