The Great San Francisco Earthquake.<br />April 18, 1906.<br />At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake <br />struck offshore of San Fransisco, <br />a city with a population of 400,000 at the time.<br />The quake was felt from <br />southern Oregon to Los Angeles, <br />and ruptured 296 miles of the San Andreas fault.<br />Destroying San Francisco's water mains, <br />the quake ignited massive, devastating<br />fires all over the city that could not be combated.<br />The fires burned for days, <br />resulting in the deaths of more than <br />3,000 people and destroying more than 28,000 buildings.<br />More than half of the city was <br />left homeless by the disaster.<br />Damages were estimated to close to $15 billion in <br />today's dollars. The recovery and rebuild allowed city <br />planners to make great improvements to San Francisco.
