Page 57 - Reading Success B9

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is remembered in the U.S. as one of the
nation’s worst natural disasters. It caused more deaths than any other natural
disaster in California’s history. The earthquake struck at 5 AM on Wednesday,

April 18, 1906. The earthquake’s power is estimated to be at a magnitude of 7.8
on the Richter Scale. It occurred along the San Andreas Fault line and traveled a
length of 296 miles northward. The earthquake could be felt all the way from
Oregon to Los Angeles and as far inward as Nevada.

While the earthquake and its aftershocks did cause a fair amount of damage
the fires that burned afterward were far more damaging. A combination of the poor
building standards of the time and the severity of the earthquake destroyed a

majority of the structures that were lost that day before they caught fire. Fires
broke out in many parts of town, some fueled by natural gas mains that had
broken during the earthquake. Other fires were caused by the campfires of
refugees, and some were even caused by arson. Unfortunately, the city’s water
mains were also broken by the quake making it difficult for the city’s fire
department to control and extinguish the fires. Eventually several fires in the

downtown are merged into one massive inferno. A journalist at the time wrote that,
“It was not a fire in San Francisco, but rather a fire of San Francisco.” The fire
lasted for a total of four days and four nights. It destroyed over 500 city blocks of
downtown San Francisco.

The disaster left a long-lasting and significant impression on development in
California. Just prior to the disaster San Francisco had been the largest city on the
West Coast and the ninth largest in the entire U.S., with a population of about
410,000. The city was even dubbed the “gateway to the Pacific” as it had become

the financial, trade and cultural center of the West. However, this all changed
when 80% of the city was destroyed and nearly 300,000 of its total population
were left homeless.

Main Idea

What is the main idea of this story?

a. the cause of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
b. the destruction caused by both the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the

fire that occurred afterwards
c. the San Francisco’s fire department’s inability to properly deal with fires in 1906

d. the dangers of living in San Francisco

60_Reading Success B 9