The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-04-22
(By Assoc,ated Press)

LOS ANGELES, Cal, April %. -
| More than one-third Of the business
district of San Jacinto and a smaller
| portion of that Of Hemet, both in Riv.
erside county about 20 miles east OF
here. were In ruins today and scores
| Of residences in the two little towns
were wrecked by series of earth
| quake shocks which caused all OF
southern California to tremble late
yesterday afternoon. The property
damage is estimated at from 100000
to $150,000 In the two places. Half a
dozen other towns and cities including
Los Angeles. suffered minor damages,
confined mainly to plate glass windows
and shattered cornices.
Hemet and San Jacinto have popula-
tions of less than one thousand each.
They are about three miles apart and
lie in picturesque country which was
made the scene of Helen Hunt Jack
sons novel Ramona"
Only one life was known to have
been lost, that of Frank E. Darnell. a
retired manufacturer of this city, who
was drowned when he fell off a pier at
Santa Monica, beach resort near here.
Hundreds of pleasure seekers on the
pier made wild dash for solid ground
and Darnell was swept from his feet.
Persons in scores of theatres and
| motion picture houses in this vicinity
were frightened and many suffered
slight injuries in their rush to the
exits.
When night fell over the partly ru-
ined towns Of Hemet and San Jacinto,
order had been restored and organiza-
Of ord cd ho
streets. Four blocks of San Jacinto's s
business district were wrecked and
one block at Hemet Three distinct
shocks were felt at San Jacinto. The
first threw to the ground a number of
persons ard horses. At the second
shock all the buildings on the south
side of the main street began to col
lapse and the third shock threw down
those on the north side.
Electricity failed Immediately and
within ten minutes the bre0l3ne -of
the gas mains made 1t necessary to
shut off the supply. The water mains
were not much damaged.
One of the freaks of the earthquake
was the sudden flow in wells. Many
artesian wells, dry for years, showed
a sudden free supply of water. This
SuuueH lnCI ease OIL water udQllcSCcu
itself particularly in the San Jacinto
river. Before the earthquake it was
dry. Immediately after the tremor
the river at a point below the town
showed flow of II inches in depth
and forty feet in width.
The earthquake of yesterday was
almost a repetition of that of Christ
mas day, 1899, when the two towns
suffered shocks of like severity.
Fear was expressed in Los Angeles
that several large office buildings
had been thrown out of plumb. A
survey will have to be undertaken to
learn the truth. The Washington
building, large business structure
on Spring street, was perceptibly sep
arated from the Currier building i'm
mediately adjoining.
Scores Of plate glass winds were
broken at San Bernardino and cracks
developed in several brick walls
Concrete roads and highways lead
ing from Perris to Hemet and to San
Jacinto were upheaved
The earthquake was felt over a
wide area in the west It's most
northern extremity apparently was
Fresno, Cal. Tremors also were felt
at Phoenix and Seligman, Ariz, and
at Milford, Utah.