Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-06
EARTHQUAKE EFFECTS
San Francisco Badly Broken by
the Shake.
DAMAGES ARE MlNlMlZED
City Would Have Had to Be Rebuilt
if Not Burned.
TERRIFIC FORCE OF SHOCK
Scarcely a House Escaped Some De-
gree Of Injury-Bad Building
Exposed
TERRIFIC FORCE OF SHOCK
Staff Correspondence of The Star.

SAN FRANCISCO, April IS, 1906.
If the east are getting the same brand OF
disaster news which the San Francisco pa
pers are serving 1t is being misled. The
intent of the local press is to magnify the
fire and minimize the earthquake. There
are several reasons for this. Earthquake
news hurts the reputation of the city, chiils
the rebuilding ardor OF the people, scares
capital and initiates in favor OF possfple
rival cities. Readers of the city papers 90
not like to read earthquake stories, because
they increase their nervousness and may
retard resumption of business 1t is better
all round to call it the great San Fran
cisco Are than the great San Francisco
earthquake Fire can be guarded against
or controlled. while earthquakes cannot
Besides fire losses mean insurance, and
earthquake losses do not.
The earthouake was ruinous and San
Francisco would have had to be practically
rebuilt had there been no fire. Practically
rebuilt means that certainly every ordi-
nary brick and stone structure in the city
would have been condemned and possibly
nearly all of the modern steel-frame and
brick-faced structures There are half a
dozen of the structures that would have
survived the quake. Their walls and steel
work are still standing, but Ii seems I'M
likely that they have escaped damage
which will render condemnation necessary.
Effects of the Quake.
With all the brick section and the greater
part of the frame section Of the city in
ashes and cinders 1t is still possible to form
an idea of the earthquake damage. This
may be done by an examination of the UNI
burnt sections-the Potrero hills, lower
Mission Noe valley Bernell Heights, west
1lf,y Dc, So tIayfr
and Richmond neighborhoods. The testi
mony of the streets should be taken and
the testimony of men who saw the condi-
ton of the burned-over area after the
quake and before the breaking out of the
fires.
significant feature is the condition of
Market street This broad way, from Mont
gomery street eastward to the bay, is made
land. In the pioneer boom days water
lots were sold. That is, lots were sold in
the bay before being filled in. Before the
quake man could stand at kearney, the
street west of Montgomery, and looking
east see the bast of the ferry house. 1t
was a gentle and regular incline. Now,
standing at kearney, the land drops after
the manner of terrace at Montgomery
street. and one sees not the base Of the
ferry house but the roof line. Market
street. where the debris has been thrown
back from off the car tracks, of which
there are four sets. is expressively uneven.
In the first place. it is bilowy, ridge and
depression succeeding in distances varying
from ten to a hundred feet Then, the car
tracks, rails and paving, are wrenched from
side to side.
Though the debris has been cleared from
the track, part of the street and the
threatening walls dynamited, effort has
yet been made to run. trolley car in this
part of the city because of the broken ma
ture of the ground.
Street Levels Changed.
The south side of Market street, from
East street to Main street, has dropped
and cement sidewalk and granite curbing
raised, so that there Is five feet of space
between the former and present lines OF
jointure of the roadway and the sidewalk.
On Howard, two squares from south of
Market, from Main to East, the broad
cement pavement is thrown up that the
heavy flags are smashed and have fallen
into the vaults under the pavement. This
condition is noticeable north and south
along Beal street. Mission and Folsom
streets, between Sd and 7th, are broken,
the granite paving blocks, cemented with
tar being upheaved and depressed and the
blocks ripped apart. Howard street near
9th, little more than a square south of the
mint, Is bulged upward about five feet and
the roadway twisted and broken. Van
Ness avenue between Union and Washing
ton streets is bulged so that the asphalt
pavement is ruptured. Big upifts may be
seen in the neighborhood of Church and
Market and Both and Henry, three miles
lures occur not only made land and
those parts which were once swampy. but
in the sand and rock lands as well. The
following notice is posted all over the city:
Report all large cracks in streets to the
Spring Valley Water Company"
In the Unburned Districts.
In the unburned section of the city 90 out
of every 100 houses show earthquake marks,
and very high proportion of the houses
are SO seriously damaged that they must be
condemned In many places the streets are
roped off that persons may not pass near
the shattered houses. Near the south end
of Steiner street, in a. middle-class neigh
borhood. is fallen house ia which there
does not appear to be a whole plank or
rafter 1t a three-story house and is
now a pile of rubbish about ten feet high;
studding, flooring, Misunderstanding and
roof closely tangled that a. rat could
scarcely crawl through. Furniture that was
in this house when 1t fell can be seen.
There are smashed bedsteads, bureaus,
trunks, chairs and tables. Who was killed
there?" asked. mo one: they got out be-
fore the house fell" AS the duration Of the
quake Is vartously computed at from 20
seconds to I minute the people in that
house made quick escape.
The Western Addition Girls High School,
q large four-story brick building, is wreck
ed. The walls are cracked in jagged way,
sections of wall twenty feet square have
toppied out and the stone and brick stair
cases have been split a thousand times and
thrown away from the building