Comprehending The Calamity By Burke Analysis

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 had a magnitude of 7.9. This devastating event killed thousands. It was a normal day, people did not prepare for this, it just happened. Despite a quick response from San Francisco's large military population, the city was devastated. The earthquake and fires killed an estimated 3,000 people and left half of the city's 400,000 residents homeless. This is shown through two eye witness accounts.““Comprehending the Calamity” by Emma Burke and “Horrific Wreck of the City”By Fred Hewitt are very similar;these eye witness accounts of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 talk of the horror, but in different ways. One is optimistic and the other is pessimistic.

“Comprehending the Calamity” and “The Horrific Wreck

This is recording the 1906 earthquake by explaining the noises and how the shock grew.This shows how the disasters that happened on that day. These things included a fire, people being trapped, and people losing their homes. This shows the similarity through the author's horrible experiences and losses.“Comprehending the Calamity” and “The Horrific Wreck of the City” are different because one author is optimistic, where the other is not.Emma Burke shares her thoughts when she says“After a half-hour we came up to our flat to take an inventory of the situation. I walked over the remains of my personal possessions, without a feeling of regret or a sigh or tear. Everything seemed so insignificant, and the world so far away. That is, the world we had lived in. Human life seemed the only thing worth consideration.” on page

It made me think of the loved ones across the country. It turned my stomach, gave me a heartache that I will never forget and caused me to sink upon my knees and pray to the

Almighty God that me and mine should escape the awful fate I knew was coming to so many thousands.” on page 2Emma Burke says “All day I had been feeding homeless ones who had drifted out from the Mission district, where great clouds of angry smoke were rising and large areas had already been devastated. and as night came on, we gathered some bedding together and went into the Park, the Mecca of all the city, All day I had been feeding homeless ones who had drifted out from the Mission district, where great clouds of angry smoke were rising and large areas had already been

Devastated.” on page 2

Just like how Fred Hewitt explains “It is impossible to judge the length of that shock. To me it seemed an eternity. I was thrown on my back and the pavement pulsated like a living thing. Around me the huge buildings, looking up These two pieces of evidence show the different perspectives of the authors.

Emma see’s a world where you need to help others, she is