http://www.boston.com/dailynews/108/nation/Survivors_gather_to_commemorat:.shtml

Survivors gather to commemorate 1906 earthquake

By Colleen Valles, Associated Press, 4/18/2001 20:29

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) More than a dozen survivors of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 gathered at a historic fountain Wednesday morning for a wreath-laying ceremony marking the 95th anniversary of the disaster.

In 1906, Lotta's Fountain served as a meeting point for survivors looking for loved ones. This year, survivors met at the fountain as sirens blared at 5:12 a.m., the exact time of the quake.

Most of the survivors were toddlers during the 7.8-magnitude quake that killed about 700 people and triggered a fire that all but destroyed the city. Many remember the commotion but said they were too excited to be scared.

Flora Allen, 98, was almost 4 when she was woken up by the shaking.

''I was screaming,'' she said. ''I remember my mom dressing us up all nice and warm and putting us in the middle of the street, not having any drinking water, my brothers showing us at night how red the sky was because the city was burning.''

Allen, who has lived in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, now lives in Alameda and said the earthquake taught her not to worry.

''Something's going to happen no matter where you go,'' she said.

Bessie Shum was 2 when the earthquake happened. She recalled her father rushing in and telling the family there was no time to pack. He had to carry her mother out because, as part of Chinese tradition, her mother's feet were bound and she could not walk.

Others remembered what their parents told them about the quake and its aftermath. Marie Sagues, who was 2 days old at the time, said her parents and others put stoves out in the street because they couldn't cook in the house.

The earthquake lasted at least 45 seconds, about twice as long as is typical, and traveled along an almost 300-mile stretch of the San Andreas fault. Many survivors have said they heard a low rumbling that grew louder before the ground began to shake, said Jack Boatwright, a geophysicist for the United States Geological Survey.

Land along the fault sank as much as 5 feet and shifted sideways up to 26 feet, Boatwright said. The quake was probably centered off the coast of San Francisco. During the next 30 years, there's only a 5 percent chance the region will experience a quake the size of the 1906 temblor, he added.

The survivors were treated to breakfast Wednesday at the Westin St. Francis hotel, one of the few buildings that made it through the quake. In the hotel lobby, photographs of the city after the quake show piles of rubble in the streets, with only a few buildings standing.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001