When was the biggest natural disaster in San Francisco?

1906 On April 18, an earthquake originating from the 600-mile-long San Andreas fault suddenly struck San Francisco, santa rosa, San Jose and Stanford University. The 8.3 magnitude earthquake lasted about 75 seconds. Many high-rise buildings collapsed, and Sonoma Brewery Company150,000 gallons of wine was destroyed. Shortly after the earthquake, a fire broke out, which spread throughout the city for three days and burned 3,000 acres of land, including 520 blocks and 28 188 buildings. The earthquake and fire killed more than 200 people, and the estimated loss was $500 million. The disaster completely bankrupt some insurance companies.

1906 On the morning of April 18, two places suddenly caught fire, one in Market Street and the other in a cable factory in north beach.

Two hours after the two fires were put out (that is, at 5 o'clock), the earthquake suddenly hit the holy city from 200 miles north of the sea. It divided the cliffs along the coast, rebuilt the coastline and knocked down several 500-year-old redwood trees.

In most parts of the city, especially along the Gulf Coast, wooden houses built on sand have collapsed. On Nunes Street and Brannu Street, rows of buildings were demolished by more than half. Many people died on the spot when the rotten wood in many apartments collapsed. Houses along Dole Street south of marquette Street are staggered. Writer William Bronson said, "These houses are like a row of drunks stumbling on the road."

The wholesale business block is filled with tons of broken bricks and beams, up to 15 feet. Occasionally, there will be stiff legs of dead horses or deformed heads of dead people in some places. Along the lake and Marbury coast, almost all shacks collapsed, and many large motorboats moored at the dock ran aground in this pile of collapsed houses. It looks as if they were bounced by the giant's invisible fingers.

The Valencia Hotel in the mission area also collapsed, causing the largest number of deaths. This wooden four-story hotel collapsed sharply after the earthquake and slipped to one side of the street. It started from the ground floor and collapsed layer by layer, and finally only the top floor was left on the ruins of the collapsed three-story building. A total of 80 passengers were killed

City Hall is located on mcallister Street and Larkin Street, near Market Street. It took 20 years and 6 million dollars to build this building. Its steel dome is supported by many towering cast iron and stone pillars. When the building was pushed down the street, the pillars collapsed and killed several passers-by. Fragments of its spire ceiling and walls are scattered everywhere and fall to nearby places. St Patrick's Church in Mano Park is in ruins. St James's Church, St Bridget's Church, St Dominic's Church and Holycos Church in St accel were all destroyed.

Many hotels with exquisite structures, such as Denver Hotel, Cosmao Boliton Hotel and Brunswick Hotel, were damaged in the earthquake. The luxury hotel with a value of $654.38+2600 is the best hotel in the city and has been completely destroyed. Fairmont Hotel was damaged in the earthquake, with a loss of $200,000. The St. Francis Hotel, which cost $65,438+0,000, was also in ruins, leaving only an empty shelf.

The earthquake not only stimulated the nerves of normal people, but also made the patients in San Jose agnew Mental Hospital more hysterical. The hospital is run by the state and accommodates 1 100 patients with severe mental illness. The hospital has only an irregular five-story brick house, almost like a prison, with many big railings and partitions nailed to the windows. Therefore, when the ceiling and walls collapsed, these ragged and insane patients were trapped in the cell like prisoners and could not escape. It is estimated that 87 patients died. In addition, 1 1 nurses, hospital directors and their wives were also killed. Hundreds of patients escaped from the broken wall, and about 50 ~ 60 patients ran through the grass and ran around in the nearby Woods. It will take two weeks to catch them all!

About 100 students come from Santa Clara school to help deal with escaped patients. However, because the hospital building has been destroyed, the students, Chief Justice Ross of San Jose and 20 armed police can't find a place to put the mentally ill. Looking at the mental patients running around, I was dumbfounded.

The fire spread to the whole city and swallowed up one block after another. The coast of Babari was burned first, and then most of Chinatown was completely destroyed.

When bandits' dens, pubs and gambling dens on the shore of Baba Caspian Sea caught fire, hundreds of vicious hooligans carried out looting crazily. They rushed into the hotel and got drunk. Some people smashed shop windows and robbed property. Some people broke down the door of the bank and took all the money. A gang of thugs tried to rob the American mint. As a result, it was repelled by a group of armed men, police and members of the self-defense group, as well as the regular army who came later. In this struggle that gangsters tried to rob the mint of $39 million in cash and a large amount of gold and silver property, * * * 34 white people died under the bullets.

While the refugees in San Francisco fled, groups of black rats, brown rats, red rats and gray rats also fled. Most of them are oriental bubonic plague, which began to appear at 1900. But Mayor Schmitz and others tried to cover it up. Although rats are only concentrated in this unsanitary area, after the earthquake caused the ground to heave and the sewers were seriously damaged, thousands of rats ran out, wreaked havoc all over the city, and even ate dead bodies. Now Mayor Schmitz and others can't cover up the Black Death. In a year 150 deaths, most of them are caused by plague.

Burning everywhere, the flame swallowed up half of the holy city. The city's 383,000 people survived one night and will face another unfortunate morning tomorrow. Behind the fleeing crowd are blazing flames and flying ashes. They set off for Mount Lassam, Mount Noble and Mount Leigraf-are there any burnt-out houses to live in? They walked groggy to Golden Gate Park and Presdio as if they had drunk anesthetic. As soon as they got there, they collapsed and fell asleep one by one.

More than 500 blocks have been destroyed and many places need to be rebuilt. The death toll increased from 500 to 700. About hundreds of people are missing, thousands are injured and the whole city is starving. The economic losses caused are estimated at 350 million to 500 million dollars.

1April, 906 18 The San Francisco earthquake and the subsequent fire filled the whole city with the threat of devastation, burning and hunger, which made people suffer from the fear of death. Fires and earthquakes almost destroyed the city.

In history, countless cities have been destroyed by disasters. According to seismologists, an earthquake of magnitude 7 or so occurred in and around the city, which was enough to destroy the whole city. According to the records of the 20th century, nearly 20 cities were destroyed by earthquakes. What a threat!

It is said that the past is for the present, and the tragedy of disasters destroying cities continues, and disasters are still threatening cities. People have prevented old disasters and are facing new ones. Most importantly, mankind can learn from the disasters that have happened, and we must never take them lightly.