The Effect of the Earthquake in Various Places
By L. A. S.
DURING the first few days following the earthquake in California, public attention was so centered upon San Francisco as being the point of overshadowing disaster, and the means of communication were so meager, that comparatively little news found its way into the press reports regarding the effects of the earthquake in other places. From later reports it appears that some smaller cities suffered quite as much, if not even more, proportionately, than did the metropolis. A Los Angeles telegram says of the situation at Santa Rosa: “Compared to population, it is now believed that in Santa Rosa the greatest loss of life occurred from earthquake and fire, even if this unfortunate city does not lead in the actual number of victims. A quotation from a letter is given which states: ‘This town is in awful shape. There is not a single brick or stone building standing, and scores of fine residences are in ruins. Fires broke out in the business district right after the shock, and burned dead and living alike. There were three large three-story hotels, and while all of them fell, but one took fire. . . . There would undoubtedly have been a great many lives saved if they could have been gotten out in the first twenty-four hours, but the task was so great it was an impossibility.’” Our readers will be interested to learn of the effects of the shock at Oakland, situated across the bay from San Francisco, and which has been until recently the center of our work on the Pacific Coast. From a description published in the Washington Star, taken from letters received from Oakland residents, we quote the following:— “In many places in the city of Oakland the ground has settled several feet, and in several places on Twelfth Street [the former Pacific Press headquarters was on this street] the street is about six feet lower than its former position. . . . In one section of Oakland there is a fissure in the street near the pavement about three feet wide that is so deep that one can not see the bottom of the crevice.” A description in a private letter states: “My chimney went down, of course, as did all in Oakland, but I got all my family out of the house safely. I was more lucky than my neighbors, whose chimneys fell in, crushing through the bedrooms, down to the basement. We assembled on the sidewalk with our neighbors in our night clothes. The inside of the house looks like a wreck. . . . Hundreds of fine buildings in Oakland are wrecked.17 Another description in a private letter states: “The new Prescott school, which is not quite finished, is a total wreck, for it fell down. The Empire theater fell in, crushing five people, and one man was killed at a bakery. They say the walls of the stores up-town fell in, and all the windows are broken. No cars are running, and all the telegraph and telephone wires are down. The water was cut off, and talk about fire bells ringing! All along the streets are nothing but bricks, and scarcely two chimneys remain. Some men from below Seventh Street said, ‘Around our way we all got off easy, for down there houses came right down.’” San Jose, a city of thirty thousand people, suffered almost as severely as did Santa Rosa, though the reported loss of life was much less. Near San Jose was the Agnew Insane Asylum, which was totally wrecked, burying most of the demented inmates in its ruins. Those who escaped were tied to trees, while all hands sought to release those buried out of sight, but who could be distinctly heard shouting and talking after the manner of crazy people. From a private letter it is learned that neither the sanitarium nor the food store at St. Helena was greatly damaged. No definite information from Healdsburg has yet been received. The latest estimate of the loss of life in San Francisco places the number at less than five hundred. This does not include the lives lost (said to number hundreds) by the reckless shooting of the improvised soldiers of the “vigilance committees,” who under pretense of maintaining necessary order in the city shot down both men and women for the most trivial causes. Among the victims of this class was Mr. H. C. Tilden, a member of Governor Pardee’s staff, who was shot dead in his automobile while engaged in relief work. Mayor Schmitz was finally obliged to issue orders for the rigorous suppression of these martial bands. An idea of the number of people seriously affected by the disaster may be gathered from the statement that the relief bureaus issued rations on April 24 to 349,440 persons. Among the side-lights which reveal the sad features of such a stupendous calamity, is the following telegram from Governor Chamberlain of Oregon to Governor Pardee of California: “Many children and some babies are coming through here [Salem] unidentified and unaccompanied by any one, cared for only by strangers. Can they not be gathered together at Oakland, and kept together for subsequent identification? As it is, they will be forever lost to their parents.” It is estimated that insurance companies will suffer from the fire to the extent of two hundred million dollars. This of course falls far short of representing the total property loss. Earthquake losses carry no insurance, and the property destroyed by fire was not insured for its full value. In the Baltimore fire the insurance paid was thirty-five million dollars, while the total property loss was nearly twice this sum. A strange feature of the catastrophe, according to press statements, is that Alcatraz Island, which lies in the bay close to San Francisco, felt no shock.