San Francisco pays tribute to triumph over 1906 quake

SAN FRANCISCO — Sirens wailed and bells tolled before dawn Tuesday as residents marked the moment 100 years earlier when the Great Quake shattered the city, killing thousands as it leveled buildings and touched off fires that burned for days.

A handful of centenarians who survived that devastation joined hundreds of other people for a moment of silence and a memorial ceremony to remember one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

The annual wreath-laying at Lotta's Fountain, the downtown landmark where San Franciscans gathered after the quake to look for loved ones, was a somber remembrance and a celebration of the city's ability to rise from the ashes.

"The pioneering spirit that defines our past, I would argue defines our present, and gives me optimism of the future," Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "San Francisco, a city of dreamers. And San Francisco, a city of doers."

Most of the city's 400,000 residents were still in bed when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906.

The foreshock sent people scrambling, and the main shock arrived with such fury that it flattened crowded rooming houses. The epicenter was a few miles offshore, but it was felt as far away as Oregon and Nevada. In 28 seconds, it brought down City Hall.

From cracked chimneys, broken gas lines and toppled chemical tanks, fires erupted and swept across the city, burning for days. Ruptured water pipes left firefighters helpless, while families carrying what they could fled to parks that had become makeshift morgues.

Toll remains uncertain

Historians say city officials, eager to bring people and commerce back to the city, radically underestimated the death toll. Researchers are still trying to settle on a number, but reliable estimates put the loss at more than 3,000, and possibly as high as 6,000.

In any case, it ranks as one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, a benchmark to which later calamities are compared.

"This is a city that could have been swept off the map that day," said Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, who later Tuesday led a parade of fire engines through the city.

Newsom noted that the three years it took San Francisco to come back after 1906 bodes well for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast.

"Don't tell me you can't rebuild," he said. "We rebuilt, and we are stronger and better than ever."

The centenarians were applauded as they joined the mayor, fire chief and other dignitaries on a stage next to the fountain once used to water horses.

Newsom asked the 10 women and two men to share their memories of growing up in the scarred city. For most, the memories were spotty.

The oldest, Chrissie Martenstein, 109, said she remembered "a big shock and a great deal of misery," while Violet Lyman, 102, could still see a cow running along a street and smell smoke from the fires.

Norma Norwood, 99, drew laughter when she described how her father told her she was conceived when her parents, after losing their home, "snuggled" in a tent in Golden Gate Park.

Communities up and down the San Andreas Fault, source of the mighty quake, held commemorations Tuesday.

In Santa Rosa, where 119 of the 7,500 citizens were killed, volunteers representing the dead walked by candlelight behind a horse-drawn hearse to the cemetery where 15 earthquake victims were buried in a one grave.

A timely reminder

Government officials said they hoped to use the centennial to remind all Californians to prepare for another devastating quake by making plans to live for three days without power, water and other essentials.

Speaking at a conference of seismic specialists in San Francisco later in the day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger noted that 90 percent of the city's residents do not have a disaster plan.

"The government cannot do anything alone. The public must do its part, each and every one of us," he said.

A study released Monday determined that a repeat of that 1906 temblor today would cause 1,800 to 3,400 deaths, damage more than 90,000 buildings, displace up to 250,000 households and result in $150 billion damage.

At the predawn ceremony, the chief of the city's Office of Emergency Services, Anne Marie Conroy, urged people to get their disaster supplies together. But even she was ready to let the good times roll.

"The bars open at 6," she said. "Go out and raise a toast to the incredible spirit of the city of San Francisco."