San Francisco – Sirens wailed and bells tolled before dawn Tuesday to mark the moment 100 years earlier when the Great Quake struck, killing thousands of people and touching off fires that left most of the city in ash and rubble.
Eleven centenarians who survived the devastation – and a 99-year-old who joked she was the product of a post-quake refugee camp – were joined by thousands of spectators for a memorial ceremony to recall 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 lost loved ones, was billed as both 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,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom, adding that the three years it took San Francisco to come back after 1906 bodes well for the flood- ravaged Gulf Coast. “Don’t tell me you can’t rebuild. We rebuilt, and we are stronger and better than ever.”
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. It was the same a century later, with the vast majority of San Francisco’s population, now 750,000, forgoing the commemorations for more sleep.
While some in the enthusiastic crowd wore Victorian garb and discussed the odds of another earthquake arriving on the anniversary, the ground held steady during a moment of silence honoring those who perished in the temblor and the three-day conflagration that followed.
The oldest among the survivors, Chrissie Martenstein, 109, said she remembered “a big shock and a great deal of misery,” while Violet Lyman, 102, could still see a scared cow running down the street and smell smoke from the fires. Olive Carroll, 101, said she had plenty of earthquake flashbacks but admitted, “I think I dreamt them.”
