The Earth is always changing. Natural disasters are changes which are so great they may cause damage to the shape of the land or to the lives of people and other living things.

Great changes happen deep inside the Earth and on its surface.

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck the city and the coast of northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is as high as 8.3. The mainshock epicenter occurred offshore about 2 miles (3 km) from the city. It ruptured along the San Andreas Fault for a total length of 296 miles (477 km). Shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles. The earthquake and resulting fire would be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States. The toll from the earthquake and resulting fire represents the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California’s history.

At the time, only 567 deaths were reported. The figure was invented by government officials who felt that reporting the true death toll would hurt real estate prices and efforts to rebuild the city. Today, this figure has been revised to an estimate of at least 3,000. Most of the deaths occurred in San Francisco and 189 were reported across the San Francisco Bay Area.

Between 225,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of the refugees fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley.

The earthquake and fire would leave a significant impression on the development of California. At the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the ninth largest city in the United States and the largest on the West Coast. Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade, and cultural center of the West. The overall cost of the damage from the earthquake was estimated at the time to be around $ 400 million.

What is worse is that Californians know that another similar earthquake is still to happen soon. They call it “The Big One”. However, they do not think or plan to move to other parts of the U.S., at least not until it does strike the area.

(From www.wikipedia.com. Acessed: February 2008.)