San Francisco Earthquake Of 1906 Research Paper

You stand in the middle of a normally bustling street but the ground beneath you feels like violent waves. Buildings crumble down around you and violent flames lash out from burning houses. Screams of terror echo through the air as families run barefoot into the streets, you watch with terrified eyes as the Golden City crashes to the ground around you. This is what it would be like during the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. The disaster took place at 5:12am on April 18th and took the lives of roughly 3,000 people. (“The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake”) This tragedy ruined lives and took away the homes, offices and dreams of so many others. Eyewitness accounts relive what it was like to be alive in San Francisco during the time earthquake and all can agree that it was a disaster, but different authors take

An Example of this comes from paragraph 14, when Hewitt states, ¨ Down Golden Gate avenue the houses began dancing again. One lone line of frame buildings tottered a moment and then just a group of terror-stricken people reached the open, it laid flat.¨ Similarly in Emma Burkes piece the text says, ¨It grew constantly worse, the noise deafening; the crash of dishes, falling pictures, the rattle of the flat tin roof, bookcases being overturned, the piano hurled across the parlor...¨(paragraph 7.) In both cases the authors describe what it was like during the earthquake, using personification to bring the horror alive. Fred Hewitt describes the houses being crushed while people barely run out in time. Emma Burke describes the chaos inside her home as dishes and furniture flew across the room and loud noise rattling off the ceiling. This shows how the earthquake was devastating, and both authors portray this through their descriptions. Therefore both authors are covering what the destruction was like during the