rantlust

Posted by anupcs on April 18th 2006 in Disasters, History, Nature
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Today marks the centennial of the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The 7.8 magnitude quake struck at 5:12 am along the San Andreas Fault and its tremors were felt as far away as Oregon and Nevada. The city of Santa Rosa was destroyed, the newly built campus of Stanford University was decimated, and San Francisco itself was damaged severely. Most people died in the fire that ravaged the city immediately afterwards than the actual quake. The fire was apparently started by an overturned stove inside a Chinese laundry. The firefighters couldn’t put it out because the underground water pipes had burst and there was no water coming out of the hydrants.

The city officials played down the quake then and gave a lowly figure of casualties (478) because they didn’t want to scare people (investors) away from the city. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the city reconciled to the fact that more than 3000 people died in that quake and overhauled its building code. Another less mentioned fact is that the city’s Chinese residents were the target of the local government after the quake. They wanted to displace the Chinese and move Chinatown away from its prime location in the city. Only after President Teddy Roosevelt intervened, were they saved.

Fox News has a list of the wild and wacky tales from the 1906 quake, like all such disasters have. The one I found the most amusing is:

World-famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso performed Carmen at San Francisco’s Grand Opera House on the night of April 17. A few hours later, as fire raced through the Palace Hotel where he stayed, Caruso went to his room’s balcony and sang a few notes to make sure his vocal cords were not ruined by the shock of the earthquake.

Every one of us who live here knows that it is very likely that a big quake will hit the Bay Area in the next couple of decades. The damage will be much more when that happens. According to a report released today, a repeat of the 1906 quake would cause 1,800 to 3,400 deaths, damage more than 90,000 buildings, displace as many as 250,000 households, and result in US$120 billion in damage. In addition to the San Andreas Fault, we also live near the Hayward Fault which is under even more stress according to the geologists. And yet, most of us don’t even have a basic disaster kit. Maybe it’s time to put aside the bravado and do something about it.

In light of Katrina, there is little hope in FEMA or the Federal government to come to our aid in such an eventuality. The USGS has made available a publication called “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country—Your Handbook for the San Francisco Bay Region” to help Bay Area residents prepare for such a calamity. There is also a new site called ready.gov which has information on emergency preparedness for disasters. (Contrary to popular perception, something good can come out of the Department of Homeland Security which set up the website.)

We keep at home a 2 person emergency preparedness kit from the Red Cross. It’s probably cheaper to buy this elsewhere such as amazon.com. There are even such kits for your pets. At my work, which incidentally sits on reclaimed land (susceptible to liquefaction in a major earthquake), they have these trailers full of food and water for the entire campus in case of emergency. Though I wonder what good it would be if we are sinking. You don’t have to buy all this stuff, you can just assemble it yourself of course.

I also think it’s important to have a couple of ways to get back together with your family in case the turd hits the fan. An out-of-town contact, a meeting point near home, etc., are good elements of a family disaster plan.