4/18/07-On This Day in History

The Great San Francisco Earthquake struck the city at 5:12 AM on this date in 1906. by the time the even was over, 80% of the city was destroyed by a combination of the quake itself, raging firestorms due to broken gas lines and the desperate attempts of firefighters to stop the fires by blowing up buildings with dynamite.

There was no water available, due to massive damage to the water piping all over the city. 3000 people lost their lives in the catastrophe, and thousands more were injured. The quake registered 7.8 on the Richter scale.

At the time, the population of San Francisco was around 400,000. Nearly 300,000 people were homeless after the disaster.