“I was awakened by a violent shaking of the house accompanied by a roar and the sound of cracking wood. My brother and I leaped out of bed and stood in the doorway of our room until the shaking stopped. I could hear the crash of falling bricks outside and heard my father say, "This is certainly a real earthquake." It was already light, 5:18am I noticed by the hall clock. We hurriedly dressed and went outside where we found most of our neighbors talking excitedly. Our immediate reaction was one of relief that our broken chimneys had not come through the roof. Our house and the other frame houses in our area appeared to have withstood the quake except for the chimneys. Someone pointed to the southeast, and we saw a heavy column of smoke rising from downtown.
I left for work but had to walk, as no streetcars were running. I was employed as an apprentice machinist at the Vulcan Iron Works located at Kearny and Francisco Street at the foot of Telegraph Hill. At the iron works I found some of the employees had reported, those able to reach the plant on foot, and all were busy talking about their experiences. The superintendent realized that we were uneasy and soon sent us home.
I returned to our house and found my parents and the eldest of my sisters there. Most of the neighbors were also at home. We gathered in groups on the sidewalk, watching the ever-spreading smoke and speculating on our future. While we sat to have a cup of coffee, the house started shaking really badly and the walls started breaking. My dad quickly told all of us to get out. And when we got out, all the other buildings started to collapse and people were screaming and running about everywhere. My little sister was crying so much and got so scared when she saw the buildings collapse in front of her. She dropped her teddy bear inside our house and wanted to get it. We said no but she never listened to us and ran inside to get it.
We were then shocked when we saw our house broke into pieces and fall down completely. And we all heard her scream mummy and when we went to look she was lying dead under some pieces of brick. My parents started crying and I had to get them out of there because the buildings started collapsing so quickly. We then quickly ran out and didn’t know what to do at all. We lost our house, my little sister and all our possessions.
After about 15 seconds the earthquake stopped and fires then broke out everywhere and there were more people running and screaming when they saw the fires. Loads of fire engines soon arrived on the spot and tried to control the fire. So many people were crying and screaming as they lost all they had and were standing on the streets with nothing.
That was the worst earthquake in San Francisco. So many people were made homeless and my family and I were one of them. It was a terrifying experience and I hope it doesn’t happen again. We haven’t got anything with us and now we are living in a small room until the places that got destroyed by the earthquake get sorted out. Then my dad and I have to go hunting for jobs to earn some money so we can at least buy food to eat. I hope that something like this never ever happens again”.
“R.I.P TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THIS EARTHQUAKE”
